Click to Give Earthquake and Tsunami Relief

The monumental earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan has been devastating to the country and it's people.

There are ways for us to help, even in our busy, over-scheduled, multi-tasking, planner-revolving lives.

Here are just a few of many:

1. Text to Donate: Text REDCROSS to 90999. Each text provides $10 towards Japan disaster-relief.

2. Facebook Donate: Login to Facebook and go to the Red Cross Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami cause. So far, $206,479 has been raised. You can donate between $10-$500 towards relief funds.

3. Virtual Goods: Zynga, who is the maker of Farmville, has partnered with Save the Children's Japan's Earthquake Tsunami Fund to get players of different Zynga games (FarmVille, FrontierVille, CityVille) to buy virtual goods while playing. 100% of the proceeds will go towards the fund.

4. "Like" a Page: Some pages are donating towards Japan for every "like" the page gets. One example is "Dog Bless You", which supports rescue dogs that aid in crisis like this.

5. Twitter: The following are a useful list of hashtags to use in your Twitter updates regarding the earthquake, especially if you have information about victims or family. These hashtags are often searched on Twitter.

• #Jishin: focuses around general earthquake information
• #Anpi: a hashtag for the confirmation of the safety of individuals or places
• #Hinan: Evacuation information
• #311care: a hashtag regarding medical information for the victims
• #PrayforJapan: A general hashtag for support and best wishes for victims of the crisis

6. Comment to Donate: The blog "Mom's Need to Know" has pledged to donate $1 for every comment they receive, up to $500, towards disaster relief in Japan. While that might not seem like much, there are other blogs doing the same thing, and they all add up.

7. iTunes Donation: Put your music-browsing habit towards a good cause on iTunes. They've developed a simple donation tool that allows you to donate between $5-$200.

Facebook and Twitter Available on Xbox Live

This month Xbox has announced a partnership with Facebook and Twitter. This will entail having instant access to one's Facebook or Twitter accounts right from their Xbox live Dashboard. Xbox has done a lot of work to create a Facebook and Twitter experience designed specifically for the living room. Full access will be available to Xbox live gamers this fall.

Facebook Prepares Yet Another Format Change

And with change will come much complaining, as with the last time Facebook did this. But that is to be expected as people who have become accustomed to the Facebook features and layout will be jolted once more. There will always be a small learning curve for every new version of any publication or software but what is more important is WHY Facebook is doing this.

Short answer: Twitter

Whether you knew it or not, Facebook currently does not have real-time updates for user's status reports (currently it's a 10 minute refresh queue). Twitter does.

Facebook limits your friends network to 5,000. Twitter doesn't.

Twitter has lately been the new-found darling of many companies worldwide as they realize the convenience and power of communicating quickly and efficiently to its constituents.

Facebook wants some of that love.



As a company that enjoys Facebook, we'll wait and see what happens to the Company Pages, as Facebook promises to tear down some walls between how company profiles and individual profile pages behave. It will supposedly allow more freedom and features as well as continued support for 3rd party apps. It sounds good. Now we wait.

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