Have any questions for the SFIMA Board of Directors?

Did you know that the SFIMA Board members meet once per month besides the monthly SFIMA event? We do meet every month for about 2 hours to go over SFIMA business and make sure that everything is on schedule, on task and running smoothly. So if you have an issue, question or idea, please contact a board member or comment hear and we will make sure that it is addressed at our next meeting!

Save the Date - Don't Miss THIS Boat!

BGT Partners, Aprimo & Omniture Nautical Networking Event

You may be wondering what all the buzz is about for this year's Nautical Networking Event. The theme is Rock the Boat and this will definitely be a fabulous Rock Star Cruise!

If you have not been on one of the 4 previous NNE cruises, you just don't know what a great time you are missing. Networking in a fun and relaxed atmosphere with 400 other interactive marketing movers and shakers!

Here are some images from last year's event:










Check out more pictures from the 2007 Nautical Networking Event!
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9CZMWLNsyZQU

So how do you get in in this great evening of cruising, drinking, eating and dancing? Sponsorships are going fast: get sponsor information or to buy a table!

9 Great FREE & Time Saving Google Shortcuts

I found this article on Digg via Twitter, it is by Charnita Fance

9 Time Saving Tools Using Google Search:

1. Package Tracking

When tracking packages, most people head straight to the shipping site such as FedEx, UPS, or USPS to see details. But did you know that now you can enter tracking numbers right into the Google search box?

First you’ll need the tracking number of your order, which you can get from the actual site/company that you ordered from. Second you’ll need to know how it’s being shipped (via FedEx, UPS, or USPS). That’s it.

2. Flight Tracking

You can look up information on any flight by simply typing the airline name or code followed by a space and flight number into the Google search box.

3. Calculations & Conversions

Do you often find yourself reaching for a calculator to figure out simple calculations? I don’t know about you but I do not keep a calculator handy and I often go through at least 3 steps to open up the Windows calculator. Well there’s no need to do either when you have Google handy.

To use Google’s built-in calculator functions, you simply enter the calculations that you’d like solved right in the search box. You can even do more advanced math functions such as geometry and trigonometry. If you don’t remember what all the advanced math functions are don’t worry about it, there’s a very handy Google Quick Reference Cheat Sheet that you can use. This Cheat Sheet shows you all of the things that you can type into the Google Search Box in order to calculate basic or advanced math functions.

The Cheat Sheets also has a list of Units of Measures and Conversions that can be used to converts units and currency. In order to calculate conversions you would type in things like: three quarters of a cup in teaspoons; 130 lbs in kg; 65 mph in kph; 1500 in hex; 64 in binary; etc.

4. Weather

Finding out the weather in Google is pretty easy. You simply type the word “weather” followed by the city and state, zip code, or city and country.

5. Time

If you have family or friends in other parts of the world, you can easily find out what time it is in their area. You simply type the word “time” followed by the name of the city or country and Google will show you the time, day, and time zone for that location.

6. Dictionary

This is definitely something that comes in handy for me a lot as well. You can see the definition for any word or phrase by simply typing “definition” followed by a space and then the actual word(s) that you wanted defined. If you want to see a list of definitions from various resources across the Web, type “define:” followed by a space and the word(s).

7. Movies

Google allows you to quickly find show times for movies playing in your area. You can do this by simply typing in the word “movies” or the film title followed by your zip code in the Google search box. You will then get a list of up to two theaters; if there are more than two theaters listed, you can click the “More theaters” link to see the rest. This is definitely a lot quicker and more convenient than calling the theater and listening to a 5 minute lineup - especially if the movie you want to see is at the end of the lineup.

8. UPC Codes

This is definitely one of the more unique Google Search shortcuts that I’ve seen. You can find information about any item by simply typing in the UPC Code of the item into the Google search box. If you don’t know, the UPC Code for an item appears at the bottom of the item’s bar code.

9. Phone Book & Residential Listings

If you need to look up a US residence phone number or address you can do that as well. Simply enter the person’s name along with a city, state, or zip code in the Google search box. If that person is listed in the phone book, you’ll see an image of a telephone along with their name, phone number and address. Google lists up to three matching results for you to see; to see more, simply click on the “Phone book results for” link. Google also gives you the option to see a residential map for that person.

So, as you can see, Google really makes a lot of useful functions easier and more convenient. Do you know of any other cool Google Search shortcuts? If so, feel free to share by posting them in the comments.

Charnita is a social media addict & Internet junkie. She blogs about internet & blog tools, website & blog promotion, web 2.0 & social media at her Social Web Tools blog.

For the rest of this article and great examples of each Google tip, see http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/9-cool-google-search-shortcuts-you-should-know-about/

Miami Dolphins & Hurricanes Using SMS Alerts at Football Games

Just another example of the widespread and ever expanding uses of mobile texting and SMS messages, the Miami Dolphins and University of Miami Hurricane Football games at Dolphin Stadium give fans the opportunity to report improper fan behavior immediately without needing to leave their seats by sending a text message.

During the Dolphin games, they also give you an SMS code to use in order to get updates on the team and players directly to your cell phone as part of their marketing program and in efforts to reach their fans anyplace, anytime.

The Olympics Online - Final Stats

I probably should not even call it final stats when you have to consider that people will be accessing these videos for a long time to come.

How many online marketers are already planning now to advertise online for the next Olympics?

Here are some of the results about online and mobile views of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

NBC's $1 billion Olympic "research lab" good, not great

Excerpts from this article By Jacqui Cheng | Published: August 25, 2008

The 2008 Olympic Games came to a close over the weekend, leaving many of us spectators feeling warm and fuzzy inside as we finished cheering on our favorite athletes. Broadcasters were feeling pretty warm and fuzzy, too, after raking in mounds of advertising dollars associated with the Games. And this year, thanks to the Internet, those mounds were bigger than ever, although there's still room for improvement.

Last month, NBC announced that it would be using the Olympics as a "billion-dollar research lab" to see how viewers used Olympic content on the Internet and on mobile devices. The network planned to stream thousands of hours of video from its website, NBCOlympics.com, in addition to posting Olympic data (such as scores and times) and liveblogs of certain events. Additionally, NBC distributed a number of mobile phones that would track how users might try to consume that video while on the go; the network recently discovered that the Olympics were actually helping many people use video on mobile devices for the first time ever.

So how did it all turn out? NBCOlympics.com served 72 million video streams as of this weekend in addition to 1.2 billion web pages. That's pretty darn good for only a couple weeks of coverage, and compared to the 2.2 million video streams total from the Athens games, it's downright explosive. And it wasn't just NBC that benefited online from Olympic coverage—Yahoo came out on top, too, thanks to a number of hot Olympic stories and photo galleries over the last two weeks, according to data from Nielsen Online. "The demand that we're seeing has far exceeded even our wildest expectations," Yahoo head of sports and entertainment Jimmy Pitaro told the New York Times.

Still, not everything that happened online during the Olympics was perfect. As most of us who actually tried to watch video of our favorite sports online know, not everything was actually available to watch on the Internet. NBC, for some reason, decided to limit the footage available on its website—perhaps because it feared losing its lucrative broadcast TV audience—which ultimately limited what people could watch on-demand online. As a result, market research firm eMarketer Inc. said that it estimates NBCOlympics.com will only pull in $5.75 million in video ad revenue—"surely a passable performance for a bit more than two weeks," says eMarketer, "but it represents only 1.1 percent of this year's online video ad spending projection of $505 million in the US."

Putting the content online merely expands the network's reach to audience members who might not otherwise watch the Games at all.

However, another factor limiting the masses from consuming tons of online video was the fact that NBC decided to make all video streams Silverlight-only instead of something more widely available, like Flash. Although the new plugin apparently worked well for those who actually installed Silverlight, the new plugin certainly kept total viewership numbers down (if you've ever seen a parent or grandparent struggle to understand what happens when an "install new plugin" box appears, you'll understand why).

For the whole story see: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080825-nbcs-1-billion-olympic-research-lab-good-not-great.html

Related Stories

• Summer Olympics gets mobile video neophytes to tune in
• NBC to use Olympics as research lab for new media viewership

Google Launches New Web Browser: Chrome

Yesterday was the launch of Google's latest tool for complete web domination. Chrome is Google's new web browser and is just in beta but rumored and touted to have all the cool bells, whistles and apps similar to Firefox.

So why does the world wide web need another browser? Google asks that for you and answers as well on the Official Google Blog: "So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web."

Chrome is another free tool from Google and while I have resisted to download it so far, (ok, its only been a day!) I am very curious to know how it is!

I switched to Firefox about a year ago and I love it, so I'm staying put for now, but please send your input if you have tried out Chrome, please share with us and let us know how it is!

Here is some more temptingly good info on Chrome from the Google blog:

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.

This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far from done. We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.

From CNet:

Speed test: Google Chrome beats Firefox, IE, Safari

Google introduced Chrome in part because it wants faster browsing and the richer Web applications that speed will unlock. So how does Chrome actually stack up?

Google's Chrome overpowers the other browsers on the five subtests by which Google measures its browser's JavaScript performance.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

The more I research Google Chrome, the better looking it gets! Here is a screen shot video from Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins who made the video and this blog post for Mashable (Social Networking News).

See what Google Chrome does, Chrome screen shots, and memory management first hand:

Rock the Boat with SFIMA This November 7th!

November 7th - Save the Date & Don't Miss This Boat!




Imagine an evening cruise on the Intracoastal.
Now think like a Rock Star. . .

Dance to great music on a luxurious yacht.
Enjoy signature cocktails and a gourmet dinner.

Add 400 friends!

Now you are ready to Rock the Boat

Its SFIMA's 5th Year of presenting this hit event.

DON'T MISS:
Networking games to meet national and local marketers.

Prizes, Raffles & Free Stuff.

Specialty drinks and gourmet dinner.
Three parties in one:
Pre-Boarding Party
The Cruise
After Party

We look forward to seeing you at the dock!
You'll have more fun than the Stones on tour!

For more information about the event:
Sponsorship: Travis Berger 917-804-5193 nne @ sfima.com

WHEN
Friday, November 7, 2008
Boarding Party: 5:30 PM
Cruise Departure: 6:45 PM Sharp
** After party follows upon disembarkation

WHERE
The Lady Windridge
Ft. Lauderdale,FL

For more info, check out the new official website for the Nautical Networking Cruise: www.NauticalNetworking.com

Video of the August SFIMA Event

The Jeff Ramsey presentation was one of the most entertaining, informative and animated presentations in recent memory. So glad that we caught some of it on video here of the August 2008 SFIMA dinner and meeting, so if you missed it or would just like to review what happened, here it is!