The Skinny…A daily double-shot of digital goodness.

The Skinny is a synopsis of current digital marketing and social media trends. The Skinny’s mission is to deliver the buzz
to you in a few minutes or less so you can be in the know and focus on what matters most- your work.

Gmail Motion April Fool’s Joke Becomes Reality With Xbox Kinect

 Of Google’s many April Fools jokes, the top one was Gmail Motion, a new technology

allowing users to write emails and send them using complicated full-body motions.

 Rather than simply click on an email’s subject line to open the message, for example,

Gmail Motion enables users to simply make the movement like opening an envelope.

 To reply to a message, just point backwards with your thumb. Use two hands to “reply

all.” Pretend to lick a stamp and place it on an envelope to send. The list goes on.

 A researcher from the USC Institute for Creative Technologies used the Kinect sensor

to make Gmail Motion a reality. It only took him a few hours.

 The team is calling the Gmail Motion recreation SLOOW (Software Library Optimizing

Obligatory Waving).

 Click here if you would like to see the full article, there’s also a video of the man

demonstrating it.

Google is Developing an App That Can Snap Your Face, Pull up Your Profile

 Google is working on a facial recognition mobile app that would allow users to snap a

picture of a friend or new acquaintance-and then access his or her Google Profile

contact information.

 The app (which doesn’t have a name yet) is capable of grabbing a Google Profile

user’s name, email address and phone number.

 The technology is capable of accessing Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or other online

photos and data.

 The dilemna Google is facing with this developing is harnessing the power of this

technology while protecting individual’s privacy.

 For now, Google is working on an opt-in model, so Google Profile users will have to

elect to participate, explicitly giving Google permission to use their profile data.

 Click here if you would like to see the full article.

Google Unveils Page Speed Online

 Google’s Page Speed Online is capable of analyzing any website for its speed, and it also

offers suggestions to improve it.

 It is a pretty straightfoward tool, all you have to do is type in a website and you will receive

suggestions concerning speed improvement of the website.

 Suggestions are ranked as Low, Medium, and High, and users are provided with rules of

thumb followed by a website.

 Page Speed Online is able to analyze mobile websites for their performance, and Google

offers a fresh set of suggestions that can be used fo rmobile site optimization.

 Click here if you would like to see the full article.

 Click here if you would like to visit the Page Speed homepage.

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else

does.” –Steuart Henderson Britt.