So as every developer and web site owner knows, things take a bit of time, especially when you’re working with a lot of different APIs from different companies/vendors, especially when there is never two APIs that are exactly the same.   So what Barry and our developers have been working on is the different integration of all types of platforms because when we launch this beast we want to make sure it is not just another “platform” or “dashboard” that has already been created.  We want to deliver something very unique, affordable and impressive. We are building something that will give agencies of all sizes, from 10 clients to 10,000 clients, a dashboard (even white labeled) that their clients will be able to log into easily and intuitively use.

“So when can I see it?”, is a question I get almost 15 times a week and believe me, I want to show it to everyone, but we hate to show a product which is not completely ready for launch.  So until this product is perfect, it’s going to stay in development, but there is a chance for you to get a live early sneak preview …

I will be at SES in New York City next week on Tuesday only.  So if you are interested in meeting up and checking out a demo of our Local Platform and Enterprise Dashboard email me directly at michael@knowem.com and I will get you scheduled in.  I am going to be in NYC from 10:00 AM and giving demos only until 6 PM or when the bridge bar opens, whatever happens first.

We feel this package offers great value at a more introductory level price for individuals and SMBs interested in getting involved with just the most essential and popular social networks.  The new package is a complete one-button turnkey solution for not only reserving your name, but also completing all the profile information, images and links required to create a full presence on the top 25 social media sites.

KnowEm has identified this list of 25 essential social networks via several different metrics — page rank, compete score, alexa traffic rankings and media mentions.  All profile creation orders are still completed 100% manually by our U.S.-based in-house staff, so just like all our other plans you can rest assured your data and information is safe with us.

So from the small business owner just getting their feet wet in social media to the new parent that wants to be sure their child’s name is reserved and waiting for them when they want to start tweeting, we have the package for you.

In addition, KnowEm is currently working with a few other companies to develop custom packages for their client base.  Keep your eye out for these other new packages launching within the next few weeks!

And yes, it’s entirely free.

Back in May of this year we launched our graphical USPTO Trademark and Registration service on our site, knowem.com. We found it was so popular we thought we would break another technology barrier by releasing the first ever mobile app for trademark searching and registration. The app searches millions of records in the entire USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) database almost instantaneously.

Keep watching for more mobile apps we plan to launch in the near future as we continue to expand our service offierings to make it easier for brands and companies to secure their trademark and product names.

You can easily download the KnowEm USPTO Trademark Search app for free in the Google Android Market. (Requirements: Android 2.1+)

Recently a new site launched called gplus.to – this site has no affiliation with Google, no privacy policy, and basically no information about who owns it or how it uses your information. It is basically a URL shortener to provide vanity URLs for Google+ accounts. The problem is there is absolutely no verification in place. You can take anyone’s Google+ ID number, enter it in the box, and create a unique vanity URL for any name you choose – whether or not you have access to that Google+ account. This allows a huge potential for spammers to engage in Social Media Identity Theft.

There is an opportunity here for these site owners to start engaging in massive data mining because they offer no terms of service or privacy policy. So in addition to allowing anyone to capture anyone else’s vanity URL, they are also capturing everyone’s information for their own purposes. They can also redirect your URL wherever they want before sending you to your profile – Malware, tracking exploits, botnets, etc. You should be EXTREMELY cautious about using this service.

JULY 6 UPDATE: Someone associated with the site from Turkey got in touch with us and updated their site to include a simple About message which explains they are not trying to do anything malicious, and they are not affiliated with Google.  They also changed the appearance to make it look less like an actual Google page.  Wasn’t so hard, was it?

Attempting to navigate the USPTO trademark registration process is a headache – anyone who’s ever tried it will tell who how much time and effort it takes.  Even searching the USPTO government website for a mark can be difficult – so we wanted to make both processes easier for the brand owner.  Our trademark search is uniquely simple – just enter a brand name, and we’ll show you if it’s available for registration or if someone has already trademarked it.  If it is available, for only $158 (plus the standard $325 USPTO Filing Fee) our partner TMarque will put their professional attorneys to work for you, saving you hours of time and effort wrangling with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office).

With the addition of our Trademark search and registration, KnowEm now offers a complete suite of branding tools – including our Domain name search and registration service along with our original Social Media username search and registration service.  So if you have a brand you want to secure and keep consistent on the web, all you have to do is visit KnowEm.com.  We’ll secure your brand name on up to 300 Social Media sites, any Domain extensions you want (over 150 to choose from), and now we’ll even trademark your brand for you.  We think that’s pretty easy, but if we can make it any easier for you, just let us know — we’re still listening!

Sarah (@PRSarahEvans), a longtime friend and supporter of KnowEm, is everything from a PR entrepreneur to one of America’s “Tweethearts,” but it’s her personal mission to engage and employ the use of emerging technologies in all communication that connects her with a rapidly growing base of more than 60,000 people.

Sarah created and moderates #Journchat, the first-ever weekly live tweetchat for public relations professionals, journalists and bloggers. She runs her own blog at PRsarahevans.com and shares a daily resource for public relations professionals called Commentz.

In recognition of Evans’ role on the advisory board, here are five tips from Evans and KnowEm to keep your identity safe on social media:

1. Avoid malicious links – Be careful when clicking on links, particularly if receiving a direct message (DM) with a link – even if it’s from a trusted source.

“Of the shortened URLs leading to malicious websites that Symantec observed on social networking sites over the three-month period in 2010, 73 percent were clicked 11 times or more, with 33 percent receiving between 11 and 50 clicks. Only 12 percent of the links were never clicked,” according to the Symantec study.

2. Monitor third-party app access – Check in Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts for third-party apps that you may or may not have granted access to your accounts. If you don’t trust or recognize the connection, revoke the apps access.

3. Strengthen your passwords – To help prevent cyber attacks and phishing scams, make sure your password is at least six characters long and contains a series of numbers, letters and punctuation marks if possible. Facebook advises not to use words found in the dictionary and select a password that’s different from any other password you select on the Internet.

4. If your Twitter account is hacked – If you notice unexpected tweets or DMs sent from your account or receive an email that you recently changed your email address associated with the account without taking any action, most likely, you have been hacked. If this happens, log out of the account, clear your browser cache and your browsing history. Once done, open a new browser window, log in and change your password and revoke access to any unrecognized third-party apps.

5. If your Facebook account is hacked – If status updates or comments appear on your account that you didn’t write, you might have been hacked. Reset your password (if able to access your Facebook login, hit “forgot your password” link to switch). After, clear your browser cache, delete your Internet history and monitor your access to third-party apps on Facebook.

Please help us in welcoming Sarah to the KnowEm family!

KnowEm was originally born from an off shoot of our site CheckUsernames.com which launched in February of 2009 after the original concept site by Jon Sykes was taken down. I was at IM Springbreak in Florida when I began to speak about the service of KnowEm and what we planned to do with a few other marketers.  One of the first people I spoke to was Brian Chappell (@BrianChappell).  When I told him what we were debating to do with username signups he thought it was a great idea, as did everyone else I spoke with.  We started development right away.

Partnerships and New Features

I have always believed that products need to evolve and adapt to keep fresh, new and useful. With that in mind it’s with great pleasure I announce a new feature that we are launching today:  Domain searching on over 200 tlds and gtlds, thanks to our new partnership with United Domains.  Now with one simple search you can look at over 200 domain names and social media usernames, all from one interface.

Where to Next?

Our company is at a bit of a turning point.  We have two more products on the burner for launch and are looking forward to releasing them to the public shortly. To give you an idea, we have always received the same request over and over again, “Now that I have all these social sites, how can I update them all?”  We are working on a dashboard solution to solve this problem, as well as a first-of-its-kind dashboard for businesses or agencies with small business clients to manage their local search information, social media presence and reputation from one centralized place.   As always both of these platforms will be available for white label.

Often Imitated Never Duplicated

We are still proud to be considered the number one trusted source for helping individuals, brands and companies secure their username across the ever growing social media landscape. We are still the only company that uses our own in-house on-shore staff to do this. Security and quality has always been our main focus.

On behalf of Myself, Barry, Richard, James and everyone else – thanks for a great 2 years and here is to exciting times ahead!

According to Microsoft’s new statement, they are only ceasing investigations to the U.S. and Canada on PPC trademark buying, but obviously they could expand their list of regions in the future also.

So what does Microsoft suggest you do if someone is buying your trademarked term, misrepresenting your brand, and stealing your customers?  According to their new Intellectual Property Guidelines, “If there is concern that an advertiser may be using a trademark keyword inappropriately, the trademark owner should contact the advertiser directly.”  So now the onus is on trademark owners to spend the time, effort, money and litigation to exert the government-granted right they paid for to protect a trademark.  This is basically the same stance Google has been taking for a while now.

Of course, one can readily see why both Microsoft and Google don’t want to be the gatekeepers on PPC trademark rights – they want more advertising money.  By opening the flood gates to allow illegal trademark purchasing, they can get a lot more competitors buying click terms.  Pepsi can buy Coca Cola, and Ford can buy Nissan.  It’s up to the trademark owners to battle it out in court.

If you’re a trademark attorney representing a major brand, you will now have to be ever more vigilant in policing the web for cases of trademark infringement.   And if you’re an SMB out there trying to create a brand and protect a trademark on the search engines?  It’s the wild west out there now, and anything goes unless you have the money to take every competitive PPC buyer to court.

List of New Top-Level Domain Extensions (check for availability):

NET.BZ
NET.BR
COM.MX
ORG.AG
COM.BZ

COM.ES
NOM.ES
ORG.ES

FIRM.IN
IND.IN
ORG.IN
NET.NZ
ORG.TW
CO.IN
GEN.IN
NET.IN
CO.NZ
ORG.NZ
COM.TW
IDV.TW

Of course, we also still search over 400 social media networks to find the availability (or usage) of your trademark, brand, or personal username. And we still offer our unique Automated Username Signup packages, with which our local staff can secure your brand on up to 300 social networks.  (Every member of KnowEm’s signup staff is under strict NDA and has had criminal background checks to ensure your sensitive information is always protected).

KnowEm, the company working to help brands manage their identity across the social web, announced the public launch of a new Enterprise Dashboard designed to help brands protect their trademarks and intellectual property in the ever-changing social media landscape.

The dashboard gives social media and IP legal teams a centralized location to monitor and manage their social media identities. With just a few clicks a marketing manager or lawyer can see exactly where a certain trademark or name is secured, and where it’s still unclaimed and vulnerable. KnowEm takes the process a step farther by automatically securing names, even creating profiles, wherever needed.

KnowEm’s database contains over 5,000 social networks around the world  — from Mexico Diario to the Netherlands’ Hyves — and is growing on a daily basis as new social sites emerge. As a result, businesses can be sure their trademarked terms are reserved and protected in global sites today and tomorrow.

The enterprise dashboard was previously available in a limited invitation-only beta, during which time KnowEm collaborated with key clients, including Continental Airlines, Yahoo, and Flickr. For example, Continental has been using the dashboard to protect their brand trademarks and reserve their profiles on emerging social networks.

“While Twitter and Facebook are obvious places to check your brand identity, globally much of the social web is unchartered territory. It’s critical that we control our trademarked terms and brand identities throughout each network,” said Lora O’Riordan, Social Media Manager at Continental Airlines. “KnowEm’s service has become an important part of our social media strategy, ensuring we protect our property and opening our eyes to new opportunities for consumer engagement.”

In addition, the new dashboard enables brands to stay on top of the buzz surrounding their brand and industry on the social web. KnowEm’s brand alert monitoring system tracks each mention of a brand name, username, or keyword across 5,000+ social networks. The service breaks down the data into meaningful charts, such as social mentions by network, author, or geographic location, and reports can be emailed on a weekly, daily, or almost hourly basis. As a result, businesses can better understand who’s talking about their brand, where, and when.

To date the KnowEm team has helped to reserve over 500,000 profiles and reported back to clients on over 60,000 issues of squatting and misrepresentation of a brand, username or trademarked term.