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Google announced today that its three-year effort to create a muscular browser technology that can run heavy duty apps such as console-like games is now ready for prime time. Google has provided the platform to allow games to run in the Chrome browser and make use of the computers 3D graphics hardware. That makes it possible to run games with high-end console-like graphics in a web browser.The most recent being a game called Bastion.

Square Enix chief executive Yoichi Wada attended the event at the GooglePlex headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., and said his company has been waiting for this day for a long time. The company created a version of its Mini Ninjas game for Chrome as a “native client” game.

“Let us begin this new era together,” Wada said. “Google’s native client will be welcomed worldwide as a truly innovative technology for the information technology industry and game industry as well.”

For game developers, this is a chance for a much wider audience, as Chrome has been downloaded more than 200 million times. Unity reaches 90 million gamers. Oren Tversky, vice president of business development at Unity, said that the experience is much easier for consumers, who don’t have to wait for a long installation. They are less likely to quit a long download and so they are more likely to become paying customers.

Overall this is an interesting turn for ‘gaming platforms’ so to speak, it looks like more and more game developers will be making their presence felt over the next 12-18 months on ‘ready to play’ games for the Chrome browser. It’s a wait and watch game, no pun intented, now.

I love minimalist movie poster designs. They’ve been around for a while; but off-late they seem to be popping up again. I’ve seen some awesome ones around; but I loved these 2.

1. Jurassic Park

I loved this because of the symbolic water vibrating. They’re coming….

2. Ratatouille

The cheese crusted Michelin Stars that says it all!

I love this! I’m sure you will to – 101 Patterns for Influencing Behavior Through Design

The PDF is free!! Click here to go to the site

I hate clichés, (there’s a cliché if I’ve ever heard one) – but seriously – all the buzzwords and clichés used today, especially in office, are starting to annoy me. People use these buzz words to sound smart, super intelligent and ‘in with the times’. Great! I say – but stop using words which are over 4 years old and have little or no meaning anymore! Let’s get started:

1. 2.0

This has to be the most abused word of the century! Everything today is 2.0, 3.0 even. For the love of God, it was coined back in 2004 by O’Rielly – it reached it’s peak in 2006 – by being named “Time Magazines top 10 words of 2006″. But come now people, we’re in 2010 – and do you really think there’s a 2.0 or a 3.0 anymore?

2. Synergy

The first time I heard this – almost a decade ago – I was stunned beyond belief and I thought my lecturer to be the smartest person in the whole world for using that phrase. That’s not all; when I used that word for the first time at an interview, I was literally handded the job. I felt good, I felt smart – I knew a word that was going to revolutionize my career. That’s what I thought 10 years ago. Today it’s been so overused, abused and left to die like a mangy animal under the hot broiling sun, it’s starting to stink the place up. It just sounds cheesy – so really…stop using it.

3. Outside the box

Yes, I know it means, think creatively, think unconventionally , think of things that others won’t think of – yes, we all know that. But the truth is, everytime someone can’t find a solution or they’re stuck – they just say “I got to think out of the box” or they yell to their teams ” you’re not thinking out of the box!!” – I’ve used it many times myself and been yelled that at me even more. I said it back then and I’ll say it again “Can’t think out of the box? Then let’s take it outside”

4. Push the envelope

Stop using this. It’s refers to pilots pushing the “flight envelope” during WWII – if I’m not doing something related to rocket science or aviation, I know I’m not pushing any envelopes.

5.  Add Value/Value add

OK this is a little off, but hear me out – If you’re telling this to someone who’s been working for a while – it’s a great thing to do – I don’t agree 100% – but still. Now tell this to a fresh graduate right out of college and into his 3rd month on the job and he’ll be “Wha? how?” and trust me – most people won’t know how to answer that question. It’s a good word – heck, they all are – but if you are NOT going to “add value” by telling someone to add value – stop saying it.

There you have it, let’s hear you’re list of clichés that you can’t stand!

We’ve heard it all – Facebook is the next big marketing thing – clients ask us – can you get me on facebook? We’ll all that hoopla is fun – but here are 3 critical limitations you need to be aware of as a marketer.

1. 500 “Liked” Page Limit

If you are one of those people who feels you should “like” each page you are being shared, you will be soon disappointed.

You can “like” no more than 500 pages on Facebook – which means you should be really selective in your “liking” habits.
Now, this restriction seems really weird as Facebook claim they are using members’ liking stats as the way to analyze and categorize the members: so logically the more things they like, the better. I hope this restriction will be removed with time.

2. Group 5000 Limit

The hugest advantage of a Facebook group over a Facebook page is that you can stay in touch with your followers more effectively:

• You can message all members all at once and these messages will arrive in members’ Facebook inboxes (unlike Facebook “updates”) – which means much more visibility.
• Besides, you are able to invite all members to an event in bulk.

However this advantage is removed once your group gets popular enough: once your group has 5000 members, you will NOT be able to invite the members of a host Group to an Event and you will NOT be able to message all of them in bulk.

3. Page/Event Creator’s Restrictions

As the page creator you should have the whole control over it, right? Wrong! Ironically, to access all the page or even managing options you have to assign someone to be an administrator (You as creator AND administrator can’t access those features)

These managing tasks include:

   1. Message all the page event visitors: as the Event creator and the Admin of a Fan Page, you cannot message your Event guests. Instead, you are obligated to appoint someone else to be the Admin of the event and have them message your guests-to-be.
   2. Adding “favorite pages” to this page: If you administer other pages (or have friends who administer Facebook pages), you can add (or ask your friends to add) your page to that other page “Favorites”. However if you administer the page you created, you won’t have that ability. So if you want to use the page you created, ask one of your page administrators to do that:

Source: The Search Engine Journal