YouTube Go launches in Nigeria

YouTube has announced that the YouTube Go app previewed at the recent Google for Nigeria event is now available for initial public download in Nigeria.

YouTube has been reimagined to meet the needs of the next generation of users in YouTube Go, which is available for initial download in the Google Play Store. YouTube plans to continue to learn from our users to improve the app over time.

Speaking on the announcement, Johanna Wright, VP Product Management at YouTube, said: “YouTube Go has been designed to take into account the challenges faced by YouTube users in countries like Nigeria, such as data cost and connectivity. With YouTube Go, we are making it possible for everyone in Nigeria to be able to discover videos that they love, regardless of their network status or data consumption preferences.”

With more Nigerians coming online every year, and most of them only using their mobiles for internet access, we are working hard to make products that are tailored to Nigerians’ specific needs.

“You can save videos for offline watching, and can choose what resolution video to save - basic quality or standard quality - giving you better control over how you use your precious data.”, he added.

Built from the ground up to meet the needs of the growing online youth population, YouTube Go offers easy video downloading, phone-number sign-in, effortless searching, and more effective ways to control data use. YouTube Go also features a home screen that shows both personalized recommendations as well as trending and popular videos nearby, allowing users to see the latest content that the people around are watching, upfront. It offers a ‘preview video’ function to make it easier to decide what to watch or download.

Before developing YouTube Go, the YouTube team spent thousands of hours gathering information, conducting interviews, doing testing, and refining the product. The result is YouTube Go, an entirely new YouTube app that is designed to be offline first.

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WhyNoPadLock.com Lets You Check Why No Padlock In Addess Bar

If you've switched your site from http to https using premium ssl certificate or a free one e.g letsencrypt and no padlock icon is displaying next to your website address in web browsers address bar, it simply means some items on your site are insecure. Those insecure elements must be secured before the https security lock can display next to your site url in web browsers.

So, How Do I Know The Insecure Items?

Rather than spending hours racking your brain and checking over every link on your site manually, there are some online tools that can get this done for you with a click of a button - and one of such tools is WhyNoPadLock.com

The free ssl page checker simply scan your website for non-secure content and list the items that are secured and the ones that need to be secured. It’s a great tool for any ecommerce merchant or website owner to have in their arsenal for making sure their https secure pages are actually secure. The ssl mixed content checker also tells you the expiry date of your website ssl certificate.

The tool is so easy to use.

All you have to do is paste or type the full secure URL into the text box at whynopadlock.com. It’s that easy.

As long as your secure page does not require a username or password, or for you to be signed-in to reach it, the script can fully test the page and you will get a report about :

• Insecure calls to images,css, and javascript
• Images called insecurely from linked css and js files
• Expired cert, invalid or missing intermediate certificate (including 3rd party SSL certs.)
• SHA-1 algorithm test, POODLE test, insecure form calls for Chrome.

So give www.WhyNoPadlock.com a try, and find out if your secure pages have any issues.

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What To Expect When You Buy The New Gionee A1 lite Smart Phone

If you have a thing for selfie phones or smartphones with big batteries then you must have heard of Gionee A1 Lite.

The Gionee A1 Lite is aimed at selfie lovers and features a 20MP front facing camera, you also get a 4000mAH battery on the device. When the device launched, the question on everyone’s mind was, is the camera worth the hype? Is it worth the price?

According to Gionee, the USP of the A1 Lite is the 20MP front facing camera. Which a lot of users have praised. One user said images look good under poor lighting.

We also found a user online who claims to have used both the A1 and the A1 lite. He believes both devices have the same setup, but the image quality on the A1 lite is lower. Another user commented on how he loves taking pictures with his family members, while another said it was the best phone he ever owned.

Another user talked about how the camera captures a decent amount of details. A lot of female users are very happy with the A1 lite, they say the A1 lite takes beautiful images and their selfies have lesser blemishes and a smoother skin tone.

There were no complaints with the design of the device. Critics believe the Gionee A1 Lite is ergonomic and feels well built. We are not a big fan of the design of the A1 lite, we feel it is not as pretty as the A1.

No complaints with the battery, users say the 4000mAH battery lasts long. Position of the fingerprint scanner, power button and volume rocker is just right and all three work quite well. Users are not too happy about the 720p display, a lot of users see it as a let-down. A lot of mixed feeling around the performance of the A1 lite, some users believe Gionee could have done better, while others believe a 3GB RAM does the work perfectly.

For the most part, the Gionee A1 lite is a slam dunk. It’s brilliantly designed, budget friendly, has an excellent camera and has a huge battery that lasts. Long story short, if you’re looking for a new phone, this should be at the top of your list.

If you have the Gionee A1 lite Smart phone, share your experience with us in the comments. If you haven’t experienced it, visit http://ift.tt/2fXBQYN

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Garanntor Acquires Bytes Web Hosting Company

Garanntor Hosting, the fastest growing web hosting company in West Africa, has announced the acquisition of Bytes Hosting, a division of Bytes & Data Systems, with effect from 1st September 2017.

Garanntor has acquired over 550 active hosting accounts and 700 domain names from Byte Hosting. This acquisition would boost Garanntor’s domain and hosting portfolio to over 3000 Shared Hosting accounts and over 4000 domain names in less than a year of commencing operations.

Following the transaction, the acquisition would expose Bytes Hosting customers to a wider range of products at lower prices, more flexible plan and superior 24/7 support from an experienced team by phone, email or chat. To ensure a seamless and hassle-free transition, Garanntor Hosting has created a specialized migration team to work directly with customers as their scheduled migrations and upgrades occur.

David Nkpoku, founder and CEO of Bytes Hosting said concerning the sale of his company. “We needed to find best home for our clients who have trusted us with their business for years, we shopped around for a couple of months for the best hosting company that had the expertise and could provide better support and services to our clients and I must honestly say that Garanntor came out tops with a very wide margin. I must say I was impressed as soon as I walked into their offices and saw their structure and world-class operations, I knew Garanntor was it.”

‘Garanntor Nigeria, was also named the winner in the Best Local Hosting Company category; at the NIRA 2017 .NG awards which also affirmed my position.’’

“My primary focus for Bytes & Data Systems from now will be in pursuing more exciting opportunities in mobile and web development.”Nkpoku says.

According to Garanntor CEO Olalekan Ajayi, “Garanntor Nigeria is geared towards the local internet growth and contribution to the Nigerian economy”. The CEO is a strong believer of ‘’the need for homegrown hosting services of international standards’’ with unmatched support and the need for it to be offered at affordable prices.

"One of our growth strategies is via acquisitions. This is just one of many more acquisitions which would put us within the top 3 in a very short period. We want our newest customers to know that we are willing to go above and beyond to help their business succeed online. We look forward to creating an exceptional business partnership and would like to welcome each Byte Hosting customer to the Garanntor family.” Ajayi says.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

About Garanntor Hosting

Founded in 2016, Garanntor Nigeria offers affordable, fast, premium local data hosting services which include but not limited to – domain names, virtual private servers, cloud servers, web hosting, web security, cloud solutions, content delivery network, application hosting, cloud storage, disaster recovery and colocation.

To learn more about the company, visit http://ift.tt/2fQVkKh

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Our Chatbot and Facebook Ads Training Holds Today At Allen, Ikeja Lagos Nigeria

Myself and my friend, Adesanya Sunday will today (Sept 9,, 2017), host a practical class for 30 people at Allen avenue, Ikeja Lagos strictly on chatbot marketing and Facebook advertising. The training will take place at Tech24 conference room at Nikky Africana Plaza, Allen avenue, Ikeja, Lagos. It will start by 9am.

At the training, I will explain how to create chatbot for blogs, similar to Ogbongeblog chatbot which will allow users to subscribe for blog updates to be delivered to their Facebook inbox automatically.
They can unsubscribe and even read latest blog updates via Facebook Messenger if they choose not to subscribe. As the admin of the chatbot, you will be able to send instant or scheduled broadcasts to the Facebook inbox of anyone that interacts with your blog's chatbot.

More so, I will explain how to automatically reply anyone that comments on any post or specific posts on your Facebook page by sending instant messages to their inbox, which might include lead magnets, links to your site or offers etc. I will also explain how to set up keywords your chatbot users can use to trigger free downloads (pdf, ebooks, videos) etc.

You will learn how to use your chatbot to collect emails, phone numbers of Facebook users and autosync the detais with autoresponder i.e integrate with email marketing platforms like Mailerlite - using an alternative to zapier.

In addition,

• You will learn how to use your chatbot to collect emails, phone numbers of Facebook users and autosync the detais with autoresponder i.e integrate with email marketing platforms like Mailerlite - using an alternative to zapier.
• You will discover the tool you can use to autosync your Facebook leads ads with email marketing platforms like Mailerlite. No monthly subscriptions!
• You will learn how to use Facebook ads to grow your Chatbot users list 
• You will learn how to filter your chatbot users - and send broadcast messages to the speicific groups e.g seperate those that download your fiverr ebook from those that download your web design ebook.
• You will learn how to link any chatbot block to Facebook Messenger destination ad instead of using default Facebook messages. 
• You will learn how to create a json file for your chatbot and host it on your server or free host. 
• You will learn how to send ebook pdf, video, audio downloads to inbox of thousands of facebook users without them leaving facebook to download.

As bonus, you will learn how to create responsive landing pages (one-page website) for your products or chatbot with "Send to Messenger" CTA button. You will learn how to add a blog section to the landing page.

My friend, Adesanya Abiodun will share advanced Facebook ad tricks and tools.

He will explain how to open ten(10) different ads accounts using one Facebook Profile and 1 Atm Card of your Choice. If your products are Men's Health-related products, you will learn tricks you can use to place adverts on Facebook that will make your Facebook ad account to be safe from banning.

He is gping to share software he uses to create targeted custom audiences which lets him reach 1m+ Nigerians on Facebook at very cheap price. In short, he will show you everything you need to know about creating perfect FB ads without losing your money or your account.

See you there, if you've reserved your seat before now!

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Ogbongeblog Chatbot Is Live! Latest Updates Can Now Be Delivered To Your Facebook Inbox

I've set up a Facebook Messenger chatbot for Ogbongeblog.

You can try it at m.me/ogbongeblog

The chatbot will enable you read latest updates from Ogbongeblog in Messenger by just sending "latest posts" or "latest updates" as a message to the bot.

Besides that, you will be able to subscribe to latest updates so you won't miss out from any blog post I publish on the blog. If you subscribe, latest posts will be delivered to your Facebook inbox automatically. You can un-subscribe anytime you want!

In addition, users of the blog chatbot will be receiving notifications of offers, freebies (free ebooks, vouchers, gift cards) etc right in their Facebook inbox and will also be able to access featured posts, categories etc via the chatbot menu. I will be integrating more features to the bot in the long run.

You can try it at m.me/ogbongeblog

If you need it for your blog, you can contact me. NOT free though.

If you want to learn how it works and how to set it up, attend my training coming up this saturday in Lagos.

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How I Renew Letsencrypt SSL Certificate

If you are using the free Letsencrypt ssl certificate for your site, I expect you to be aware that it expires every 90 days. While some web hosting companies autorenew letsencrypt for you, some don't. If your web hosting company doesn't auto renew it for you, you can renew it manually by yourself.

The free Letsencrypt ssl certificate which I generated from sslforfree.com and installed on one of my WordPress sites hosted on Namecheap expired yesterday and I've been able to renew it successfully.

I renewed it manually because as at the time of publishing this post, Namecheap doesn't offer one-click installation of letsencrypt ssl certificate via cPanel.

Here are the steps :

• Generate new free ssl certificate for the site at sslforfree.com
• Uninstall and delete the expired letsencrypt certificate from cPanel (Security > ssl/tls > Manage SSL Sites)
• Install the new ssl certificate in cPanel as explained here.

That's all.

I deleted the old ssl certificate from sslforfree.com to stop further notifications for the certificate.

About Letsencrypt Certificate

Let’s Encrypt  is a project of non-profit Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) whose aim is to offer digital certificates which can be used to enable https (ssl/tls) on websites for free including support for the ACME DNS challenge, ECDSA signing, IPv6, and Internationalized Domain Names.

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