Last week I mentioned many people were waiting for the Facebook 3.0 update on the iPhone. Honestly, I wasn’t. I used not to be such an intensive user of the previous version. The interface didn’t satisfy me, besides hardly any of my European friends were using Facebook and Twitter took most of my “free” time. Curious as I am I decided to install this new version to give it a try. Some days later I have to admit that I am still positively surprised about the major change of the usability of the application. But I have a major remark as well.

Many people have been waiting for the Facebook 3.0 update on the iPhone. Its available in the App Store now and therefore the major question that has to be answered is: What’s new? Will it improve the Facebook experience when using the iPhone? The bottom line answer is yes. Facebook 3.0 offers you a completely new Facebook experience on the iPhone. I will describe some of the main new features.

A picture is worth a thousand words and still we express ourselves mainly in words, just like this blog post. Although many people will support the statement, we just think it is harder to express our thoughts with pictures. People claim that they are not artists. Anyhow, I guarantee that explaining your client what you want to develop with pictures leads to a much better end result. That’s why real estate developers use artistic impressions, it just sells better when people understand what they will buy. Software developers too often try to capture everything in functional and technical descriptions, but for a client it is hard to decide whether this will satisfy his needs. Unpleasant surprises might occur at the end of the project. Show a picture with your thoughts and the give rise to discussion.

After finalizing the search engine deal with Microsoft, Yahoo! seems to be ready to focus again: being the biggest worldwide internet portal. According to the latest news Yahoo! is finally entering into the Arabic world. Yesterday they announced the acquisition of the Jordan based Maktoob.com – one of the most popular online communities in the Middle East.

Considering the latest boost of using social network sites for business purposes I’ve realized that marketers are more willingly to devote themselves to following and Tweeting on Twitter. I came across a few numbers and statistics and reports on Twitter usage. What springs to my mind is that this application is being used more and more as a marketing channel instead of simple friends-following. Twitter started as a medium to “Tell what you are doing ….”. But no one gives a damn about what I’m having for breakfast unless they can make a profit out of it. Recently Twitter changed the focus into: “See what people are saying about ….”. But who cares?

Google, the Internet revelation of the late 90’s with a real breakthrough in the year 2000. Apart from a revelation it was treated as a relief in the Internet world. Finally, a free service that generated good search results. Soon Google became the number one search engine, at least for Europe. But the Google success story is changing. More and more people start complaining about the strange way of indexing and recently the amount of irrelevant search results seems to increase. Other search engines like Windows’ Bing feel that there is space for competition. For Google it’s time to react. And they plan they promise to react with a dramatic new search and indexing platform. The project is called Caffeine! But why does Google need Caffeine? Is it not going to manage without?

If you follow the latest trends, you’ve probably heard about a new fashion that has started in advertising – it’s called Social Network Marketing. It’s a new way to promote your products using conversation rather than traditional advertising. It gives you an opportunity to show your company’s human side, strengthen your brand and get new customers. In the face of growing popularity of social network sites, this kind of promotion will probably become a core of all campaigns and business strategies. The race has begun and it’s up to you, whether you make use of social network sites or just stand aside and watch.

Nothing in life is black or white. This is applicable to outsourcing as well. Next to the advantages I described before, you have to face concerns as well. But should these risks be considered as serious disadvantages, as blockers for outsourcing or as a warning? Can we do something to turn them into pros?

Based on CNET it seems that yesterday’s social network downtime has been caused by an attack on the social network accounts of one single user, a Georgian blogger. Like we wrote before the attacker(s) needed to have access to a very powerful network of servers/computers. If somebody really tried to make this blogger silent, we should treat it as an attack on our rights of freedom! But somebody could cause this for his own benefit as well.

Outsourcing your IT development could be a hard decision. Very often during discussions with CxO’s, directors and business owners we conclude that despite the advantages they still don’t dare to do it. They are afraid of losing control. And this is something I fully understand. It’s like your kids growing up and then at once they decide to leave your house. But one thing is certain, eventually it will happen. So, why should you decide to outsource your IT? Below you will find 10 most common reasons.