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Gmail Priority Inbox is Google’s answer to fix Email Overload. Is your Gmail inbox cluttered with useless emails while important emails are missed in the email flood? You need this…

Google has a new evolved Gmail filter to that help users separate bologna / bacn from your important emails. Priority Inbox is like your personal assistant, helping you focus on the messages that matter without requiring you to set up complex rules.

So what is bacn? A new term I learnt today which means email which has been subscribed to and is therefore not unsolicited, but is often not read by the recipient for a long period of time, if at all. Bacn has been described as “email you want but not right now”. And this is what Gmail Priority Inbox will separate, besides the spam.

Gmail Priority Inbox is rolling out over the week to all Gmail accounts and will feature -

Automatic sorting – Gmail uses a variety of signals to identify important email, including which messages you open and which you reply to.

Sections keep you organized – Incoming email gets separated into sections: important and unread, starred, and everything else. Don’t like these? Customize them.

Predictions improve over time – Over time, Priority Inbox gets better at predicting what’s important to you. You can help train it using the train buttons.

I am sure we will all love this new feature. Thanks Gmail…

Whether you’re a national name or local start-up, it’s important to keep your brand on the tips of consumer’s tongues–or at least on the tip of their cursor. Reinforcing your name and your product is relevant in every stage of the business cycle, and a cornerstone of smart internet marketing. After all, brand recognition drives web sales. If your business offers e-commerce, know that smart internet marketing is a way drive revenue quickly and cost-effectively. Twitter trends are an overwhelming flux of seemingly irrelevant buzzwords.

Here’s a smattering of today’s top Twitter trends:

It may be hard to believe these words are worth repeating, but this chatter could mean traffic for your website and business. How do you run with the word-flow without getting lost in a deluge of diatribe?

Five pointers for smart internet marketing with Twitter trends:

1. Ride The Right Trends – Not every high-flying topic is going to be brand-supportive, so choose trends wisely. Know what your bottom line is, and make sure your chosen keyword won’t detract from your brand equity.

2. Timing Is Everything – Just as today is a chance to introduce your business through exciting, new trend associations, yesterday’s buzz is just that–in the past. It’s best to stick to the day’s trends to attract as many eyes as possible.

3. Be Creative – Engage the banter around trending topics through clever promotional copy. If you own a cleaning company and wanted to catch today’s #nowplaying trend, think about unique plugs and points of reference for your brand. A client’s home entertainment center, perhaps. You could run with this: ‘ #nowplaying in your living room: Clean, Calm, Collected.’ Just remember to link to your service.

4. Pace Yourself – Piggy-back on Twitter trends strategically. Don’t abandon straight-forward promotional tweets as part of your marketing mix just yet. You should still routinely communicate who you are and what you offer to your core market in plain Twenglish. Use trending creatively to boost short-term sales through web-exclusive incentives, or to remind consumers of recently-launched products.

5. Invent The Wheel (Or Word) If You Must – Don’t see enough opportunities to creatively spread the word? Take initiate to get new keywords trending by tagging a concept, category, or catchphrase. Who knows? Maybe you’ll start tomorrow’s top trend–and drive brand awareness through smart internet marketing while you’re at it. Don’t miss an opportunity to promote your brand and your product with personality. Don’t be afraid of using humor (carefully!) when there’s an opportunity to shine. Twitter’s snappy stream of top trends is a high-low stream of abridged messages–the perfect platform to stand out with short, sweet and smart internet marketing. Spread your message by turning your Tweets into a conversation. Make your 140 characters worth a thousand words by knowing which trends work for you, seizing its moment, starting a conversation–and most importantly, using it when it’ll help you most.

Now you can use Gmail for free phone calls to US and Canada. Earlier you could use the Gmail voice and video chat feature but that required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Now you can call any phone right from Gmail!
Then…

and now…

Gmail Phone Call Rates

Google promises calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at very low call rates, when compared to local operators —for as little as $0.02 per minute.

Get started with Gmail Phone Calls

The feature is rolling out to U.S. based Gmail users over the next few days. When active, you will see the “Call Phone” link in Gmail Chat. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name. Remember you need to install the voice and video plug-in to get this to work.

Do you know that you can receive phone calls and post voicemails right on your blog. GrandCentral, a Google service, will let you add these communication options on your blog for free!

Blogger Buzz says that though GrandCentral is currently in a private beta test, bloggers can skip the wait and get a free account immediately. GrandCentral is an innovative service that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the web. Last year Google acquired GrandCentral Communications.

Add GrandCentral?s WebCall button to your blog, and your readers can easily call your phone or leave voicemails without ever seeing your telephone number. You can screen calls, either accepting them or sending them to voicemail, and you can even block unwanted callers altogether.

At this time, it is only available from within the US and maybe opened up to additional countries in the future. I tried the exclusive Blogger invite, but it doesn’t work from India. However, its a great way for US residents to get entry into GrandCentral and use its revolutionary communication features.

If I were a millionaire, I will surely invest in gold bullion, which is a good hedge against inflation compared to currencies. But, alas, I am no millionaire nor million hair. Just a normal working executive working in her home office for a sports surfacing company while moonlighting in writing articles and blogging. My goal is to save up enough money for retirement later on so that I will enjoy my golden years and not woeful years in life begging for money. As an aside, it was published in the newspapers recently that beggars in Malaysia make about RM1,000 – RM10,000 per month from the generosity of the Malaysians. They collude with syndicates here who brought them in from China with the promise of a job, but instead forced to beg on the streets. And after realizing how easy it was to get money from begging, they want to continue to do so.

Allianz has gone overweight Chinese property stocks, betting that higher sales volumes even at lower prices will boost profits at real estate companies.

China’s real estate market has cooled in recent months under the weight of a package of government policies to rein in soaring prices, though latest figures show that prices have yet to fall significantly.

Curbs on mortgage lending and bank loans to developers, along with other steps to cool China’s economy, have weighed on local stocks this year, while the Chinese property sub-index is down 23 per cent in 2010.

But Guido Stiel, who helps to manage ?3.5 billion (?1 = RM3.96) in emerging equities at Allianz, said he had initiated a position in the past month with China Overseas Land, the largest listed developer by market value.

His other picks are Shimao Property and Guangzhou .

“Analysts are focusing on the net asset value (NAV) and wanting to revise it down … but the market has not reacted and didn’t fall so we think it is reaching the bottom,” Stiel said.

In the case of property firms, NAV reflects the market value of real estate properties held by the firm.

“The other point is that at the end of August, early September, there will be lots of new supply which should give developers the opportunity to bring down prices. It will be a volume game from now but they will make money on new sales.”

“These companies are beta plays and their balance sheets are not so strong but if the volume game kicks in they will outperform,” Stiel added.

Recent years’ price surge has made buying a home out of reach for ordinary Chinese, so despite the clampdown on property speculation, the government also plans to build 5.8 million housing units for poorer citizens this year.

Analysts see this programme, estimated at up to 400 billion yuan, as a potential lifeline to developers.

Stiel said cooling the economy and markets is positive for China and ultimately for developers as well.

“That’s why we remain positive,” he said, adding that curbs on home loans would not be crippling as only 20 per cent of Chinese housebuyers rely heavily on mortgage borrowing.

Companies too are optimistic. Hong Kong-listed China Overseas for instance reported a 67 per cent jump in net income for the first half of 2010 and said it was confident of 20 per cent net income growth this year.

Liu Wei, despite his disability, is able to play a beautiful rendition on the piano with his toes. He lost his arms in an accident and the whole world turned upside down for him. But with his mother’s encouragement, he pick up and learnt to play the piano with his toes to give the audience beautiful music. Watch this Youtube video of Liu Wei and be thankful for the little blessings that come along your way.

Rich people like my uncle in Singapore will probably choose gold bullion as an investment. But for less wealthy people like me, will probably choose a gold ring or bracelet. Some small items of gold that I can keep away safely at home without going to the bank. I have other forms of investment like my government bonds or also known as treasury bills with interests or coupons to collect every month and my fixed deposits. These are my small investments for my retirement. As I don’t have children, I need to work hard and save more for my golden years ahead as I cannot depend on kids to support me. Now my parents are lucky because they have the 3 of us siblings to contribute RM600 each every month for the household expenses. Hence they are able to watch Astro and eat out every night plus buy food back for lunch every day.

I guess this is common practise in Asian countries where children will have to contribute financially to the retired parents in their old age. Anyway, gold will appreciate in value in due time and I hope to make more investments in gold through my Public Bank Gold Savings Account which I can only withdraw 1 year later.

KUALA LUMPUR: Axis Real Estate Investment Trust (Axis-REIT) has proposed to acquire the Tesco JB hypermarket complex for a total lump-sum cash consideration of RM75.6mil from Bukit Indah (Johor) Sdn Bhd.

The latest acquisition would increase the assets under management to over RM1.2bil, Axis-REIT said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

Axis-REIT trustee, OSK Trustees Bhd, has entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Bukit Indah Johor for the proposed acquisition.

The proposed acquisition will be funded with existing bank borrowings of Axis-REIT. Axis REIT Managers Bhd, the management company of Axis REIT, intends to utilise a debt facility of RM75.6mil from Axis-REIT’s existing credit lines.

The proposed debt financing will increase Axis-REIT’s gearing ratio to 39% of audited total assets as at Dec 31, 2009, which is below the gearing limit of 50% prescribed by the REIT guidelines.

Axis REIT Managers expects the proposed acquisition to contribute positively to the fund’s earnings for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2010.

The proposed acquisition is expected to be completed on or before Oct 31.

The Tesco JB hypermarket complex is located within the main commercial precinct of Setia EcoCity in Taman Bukit Indah, a comprehensive mixed development project.

SUBANG: IJM Land Bhd expects to launch new properties with a total gross development value (GDV) of RM1bil to RM1.2bil in the financial year ending March 31 (FY11), said chief executive officer and managing director Datuk Soam Heng Choon.

“With the outlook of the property market looking more positive this year, we expect to launch a list of new properties during this financial year. Since April, we have already launched properties with a GDV of RM500mil.

“Next month, we expect to launch new residential properties with a combined GDV of RM120mil in Sandakan, the Klang Valley and Johor Baru,” he told reporters yesterday after the group’s AGM and EGM.

On the decision not to declare a final dividend to shareholders for FY10 and the payment of only a single-tier dividend of 2% on Aug 18, Soam said the group needed to continue propelling its property projects after chalking higher sales of RM1.6bil during that financial period.

“However, we will do our best to pay dividends although the group does not have the policy on that matter,” he said.

With the property market expected to be quite robust this year and banks still providing competitive interest rates, Soam believes the group’s property sales would continue to be as strong as seen in its first-quarter results, which are scheduled to be announced today.

On a possible hike in the real property gains tax (RPGT) to curb increasing speculative buying, Soam said whatever the decision, the Government needed to be firm on its policy.

“The Government needs to stand firm on its policy or else it would give a bad impression especially to investors,” he said.

Recently there has been speculation that the Government might impose an additional 5% for RPGT, thus decreasing the returns on property sales within the five-year period as it would be subjected to the higher exit gain tax.