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The German state of Schleswig-Holstein has ordered state institutions to shut down their Facebook Pages and remove the “Like” button from their websites — or face fines.

Schleswig-Holstein’s data-protection commissioner, Thilo Weichert, says that an analysis from his office shows that Facebook builds profiles of both users and non-users with data collected by the Like button, reports the Associated Press. If true, this would violate German and European data protection laws.

In a statement, the data-protection organization urged Internet users “to keep their fingers from clicking on social plugins” like the Like button to avoid being profiled.

“We firmly reject any assertion that Facebook is not compliant with EU data protection standards,” a Facebook spokesperson said in another statement. “The Facebook Like button is such a popular feature because people have complete control over how their information is shared through it. For more than a year, the plugin has brought value to many businesses and individuals every day. We will review the materials produced by the ULD [the data protection agency], both on our own behalf and on the behalf of web users throughout Germany.”

According to Facebook, the only information that the company receives when a user who is not signed in hits the Like button is an IP address.

German regulators have clashed with Facebook before. Earlier this month, the data protection supervisor in Hamburg warned that Facebook’s new automatic photo-tagging feature could violate European privacy laws.

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I came across this interesting article. ALL Credit goes to the orginal Author (unknown).

Example 1

Take just one million home owners in Gauteng who pay for “armed crime reaction” (not crime prevention), where private security companies react AFTER the Crime has taken place-no wonder they make never any arrests! This Service costs on average R 250.00 per month.
Therfore: 1.000000 x R 240.00 x 12 months x 14% VAT, generates R403 million in tax revenue for the Government!

Example 2

A Car Thief steals a R 500.000 car and receives between R 10.000 and R 30.000 for his deed.The Car Owner is paid out by the Insurance Company and then purchases another similar Vehicle on which he pays 14% VAT of approximately R 70.000 as a direct Result of Crime.
Who profited the most? The Car Thief of the Government?
MAKES YOU THINK

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Here is a list of 36 top classified ads where people actually view, post ads and buy stuff. We have eliminated all junk sites from this list. There are no ffa pages, forums acting like classified sites,classified sites which are full of spam or which have no traffic and are not well maintained. These are real classified ads site where if you post your ad you actually have a serious chance of somebody seeing your ad and responding. There are no sites here with an Alexa ranking over 150,000. This means that the sites below all get serious traffic. Some of these Sites are targeted at specific countries but some are suitable for South African Postings such as GUMTREE for example

1. http://www.craigslist.org- The grandaddy of classified ads sites.

2. http://www.backpage.com The second busiest classified site after Craigslist. This is where all the escort ads went after Craigslist took down their erotic ads section due to pressure from 17 Attorney Generals. Not so with Village Voice owned Backpage.com. They told the attorney generals they were just fine with their erotic ads section thank you. Those guys at the Village Voice have major cohones!

3. http://www.gumtree.com Weird name but this site is one of the busiest classifieds sites out there. This high traffic classifieds site is focused on UK ads.

4. http://www.oodle.com This serious classified site has partnerships with ForRent.com in the US and Autotrader UK.

5. http://www.ebayclassifieds.com The official classifieds site for Ebay.

6. http://www.olx.com This board has a presence in most countries and can be read in English or Spanish.

7. http://www.usfreeads.com A popular US focused site with a large business opportunity and pet section.

8. http://www.classifiedads.com Classifieds focused on the English speaking world. US, UK, AU, and India.

9. http://www.inetgiant.com A green board not only in color but in their ads. They have a well represented area for green products. The board is pretty much translated in most languages. I checked their Lithuanian board. No ads there yet. Do you want to be the first?

10. http://adpost.com Solid board with presences in the United States, Singapore,Canada,Malaysia, United Kingdom, Philippines, Ireland, Australia, India, Indonesia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

11. http://adlandpro.com Well established board with a strong focus on internet marketing, business opportunities, and website promotion.

12. http://www.classifiedsforfree.com A well organized world-wide classifieds board.

13. http://www.salespider.com/online-classifieds-free-advertising Classified ads are only one part of this business site. They have forums, sell leads, and offer business tools for online businesses.

14. http://www.yakaz.com A lean uncluttered board which reads your ip and directs your ad posting accordingly. US based as far as I can tell. However, I have not yet tried accessing it with a Chinese ip. Maybe the entire site changes language with my ip. I hate being a slave to my ip. What if I am a Greek living in Spain?

15. http://www.thefreeadforum.com High traffic site which is getting serious promotion. So if you have something to sell this is the place to get that type of targeted traffic!

16. http://www.domesticsale.com US classifieds site which allows car dealers and other heavy advertisters to bulk upload large amounts of listings.

17. http://www.pennysaverusa.com/classifieds/usa/index.html This is the online version of the old Penny Saver newspaper which was a very popular print newspaper with discount deals and classified ads.

18. http://epage.com This site has been in business since 1994. That is before we had Google. It looks somewhat like Usfreeads.com but with less emphasis on business opportunities. They have an affiliate program with over 34,000 affiliates. This means if you post your ad here it goes out on a feed to over 30,000 other sites who run their ads. This means more exposure for you. Many of these sites have programs where other websites run their feeds. This gives you quite a bit more exposure.

19. http://www.recycler.com Simple easy to negotiate classifieds board.

20. http://www.webcosmo.com US based with worldwide advertising possibilities.

21. http://www.hoobly.com The cleanest looking classifieds site so far. Just the ads. No clutter at all. Very Googlesque in their design. It must be working for them. Over 15,000 people have clicked their like button.

22. http://www.freeadlists.com They do it all: personals, cars, pets and they do it all over the world though they are US based. They even claim on their homepage that if you are a man looking for a woman you can find one here! Watch out Match.com!

23. http://www.sell.com How much did this domain name cost them? I give them number 1 on domain name value. Excellent classifieds site as well. Kudos for not just squatting the domain name. They have been running online classifieds since 1999. Their advertising engine has been used by big business directories such as AT&T’s YELLOWPAGES.com, newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, and niche online properties such as sellhomes.com. Sell.com is a part of a network of advertising properties. Again, if you advertise on many of these sites your ad will simultaneously run on thousands of other partner sites.

24. http://www.bestwayclassifieds.com/ Claims to be the fastest growing free advertising site in the world. Hmmm, I do not think so. Could they even have said one of the fastest? In any case they may not be the fastest growing site but they do get some good traffic and they have a nice classifieds site worth posting to.

25. http://www.webclassifieds.us A solid well designed board with a .us domain name. What else could you want? They seem to monetize their site quite a bit with Adsense which is good and bad. It means they include more features on the free ads, including free pictures and youtube video (many free boards charge for this) but visitors could be distracted by the Adsense ads.

26. http://www.americanlisted.com A family friendly US only board. I guess if you are an escort or into SM you should stick with Backpage.com. Your church announcements would be welcome here though.

27. http://www.freeadscity.com Lean easy to read worldwide board with non classified ads discretely at the bottom of the board.

28. http://www.chooseyouritem.com This is what they have to say about themselves “Place your classified ads with us and your ads appear not only on our site but also on over 70 partner websites — including over 30 classic car or vehicle related websites, as well as ISP’s, real estate, media, shopping and search networks. Each month, over 1 million visitors view tens of millions of our pages – making our Classified Network one of strongest in the country. Not only is our exposure the best but we also provide the best in value. ” Sounds like a good deal to me.

29. http://www.daype.com Straight forward US only board.

30. http://geebo.com They have quotes about connecting communities, building safe environments and how they are leaders of a “revolution of how classifieds sites see themselves as responsible citizens.” So if you want to join their “nice” revolution go ahead. And while you are at it why not sell that old Buick Enclave you have been meaning to get rid of. Vive La Revolution! (Pervs see Backpage.com)

31. http://www.claz.org I like the name. This site is actually an agregator of classified sites within 250 miles with picture previews. They feature ads from most of the sites I mention here. It does not look like you can place an ad directly here but it probably will appear if you place it on any of the other sites listed here.

32. http://wantedwants.com Well, you can stop looking at classifieds sites right now, forget Craigslist, forget Backpage, nope, it has been officially decided. These guys officially declare that their site is the best classifieds site in the world! I do not agree. But I think their site is worth posting to. Respectable traffic, and sharp unique and fun design. US centered with opportunity for international ads as well.

33. http://www.freeclassifieds.com No nonsense classified site which has their own Android application so you can post ads from your mobile phone. They even have their own QR code that you can scan with your Andorid phone to get immediate sucint info about freeclassifieds.com. Kudos again for the domain name. Mobile friendly site. Smart!

34. http://www.bonqo.com Huge homepage showcase of photo ads. Why not put your photo ad on their homepage?

35. http://www.buysellcommunity.com They sell everything but it looks like they have a penchant for Cocker Spaniels. US and Canada classifieds mainly.

36. http://businesslist.com/post-classified-ad/ Straight forward US targeted classifieds site. All your ads are automatically tweeted to their twitter account. They also sell business lists, hence the name Businesslist.com.

If you have your favorite classified sites please tell us about them in the comments area and especially tell us why they are your favorites. If you found this post helpful please tweet, like, bookmark, Digg, Stumbleupon, and buy an ad during Superbowl half-time. You get the idea. I am shamelessly begging for promotion.

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In it’s very generic, vanilla form, Facebook is just so-so as a business tool. Lots has been written and said about its use for business, but to me the real power comes when you hang the proper accessories, known as applications, on it and really trick it out for business and professional use.

There are thousands of application available with one click once you have a Facebook profile. But, don’t get caught up in adding every tom, dick and harry application, just because you can. Think logically about your goals for being on Facebook and then choose the tools that will help your communicate, achieve and amplify those objectives.

Here’s a complete directory of Facebook applications

And, here are my favorite applications for business use.

• Telephone – With Telephone you can call, send and receive voice messages through Facebook, just like having voicemail on your phone. All you need is the application and a microphone and you can start sending messages to your friends.
• Slideshare – SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. You can upload your own PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Keynote or PDF files and view presentations shared by others. This is a great way to spread thought leadership and expertise through presentations you may have delivered locally.
• CircleUp – For Groups and Events is a lightweight collaboration app for groups and events. This tool facilitates some of the communication needed to promote your group activity and events on Facebook and elsewhere. This is particularly useful if you’ve created and maintain your own group on Facebook or often promote teleseminars and workshops.
• Free Conference Calls - Use Free Conference Calls to organize a business meeting on the fly. With free conference call you can call in from anywhere; your home, mobile, Skype, or any VoIP service. Using this app inside of Facebook can help make some immediate connections a little deeper.
• Facebook Video – Facebook Video provides a high-quality video platform for people and pages on Facebook. With Video, you can upload video files, send video from your mobile phone, and record video messages to your friends. This application is so easy to use that it makes sending video introductions or message a powerful way to network on Facebook
• Testimonials – Use Testimonials to gather your personal and professional references in one place. Encouraging customers and contacts to post testimonials about your work and expertise adds great marketing content to your profile.
• Introductions – Introduce your friends to each other and make new ones. Ask for an introduction to a web programmer or good lawyer. Then make introductions for your friends. This application speeds the process of effective networking by helping focus on giving and receiving introductions in a systematic way.
• Business Cards – Business Cards helps you network better on Facebook. Personalize your card and attach it to your Facebook messages! View postings and network with others! This application is much like the signature common in email messages. It’s just one more way to say business when using Facebook.
• My LinkedIn Profile – Makes it easy to promote your LinkedIn account with a badge on your Facebook profile. Cross promoting social network activity is a great way to extend your reach.
• What I Do – Allows you to promote your services/products to your Facebook network. Display your skills/wares on your profile box and list yourself in a business directory. Recommend your colleagues services and products too.

So, I would love to hear how you have effectively used specific Facebook applications for business.

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