The remains of the first toys date date back over 2,000 years and include many indications of hide and seek and ring around the rosie. But it was not until the 17th century that the first studies were done proving the importance of play in the learning and developmental process of a child. J. Goldsteins declared that "the game is the prism through which children experience their world and the world of others".  Playing is a vital part of a child's health, as it generates positive emotions. As an only child with no cousins nearby, my childhood required a little imagination and creativity. My bunk bed became my dream home, my lamp was my friend the owl, I mixed magic potions to defend myself from monsters, all with a princess braid in my hair. 

Facebook has recently reminded us that it will be releasing the new version of its Graph API at the end of April, which will affect all apps that include integration of the popular social network.   As experienced GoodBarber users, you know that our system currently supports Facebook integration for the Like and content sharing features.   In order to integrate Facebook in its apps, GoodBarber is using some of the V1 features (the one that will expire at the end of April 2015). But don't worry, not all Facebook integration will be compromised! There are some new and exciting features that will be presented in the coming weeks.   However, for the moment we are forced to temporarily disable the Like feature, in order to update our system with the new Graph API. All other functions will remain the same.   Stay tuned to this blog for more updates.

In honor of the recent buzz over wearable devices, it seems like the perfect time to delve into this topic. “Wearable Device” is a term that gets thrown around quite often, but until just recently, it’s been more of a figment of the future. There have been some attempts here and there, and we often hear all about cutting edge gear that’s on the brink of becoming huge, but whether or not wearable devices are on their way to becoming integrated parts of our lives in the way that smartphones have is something worth wondering about. Up until now, the two most well-known wearable devices have been the Google Glass and the FitBit, and I think it’s safe to say that one has been more successful than the other. While the FitBit can be seen sporadically amongst groups of everyday people, I cannot think of one single person I know who has been audacious enough to sport the Google Glass. Why has everyone shied away from such an impressively capable product created by a company that we all know and trust? I think Google really missed the mark in terms of relatability—it seems to have taken the futuristic concept and run with it, forgetting that its customers are humans, not wealthy robots. The term “Glasshole ” became popular for a reason—it’s not easy to wear this device without emitting a pretentious, Inspector Gadget aura that makes one unapproachable at best.

Mobile devices have been seen as the bad guy in schools for quite some time now, and administration has fought long and hard to stop kids from bringing their beloved smartphones to class (I definitely endured a gloomy detention or two back in the day for texting during Calc). I think we can all agree that mobile devices can certainly play a negative role in school (they can be a major distraction, facilitate bullying/other inappropriate behaviors, the list goes on..), but the reality is that they are not going anywhere. Diane Barry, an 8th grade Spanish teacher describes prohibiting kids from using their phones as “an uphill battle that can never be won, but if kids can put aside their desire to text, check e-mail, and watch Netflix, mobile devices can be a great tool for everyone”. This is perhaps indicative of the fact that it’s time to start embracing smartphones and tablets in school and explore what kind of benefits they can offer in this previously controversial setting. The spread of technology is only going to increase, especially amongst youth, so if you can’t beat them, join them.

We often speak about the strategies that brands use to increase their visibility. Many of them have managed to create a very loyal client base, generate much buzz, and sometimes even strategically transform bad buzz into something positive. However, today I don't want to talk about the social network success stories of these brands. Rather, I want to speak to you from the perspective of a social network user about the behaviors of certain brands that drive me crazy, ultimately leading me to unsubscribe from their updates. When these behaviors are constantly recurring, they can create a negative feeling towards the brand amongst customers, even outside of social networks.  This happens to me often, and I think it occurs with a lot of you as well, so I believe it is very important to understand the magnitude and effects that certain behaviors may have on your customers' perception of your brand.  Therefore, I thought making a list of social network behaviors that agitate me the most could be useful for giving you an idea of exactly what not to do in your own business' social networking strategy.   

It's here: the new and improved version of your back office, GoodBarber 3.5! Our team of developers has put itself into the mindset of a GoodBarber user and spent a lot of time exploring the platform in search of ways it can be simplified and made more enjoyable. We think the result is pretty great!  Lesia Pietri, head of the project, describes 3.5: “The goal of 3.5 is to give users a straightforward, guided path to the creation of their apps through clearer steps and updated tools. With creating the most Beautiful Apps always being our objective, we are now offering the Unsplash photo feature—something that emulates the definition of beautiful design”.   

2015 will be a year full of important events and changes. The mobile market is growing faster than ever, and to make a name for yourself in this industry a lot of hard work and great ideas will be required.  Last week I asked my Beautiful Country Managers to make a list of the most exciting events coming in 2015. It's unnecessary (and impossible) to participate in all of them of course, but following them and staying informed about what's happening in the tech, mobile, and communication markets is imperative.  This information will help you to build your business and strengthen your presentation strategy.  Let's take a look at what's on the program for this year.   

Has your app been in poor health lately? Low percentage of downloads? Less traffic than before? No reviews in the stores? Perhaps your app has a weak immune system and could have a nasty case of “Lack of optimization”.

Mobile applications have experienced huge growth over the past few years. There have not only been lots of new features to improve user experience on mobile, but new and great design ideas that catch our attention with their amazing effects have been implemented as well. Everyone has their own favorite mobile effects, and now it's time to discover some of the favorites of the members of our Beautiful GoodBarber Crew.  

2015 is officially here and so are the new innovations and trends to follow. We already have an idea of the major design trends for the Web, but what about for apps? I will turn it to Lesia, our expert artistic director, who is nice enough to share the best advice out there with us on creating a Beautiful App design that is on point style-wise.

A few years ago, creating an app for one’s business was something only for the most dedicated of techies—it would surely set you apart from your competition, but it was nowhere in the realms of your customers’ automatic expectations. Nowadays, without an app you are easily set apart from your competition in the complete opposite direction; customers may not even bother with your company if it is not available to them through a smartphone-friendly channel. To further understand why having an app is a huge advantage to your business, and what you risk by not having one, read on. 

Everybody is wondering what the next big thing in the app world for 2015 will be. We aren't psychic, but we have a few ideas based on our expertise, our market analysis, and the evolution of technology about the most exciting inventions big companies and brands will bring us during the next year, as well as the needs and concerns of consumers. We have known one thing from the start: mobile will lead. Mobile is like a little computer that we bring everywhere with us. It's becoming smarter, more relevant, and let's face it—something we are completely dependant on.  What we expect to see this year is apps that are much more customized to consumer needs. They will provide more relevant and personal information, geo-targeting content, app extension for wearable devices, more mobile security, and more opportunity for engagement. Today, we are offering you a look inside the future technology market. So, be our guest and jump into our time machine to discover the next App Trends for 2015.

A huge trend of 2014, videos have become an unavoidable means of communication. Read on to find out why and how to use them efficiently... The video has the ability to greatly increase the popularity of a site, and there are many who can attest to this. The video is a multipurpose communication tool that proves to be pertinent to several stages of client relations: it encourages interactiveness and increases user engagement on sites.  Video content can also, under certain conditions, boost the SEO of your site.  In fact, a video has 53 times more of a chance of coming up on the first page of a Google search than written content does.  However, remember that only written characters are taken into account by Google search algorithms. To improve your SEO through a video, you will have to pay a lot of attention to the title, the description, and the key words you have chosen. If you take this criteria into account, your video should be able to considerably increase your visibility on the internet. To give you an idea of the super powers that video content has in strategic marketing, a study done by Forrester  revealed that "from this point on, an online video may have more of an impact than a 30 second television commercial". So, are you convinced by the considerable advantages that video content is offering us? Now we will have to develop a strategy that defines the type of video and the channels of communication that you should use.  What better way to enlighten you than to show you how we, at GoodBarber, have decided to use the video?

This month, Facebook introduced a new algorithm for News Feed algorithm for 2015 that will change the way we receive content on the most prominent page on Facebook. If you don’t know about the new guidelines yet, this will be a valuable article for you. We will explain in detail what you should know about the new guidelines for Promotions and Advertisers on the News Feed and how you can optimize your mobile campaign.

As there are 1.3 million apps available in the market, user engagement has become a key factor in the success of an application. Today, I'll show you how to achieve this engagement on social networks through five steps (Exist, Know, Offer, Identify, Award).  

Huge! Facebook is the largest online social network and according to Facebook stats has more than 1 billion monthly active users. Almost 90% of worldwide active users are using mobile phones to check their news feed, chat with friends and update their Facebook profile. There is no doubt that Facebook has conquered most of the world's internet users and brings to the table a great opportunity for brands, companies and entrepreneurs to launch their products with a low budget or even, for free. The mobile apps promotion are not an exception. In the last two years, Facebook has improved the advertising tools for mobile promotion, becoming more successful than conventional Facebook ads. The variety of advertising formats, the deep segmentation (gender, language, interests, behavior, connections, pages), and the placement of your ads on the News feed helps to increase the number of downloaded apps, the app's engagement and retention of app users. These facts also contribute to achieve a more relevant position through search tools of Google Play and Apple's App Store. But let's understand how it works in detail.

When you design your app, you may choose between a variety of different navigation modes. Some of those navigation modes include icons for each individual section. In this video tutorial, we’re going to show you how to: - Add sample sections to your app to visualize the structure of the menu - Set the icons of your app after you’ve chosen your navigation mode - Upload your own personal icons

With the advent of mass production, mass advertising was invented too. In the 60s, the goal of most marketing strategies was just to get as much views of their ads as possible. Television spots and street posters were the most popular media because with those means of communication marketers could easily and quickly spread their message throughout the whole country. These were the days of glory for marketing agencies like the fictional Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in Madmen; these agencies could make big money with a poster and a catchy line directed to the general “frustrated housewives” category of consumers. The segmentation was mainly demografic: marketers based themselves on age, sex, income and such other general features... No need for me to tell you that their business model would never work today. It has become increasingly complex to segment a market in any sector. Also, the overload of marketing messages that consumers have been bombarded with over the last decades has made them much more insensible to any communication, so to reach them you really have to stand out. This is why it’s important to really know who you are targeting, so that you can give them something thats truly interesting.

Many users will have heard about the access apps can have to their devices, and if you install apps on an Android device, you'll immediately see what the app you're about to install can do. This leaves many users justifiably worried, especially as some of the stated permissions are quite opaque-sounding and very difficult to understand. Also, one and the same permission can be used to do different things in different apps.  Like any other native application, an app built with GoodBarber also requires a number of permissions in order to work properly and offer the best possible user experience. However, the list of permissions required might at first seem somewhat intimidating to you or your users. That's why today we'd like to take the time to explain what permissions a GoodBarber app requires, and the rationale behind every permission.

Ever since the launch of the new iPhone, we've been working to make sure that GoodBarber makes the most of Apple's new screen sizes. The changes we've made ensure the perfect display of all of your graphic elements, both on the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, but also on all other iOS devices.

As you are already familiar with, you can manage your Push Notifications directly within your GoodBarber backend. But what are some of the key options at hand you should especially pay attention to? Read on for some useful tips to improve your communication.

Today, let's discover a very powerful section recently added to GoodBarber. It is called Menu and it has only one purpose: to give you the power to create a multi-level navigation inside your app.

Stefano Mongardi, an expert of Online Marketing who is also passionate about tech and innovation, tells us everything you need to know to implement a successful e-commerce business and stand out from the competition. Nowdays we're all quite practical with online purchases. We simply land on a website, scroll through the products, decide the best one for us and order it. Seems easy huh? So now you think: "Wow! ecommerce is exploding, let's open an online store and start selling our products worldwide! It's a piece of cake!". Well, actually it's not. Today the competition is fierce and if you want to bring an added value you either have to work really hard or spend a LOT of money to let people know about your great new ecommerce business. You may even have the coolest products in the world, but just being online doesn't mean you will right away get tons of visits and conversions without doing anything.  Most of the times when an ecommerce platform is created, people invest most of their time and budget setting up a PPC campaign on Google, Facebook and maybe even Twitter. The result is: you spend a lot of money and get a lot of vistas but most people won't come back to your website again. Why? Because you offer products and not added value. Don’t forget that your competitors offer the same or similar products. Unless you are the only person in the world selling that specific product, you have to give people some added value to convince them to buy from you and not someone else.

You’ve most certainly heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise funds for the ALS that went viral this summer. You might have even participated! This brilliant initiative turned out to be a huge success and brought more than 100 million dollars to the ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) association. The concept of taking up a challenge and then nominating your friends has been quite trendy on the socials since a while, but the Ice Bucket Challenge went to whole new level, involving thousands and thousands of people around the globe and becoming the hottest social network topic of the summer of 2014. Everything started when Pete Frates, a former baseball player who was diagnosed with ALS two years ago, challenged a friend to donate $100 to the ALS association or film himself dumping ice cold water over his head. The idea was so simple and fun that it caught on like a wildfire. As this action spread, it changed somewhat because even though people were more than willing to donate, they didn’t want to miss out on the experience of pouring a bucket of ice on themselves, so they began to do both. Totally understandable!... ;)