Swirls of olive, jade and green apple flourish among the gently rolling hills of kudzu and shrubbery, bordered by skyscrapers of wooded terrain. Delicate bursts of lavender, peach and magenta botanicals highlight the abundance of leafy greens to create a collage of splendorous nature.

Embraced by the warmth of the Deep South – Dallas, GA to be exact – this little piece of paradise is home to an array of wildlife; mostly birds and squirrels that have nestled into the birdhouses and birdbaths that adorn this cozy backyard. Following suit of invitation, the garden welcomes small creatures and critters alike with a collection of bird feeders, birdbaths and squirrel feeders.

This nature wonderland is additionally home to property owner Beth Wheeler, an avid birdwatcher and all-around animal lover. For the past 20-plus years she has enjoyed the relaxation birding allows; whether perched in her backyard or gazing through the kitchen window, her passion for observing the essence of nature provides an escape from the every day hustle and bustle, Wheeler explained.

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I’ve been talking about Foursquare a few times this year, and how both companies and consumers are taking advantage of the locationed based social network and app.   Foursquare gain popularity over the past year, and had roughly about 500,000 users last week.  A half-million users isn’t bad, but it looks like the network is growing now at rapid speed.  With the South by SouthWest festival happening right now in Austin, Texas, Foursquare has gained “100,000 users” in the past 11 days. 

The company tweeted right before their new 100,000 user saying they were almost there.  The company also says that there has been a surge of friend requests on Foursquare, so users can see where there friends are actually at.  (more…)

Although many warn against it, most of us use Wikipedia at least now and then.  If you’re not familiar, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, which anyone is allowed to edit.  So whether you’re looking for information on Abraham Lincoln, Kazakhstan, or the history of cheese, it’s bound to be on the site somewhere.

While the site can be a very useful tool, many think something is missing from the site.  Videos.  So leave it up to the Open Video Alliance to head an online campaign which will hopefully bring videos to the online encyclopedia. (more…)

One of the greatest parts about my job is how I get to always keep up with the latest viral videos.  I don’t often write an aritcle about certain viral video, although I have been showcasing at least one viral video a week in iePlexus’ Social Media News Briefs for the past few weeks.  But this viral video, I think deserves it own article.

Posted on March 9, “The Future of Publishing” has had more than 125,000 views at the time of this posting.  While the video is intended for book publishers, I think the video is a good marketing as well.  The video is sort of like a palindrome, something you can read forwards as well as read it backwards. (more…)

While things for the most part have been quiet for awhile between Google and China, Google’s business partners in China are loosing patience with Google, wanting to know if the company will stay in China or it will go.

27 Chineses companies, all whom are advertisers on Google.cn, wrote what is described as an “emotional letter.”   The businesses say the no longer wish to be kept in the dark on Google’s plans.  (more…)

We often here of studies that find consumers who follow or fan companies or brands on a social networking site, like Facebook or Twitter are more likely to purchase products or services from them.  Once again, the latest study from Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies confirms that.

Amazingly, the study found that consumers who follow companies or brands on Twitter are 67% more likely to buy from them, while 51% are more likely to buy from a brand that they follow on Facebook. And when it comes to recommending companies and brands to friends, 79% said they were more likely to recommend them if they were on Twitter and 60% if they were on Facebook.  (more…)

For as long as many us can remember, Google has been the most visited site on the web.  You may recall, that during Christmas & New Years Day, Facebook was the most visited site for the day, but Google quickly took that spot back.

However, HitWise said during March 7 and March 13 Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited site in the US, and the trend looks like it will continue.  For the past year, Facebook’s popularity has continued to grow, while Google’s ranking has remained on a stable path.  (more…)

You have to admit, Google does an amazing job with Google Maps.  How Mapquest is still is business is beyond me.  Did you know they also now have Streetview?  Google has been and continues to be the leader in online maps and directions.  This week, the search engine rolled out some interesting features across it’s maps.

About a month ago, Google gave Map-goes an option to enable a few beta features.  Amoung those that make the list, a click and zoom tool which allows you to zoom into a certain area by creating a simple box with your mouse.  The feature it great esspecially if you want to zoom into a certain area faster.  Another feature Google released is known as Aerial Imagery.  It gives you  “rotatable, high-resolution overhead” images.  The downpart to this, is that it’s only avaliable in certain areas, but the good news is that the search engine giant plans on explaning that in the near future.  (more…)

Occasionally, we talk about some of the latest Twitter facts to see how much the site is growing.  We have seen both the amount of users and the numbers of tweets each month continue to grow, with an occasional slow down.  But a new study from Barracuda Labs, a Web security company, shows that not even a third of the users are tweeting.

The study looked at an astonishing 19 million users, and defined a “True Twitter user” as someone who has at least 10 followers, is following 10 others, and has at least 10 tweets.  Seems simple, right? Surprisingly, only 21 % of the 19 million were defined at a true user.  So 79% of twitter users rarely even use their account! (more…)

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