Gmail Gets a New Look

Did you check your Google Gmail account today? Google is updating the look and feel of Gmail. Google feels that over the years it has added more and more features causing the interface to feel unnecessarily complex. The goal is to streamline the Gmail making it more user friendly. Google also plans to update their calendar. As all things Google the update will be rolled out over the next couple months. I prefer Yahoo over Gmail especially with Yahoo’s newest calendar update. It will be interesting to see if Gmail does indeed improve on it’s ultra boring interface.

Google’s Content Farm Update Helped eHow?

Google said it wants to git rid of content farms. I for one actually don’t mind getting answers from eHow.com or Answers.com. Obviously, all content farms aren’t bad and it looks like Google possibly agrees with me. I found an article at Adotas.com that backs up this statement. “SEO consultant Sistrix analyzed a data set of 1 million keywords checked before and after the update to discover that the number of keywords eHow.com is ranked for increased from 317,320 to 324,021 (adotas.com).” The web relies on Google’s traffic so it’s interesting to see how one algorithm change can destroy once legitimate business’ overnight. Recently Overstock.com and JCPenney took a hit in Google’s rankings. With success so finicky in the online world I doubt corporate America will sit idle. I see the future of search becoming less focused on an algorithm and focus more on social like http://blekko.com. To me it seems the most fair to let the crowd decide than one algorithm. Please give me your feedback, what do you think?

Since subscribing to A1StockPicks.com I’ve purchased the stock AFAM at entry point 25.8592 with a target price 27.75. How well have I done so far? Well, I haven’t given up hope since the market has been so crummy lately, but I’ve down 1.54%. My plan still is to sell at the target price, but if it hasn’t hit by the end of this month I will try again on a different stock. I’ll of course be giving updates on this blog so please subscribe.

Stocks Up What to Do Next?

Stocks seem to be going up and up. I’m getting a little concerned… I’m in a dilemma do I take my profits or let the stocks ride? So far I’m letting them ride and it seems to be working. Last week I was getting discouraged because I’ve racked up about $700 in trading fees. I e-mailed Ameritade and they gave me $100 or 10 free trades. I’m up 98% for the year!

Mobile Phone Industry

One thing I’m discovering is ANYTHING having to do with the mobile phone industry is hot… look at these stocks I invested in… according to the rating agencies they are junk, but they keep going up and up. Check out CAMP up from .60 to almost 3 in 6 months. I sold CAMP a couple weeks ago, it had a good run. Look at EFJI up from .70 to over 1.30 in just 3 months. There is a lot of money buying baskets of stocks in the mobile industry stocks. I don’t know if these small cap or penny stocks will be a good buy going forward, but small cap seems to be where it’s at. Once again this kind of speculation should only make up a very small percentage of your portfolio. 10%-20%. The reason you never hear about buying penny stocks or stocks under $5 on the news is because it’s highly risky. There is profits to be made… for example I had one penny stock go up 100% in one day, but they also can drop like a stone. For this reason you will never hear this kind of information on TV (CNBC).

Useful Video on Investing in Your 20s

I found this video on YouTube produced by TheStreet.com that said the only stocks you should invest in your 20s is penny stocks… that’s very bold advice. Keep in mind this is before the stock market crash. Check out the video here, it gives some good advice and inspiration. I wouldn’t give this advice, but I’m not a hedge fund manager either.