Google Puts Lid on New Products

Realizing that its myriad services are confusing users, it will focus on refining what it has.

October 06, 2006|Chris Gaither, Times Staff Writer

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In another sign of Google Inc.'s growth from start-up to corporate behemoth, the company's top executives said Thursday that they had begun telling engineers to stop launching so many new services and instead focus on making existing ones work together better.

The shift is a major departure from Google's previous strategy of launching new services rapid-fire and highlights the 8-year-old company's struggle to stay focused during swift growth.

Facebook Redesigns Help Center, Gives Unique URLs to Help Topics

Facebook yesterday announced they’ve redesigned their help center, making it more accessible and easier to use.

It’s not a huge difference compared to what the help center looked before, but it’s definitely an improvement. Filters on the left have separated help for specific applications, help discussions, sheer Facebook basics and safety information from the rest of the help.

Furthermore, the new search interface displays related help pages and helps you find help in other languages (if there is no result in your language). Perhaps most importantly, specific topics now have unique URLs, which means you can easily share them with others.

While we’re on the subject of Facebook help centers, you can check out our recently released Facebook Guide Book, which explains some of the more complex Facebook-related tasks, with an emphasis on using Facebook for business and brands.

HERE IS THE ORIGINAL POST: @MASHABLE

Android Finally Gets An Official Yammer App

Android Finally Gets An Official Yammer App

AT&T Reverses Course: iPhone Available Again in New York City

Momentum

Momentum:

"An impelling force or strength" or "the amount or force of motion in a moving body".

Momentum is one of the most important elements when achieving success, building a business, or selling a product/service; in fact, now that I think about it, it’s a key element of life in general. It’s what wins championship games in football and battles in war. Although this concept is pretty logical Momentum is pretty under rated. I don’t believe that many of us in business understand the power that it has. As a salesman, I can remember the days that I was jamming were the days that I had a ton on energy, confidence, and MOMENTUM throughout this successful period. Successful leaders understand the power that it has and when they identify it know how to leverage it.

For us out there engaged in our journey towards success, the first step is internalizing that momentum is key and when its active we must leverage it.

So what does this mean?

Well, of course it is all relative to your personal/business goals or definition of success, yet I believe that not letting up, reaching that extra inch; pushing your hardest during the moments where complacency is setting in, because you feel comfortable with status quo or your current production. I have observed that it is the people to work the hardest in the 4th quarter that break records resulting in breaking their own belief barriers. These are the guys/gals who do great things. These are things that others consider as great or impossible, and they consider as baseline.

Folks, I have seen the concept of breaking belief barriers succeed over and over again. And don’t get me wrong, I have been guilty many times of letting these mental barriers restrict me from achieving my goals, yet it is an exercise that we must all participate in. The beauty is that once these barriers are broken and new goals are expected, momentum has already started and will only gain strength with your continued pursuit.

Lets together allow our momentum to grow and focusing on the task at hand and pushing our hardest when complacency comes knocking at our door.

This is when champions are made.

Procrastination is the #1 Killer of all Success

I must say that this post was inspired by a few things that I am experiencing in my life today as well as a blog entry that a friend of mine Rory Vaden posted (http://takethestairs.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/causes-of-inaction/).

Rory speaks of the 4 Causes of Inaction. The last cause titled “Lack of Accountability” really resonated with me. I find that this is the root of all failure. It leads people to rationalize and make excuses which allows them to absolve themselves of all accountability.

The problem is that one must first be aware of their behavior to be able to fix it. Many managers out there simply tell their employees or partners what they are doing wrong, without helping them understand the root cause of the issue themselves. My personal opinion is that you can only walk someone so far; you can only preach to them so much, before they need to understand the issues themselves and hold themselves ACCOUNTABLE.

There is a reason that so many speak about success; less take steps towards achieving success; and very few achieve success.

Potential is useless without action. Thanks for the inspiration Rory.

Thoughts from the treadmill (no really, I was on my blackberry on the treadmill...hehe)

So I was always told throughout my life that I was a dreamer. I remember as a child my mother telling me that I had better be rich or I'd be in trouble. My mother was also a woman who valued the natural beauties that life had to offer...things like music, love, family, friends, art; in fact she was also the only person who when she said that she wanted a simple life, with little money and full of love, well, I believed her. And when I grew older, I believe I was in college attempting to build my businesses, she told my father that my problem was that I believed that this world owed me success.... You see guys, over the past few years I started to realize that what my mom was trying to tell me was that I deserved to achieve the goals that I had set out for myself. And after years of playing around with start up ideas and projects, I realized that it was about the journey and what we become in the process. It was about achieving little goals some days, and huge ones others. You see, as I see it, success is a personal decision. For some it's building businesses and for others its being the best on the playing field. On that note, I find that there are so many parallels between sports and business. One commonality is the idea that things will get tough; real tough. And its the people who reach that extra inch that ultimately succeed. And see guys, succeeding doesn't always mean winning. In fact, many times losing the game is inevitable. Yet the key factor is leaving it all on the field. Its knowing that you have tried your hardest to succeed. And if you can look yourself in the eye and hold your head up high, and know that you have given your all, then you are a winner. We all have obstacles in our lives. In fact, if you haven't dealt with many yet, get ready, because you have a hard road ahead! You see, these obstacles make our journey ever so gratifying. Its overcoming adversity that makes success ever so sweet. I remember hearing stories, while I was selling books door to door, of top salespeople having their best days, yet those days being the toughest mentally and having the most adversity. What I learned was that it was their ability to overcome these mini obstacles that made their day so great. So as we sit in our beds tonight reflecting on our goals, dreams, passions, not matter what they are, let us make the decision to succeed and to push our hardest; no matter how hard things get. Internalize that obstacles are inevitable, and that our ability to overcome and continue to strive forward will define our greatness...it will define our success! Tonight I challenge ourselves to identify a tough moment in our lives this week and simply overcome like a champion. Remember that success is ours for the taking...