Place yourself in that moment when you sit down at a nice restaurant, and have company to impress. Maybe you’re entertaining potential clients, maybe a potential spouse. When you are handed the wine menu -- do you know what to order? Some of us do. Yet many of us look for the few we recognize, ask if everyone is okay with that, and move on to a subject we can command with more authority. The days of this dance could be ending, thanks to a new mobile app called Wine Ring. Released to the consumer October 27th, 2015, the app tracks your specific likes and dislikes to develop a tailored-for-you flavor profile. It does so with astounding accuracy by using a sophisticated algorithm that was 6-years in the making. Where It Began On a 7-week solo tour in Argentina, senior banker of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan covering technology, real estate and retail, Pam Dillon had a revelation. Spending so much time observing the laid back culture of the Argentians and their love for wine, she came to notice how the locals were, “so much more at ease when they talked about wine. They didn’t have the insecurities we do.” She was determined to develop an app that would make those conversations even easier, to help people better understand their taste profiles and what they liked. Dillon began by enlisting a Chief Science Officer to write the algorithm. From there she sought out the brightest minds she could find in the wine world, recruiting five connoisseurs who held Masters of Wine, as well as five Master Sommeliers. It took the team 6-years after that 2009 Argentinian trip to make the dream a reality - and after all that time, it is now ready to develop your own wine palette. How it Works First, find the wine you are enjoying from a database of over 500,000 labels from 14,000 geographical locations. Then rate it. Choices are simply Love It, Like It, So-So, Don’t Like It. The app then gets to work as the algorithm tracks your answers and begins to piece together your profile. That’s it. Most wine apps muddle matters with talk of oakiness, fruitiness or whatever else, but with Wine Ring, the app keeps track of that for you. It’s like having your own Master Sommelier in your pocket. It knows what you enjoy drinking, so it’s the Somm’s/app’s job to keep track of these things -- not yours! Even better, as your profile develops, Wine Ring will be able to tell you if you’ll like a wine before ordering or bringing it home. Just search for the wine in the database. Then based on your previous answers, Wine Ring will be able to tell you the likelihood of your enjoying it or not. The more you use it, the more accurate the app can be. Which is to say, if there’s an app that’s fun to use, it’s an app that rewards you for wine enjoyment.

Barefoot Solutions is excited to announce the launch of a new iOS weight loss app called It’s A Cinch. It’s A Cinch was created by Jessica Talbi, a woman with a passion for fitness and health. Jessica has been an avid user of calorie counting apps, but as her fitness level began to change, she noticed her apps were not evolving with her. Based on her first-hand experience of that problem, Jessica created It's A Cinch to provide a more accurate way to teach users how to successfully count calories. Most importantly, Jessica aims to enable users to make healthy decisions by providing custom meals that fit individuals' specific calorie and dietary needs. Though the development  behind the app was rather complex, the app itself is very user friendly and easy to navigate. Not to mention, It’s A Cinch helps you with every aspect of losing weight from eating well to exercise and calorie counting. The app even adapts to your individual food preferences and weight loss goals. It's A Cinch is able to do all of this because it's a database-drive app, connected flawlessly to calorie, exercise, and food databases like FatSecret, which contains over 3,000,000 foods. The app allows you to then enter your meals and snacks, which the app converts into the amount of calories you've consumed. Add your physical activities for the day, and It's A Cinch provides your net calorie consumption for the day. The app includes a weight tracker, which shows if you're getting off track or really starting to make some progress. The app even allows you to store daily pictures, so you can see your before and after pictures and results in real time. This feature was important to include, as your weight on the scale says less about your health than the way you look in the mirror and the way your clothes fit. It's A Cinch always keeps your connected, allowing you to share your struggles and successes with other users through various social media platforms. This iOS app  even connects you to recipes, food suggestions, and healthy tips to keep you motivated and to make reaching your goals as simple as possible.          

File this one in your web marketing plan and set an alarm for this Friday. Facebook announced on its blog today that it will allow all of its members to select Vanity URLs for their profiles and fan pages starting this Friday, June 12, at 9:01 pm PDT. Vanity URLs are customized web addresses that have long been an integral part of most social media websites like MySpace and Twitter.  I've had http://www.linkedin.com/in/hunterjensen for years, but Facebook fan pages have always had a long string of random numbers instead of a URL based on your company's name, products, or services.  The opportunity to customize your company's Facebook fan page will be a great marketing opportunity for businesses because it will make it easier for current fans and potential customers to find your fan page and remember your web address. “When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you,” writes Blaise DiPersia in the Facebook blog. “We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future.” This will also have SEO implications as it will be possible to select keyword-rich URLs, which will help the pages rank higher. These fan pages are available to the public (you do not need to be logged in to view them), and indexable by search engines, so expect a mad dash for popular keywords like http://www.facebook.com/pages/sex or http://www.facebook.com/laser-eye-surgery. Customizing your company's Facebook web address will not only increase your searchability but will also give you another opportunity to highlight your company's online brand and image, so be careful in your selection.  Facebook's fine print for this selection recommends, "Think carefully about the user name you choose. Once it's been selected, you won't be able to change or transfer (your vanity url.)" Your company will be able to choose a username on a first-come, first-serve basis at www.facebook.com/username/. The turnout for this vanity URL is expected to be high.  If you're happy with your trademarked brand name, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. But if you're looking for something a little more strategic, be prepared to wait in the digital version of the line outside of a Star Wars premiere.