According to separate studies released by StrongMail and ShareThis, links placed in emails have a higher conversion rate than links placed in Facebook, Twitter, or web badges. Although emails tended to lead to a higher percentage of conversions (i.e. sales and subscriptions), email links also had the highest percentage of actual link ignores where users more often ignored email links.

Venture capital and talk surrounding internet start ups is getting stiffer. This news is not surprising considering the state of the economy- online entrepreneurs need to take this as an indication that, as it should be, a properly market-tested BETA is essential to garnering attention for your initial funding. The article below confirms my recent discussions with a New York-based early stage venture capital firm that asserted, “we’re looking for funding too; we should be getting more capital by the end of the year.”

The video below represents a new cutting-edge technology that again, reshapes our communications and challenges our control over how we communicate. We could say first their was virtual reality. Then there was Minority Report. Now there is Augmented Reality (reality augmented by technology with communication tools built on the web and displayed through a “window”…in this case, the window being an iPhone).
Before you watch the video though, take a moment to read my considerations on the impact of a new technology such as Augmented Reality.

This is a defining moment in Iran’s modern history; the people of Iran face questions concerning authority in both leadership and in information. Here’s the latest news on some actions taken by the Iranian government to force a cessation to the dispersion of critical communications.
Iran’s government in recent days has tried to cut off Internet access for most of its election protestors by shutting down routers at the nation’s perimeters, ripping satellite dishes off roofs, cutting cables and turning off telephone switching networks.
Iran, in effect, has declared cyberwar on itself. …

For those who need a better reviewing process of their team’s websites, Notable may be for you. The functionality seems very promising for effective team-based reviewing, but the issue for me is the price.
I just don’t see a large chunk of their market dropping $44, $69, or $119 per month for this. Maybe if it included OS/Browser testing too. For most small businesses, free social bookmarking/notation apps (Diigo, MyStickies, etc)  with privacy settings set will have to do for now until Notable lowers their prices or offers a free account …

The Chinese government is requiring all PC makers selling PCs into China to include a government-created software that will allow the powers-that-be to control the content that is served up on a computer. This is extremely detrimental for Chinese freedom of information.
In the coming weeks, we’ll hopefully know more about this software and what its effects may be on the content allowed to pass through to the Chinese population. Right now, here is what we know…

They chose a good name. Doesn’t sound feminine at all. This is a new service to get men clothing that looks good for who they are. It’s going to  fit and arrives at their door without them ever having to actually shop.
The Trunk Club makes a personal shopping profile of sizes for each customer, listing what does and doesn’t work on your body type. Your style preferences are noted, your formal and leisure act ivies, and what has worked for you in the past.

If you are interested in pulling together news feeds from multiple sources or keeping up to date on news via categories or custom feeds- Streamy may be a good option for you…if it worked.
In my tests, Streamy performed okay, but seemed like a glossy version of Google Reader with more bugs. Currently, upon re-entry to the site, I’m staring at a loading bar that just sits there (see above).

If you’ve had your fill of the other free stock photography site…yeah all of those teaser “premium” photos got real annoying…then try photoXpress. You’re allowed 3 free downloads a day, with up to 10 allowed if you fork over information about yourself in your profile.
The database currently contains more than 350,000 images in 22 categories – all Royalty Free images. There are over 1,000 new images added every day.

Jobaba provides a free service that is a step up from trying to conduct local business through Craigslist or ebay. If you have a consultative business or free time on the side to do what you do best for some extra $$ you can scan through a list of neighborhood requests that suits you.
Jobaba is equally adept at finding individuals to complete work for you- at the right price. Just post a job request and get a list of local professionals who are willing to complete the job. Negotiate on …

Unfortunately relevant right now for many out of work IT professionals, David Noble breaks down a few important pointers to guide your CV building process.

You have photos. You want people to see them. However, picking the right online service on which to store your photos can be trickier than it looks. Here’s a guide walking through the pros and cons of various websites that will hold on to your photos for you.

Matt Reichman from AppScout counts down his top 12 Maps Mashups. Check it out.
My Favorite 12 Google Maps Mashups: Friday Time-Waster Special – AppScout.

Apparently Google is launching a new search interface to match up targeted searches with its appropriate context.
Google Squared extracts data from Web pages and presents them in search results as squares in an online spreadsheet. Michael was at the event and got a personal demo (see video below). From Michael’s Searchology notes:
Google Squared is launching later this month in labs. Google Squared returns search results in a spreadsheet format. It structures the unstructured data on web pages. So a search for Small Dogs returns results with names, description, size, weight, …

At the upcoming O’Reilly Velocity Confrence in June, one of the sessions will cover how Hotmail links its performance to business metrics:
The parameters modeled range from: (a) Server Side: application’s design, systems architecture, Server SKU’s, geohosting, CDN’s, to (b) Network-Related: bandwidths, connectivity, network latencies, last mile effect, to© Client-Side: OS and browser mix, system configs, to (d) Business-Related: current/projected revenues, market shares, user-minutes, competitive advantage, feature parity, discoverability and adoption, and trends, to (e) Performance-Related: where Hotmail is with respect to its regional/global competitors and previous milestones. The model is …