Games of nonchalance : trailer. The Full-On Assault On Cable Is Underway. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon — when you hear these names, you usually think about how these tech giants all compete with one another. But what if they all teamed up for one cause? They’d be unstoppable, right? We’re about to find out. All of these companies are currently sitting in the same boat about to storm the beaches. Let me start by saying that of course the cable companies aren’t about to go away. And in that regard, the cable companies have positioned themselves fairly well because many of them are among the largest ISPs in the country now. Just take a look at the big picture. On Wednesday, at an event in San Francisco, Apple is widely expected to debut their next iteration of the Apple TV — which will likely now be called the “iTV”.
But it doesn’t really matter if one of these individual things doesn’t hit it big (and certainly the current Apple TV hasn’t). And they absolutely should be focused on that space. And with cable, it’s going to happen too. Microsoft’s New Street Slide Mapping View If there is even just a little bit of nerd in you, you’re going to love this. Microsoft’s research team is working on a street mapping view called “Street Slide” and by the looks of it, will eventually provide you a whole new experience and some serious visual perspective in comparison to the way you currently navigate through Street View on Google or Bing.
Microsoft Street Slide basically allows you to pull back out of the 360 degree street view and into a multi perspective strip view, generating a seemingly instant visual snapshot or summary of that entire street, meaning you will be able to find what you are looking for much faster because you can see the street view of an entire street in a single strip instead of needing to jump from bubble to bubble in it’s current form. When this finally goes live (and it might be a while!) Be Sociable, Share! Digital Graffiti – The SMS Slingshot Hell Pizza: YouTube Adventure Pizza Film?! Right. So a pizza company creates a crazy YouTube choose your own adventure film as a lead gen tool and sales driver?
I love it. Hell Pizza, a little New Zealand Pizza startup that has rapidly grown to about 100 stores (in multiple countries) have just launched a very cool campaign with YouTube’s Annotations feature allowing them to create a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style promotion that’s making some serious impact since launching a few days ago. Called “Deliver Me To Hell” the campaign is essentially a 15 minute film, broken down into 3 minute chunks as you choose your own adventure through this hilarious and somewhat ridiculously stupid video, and by stupid, I mean I can’t stop watching it! The campaign is taking off in a big way over in NZ with over 110,000 views in the first 4 days, that’s huge for a series of 3 minute videos.
Be Sociable, Share! Intelligence - Heather Dougherty - North America. About Hitwise Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs. Analyst Weblog « Customer Acquisition Strategies in Insurance | Tracking Hurricane Earl online » August 27, 2010 Over the past year, group buying websites have surged in both popularity and number. On August 19th, Groupon offered a national deal with The Gap which offered purchasers $50 in merchandise for $25, a 50% savings. Interested purchasers were also visiting Gap.com immediately after Groupon.com , the share of downstream traffic from Groupon.com to Gap.com jumped to 4.18% on August 19th. Also aiding in the success of the promotions was high consumer awareness and shoppers actively seeking the discount. For more insight about Group Buying websites, please visit our webinar archive to listen to ‘New Trends in Online Retail – Flash Sales and Group Buying’. Posted by Heather Dougherty at 11:41 AM | (0) In Categories Group Buying | Retail Categories.
Older Adults Nearly Double Social Media Presence [STATS] A new study from Pew Internet found that between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking site usage grew 88% among Internet users aged 55-64, and the 65 and older group's social networking presence grew 100% in the same time frame. Young people still dominate social networks like Facebook, but their usage only grew 13% during the year covered by Pew's report. Older adults are catching up at an incredibly quick pace, though it remains to be seen whether they will pass the youth or hit a ceiling at or below the usage levels reported by young adults and teens. Older adults who use services like Twitter or Facebook are still in the minority amidst their peers. Pew reported about 10 months ago that 19% of all Internet users use status updates, but only one in ten Internet users aged 50 and older used status updates or read ones written by others.
According to report author Mary Madden, e-mail still dominates interpersonal communication for the 50 and older set. Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK. Josh Silver: Google-Verizon Deal: The End of The Internet as We Know It. For years, Internet advocates have warned of the doomsday scenario that will play out on Monday: Google and Verizon will announce a deal that the New York Times reports "could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege.
" The deal marks the beginning of the end of the Internet as you know it. Since its beginnings, the Net was a level playing field that allowed all content to move at the same speed, whether it's ABC News or your uncle's video blog. That's all about to change, and the result couldn't be more bleak for the future of the Internet, for television, radio and independent voices. How did this happen? We have a Federal Communications Commission that has been denied authority by the courts to police the activities of Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast. All because of a bad decision by the Bush-era FCC. Google, Verizon and net neutrality: reaction from the web | Technology. Google and Verizon have put forward a joint policy framework aimed at allaying fears the two companies could bring an end to the internet principle of net neutrality.
In a joint op-ed in the Washington Post today, the Google chief executive, Eric Schmidt, and his Verizon counterpart, Ivan Seidenberg, outlined their "commitment to an open internet", saying "blocking and degrading internet traffic is antithetical to the principles of openness and consumers' expectations". Long-running talks between the US media and telecoms regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and a host of big internet companies – including Google and US telecoms operator Verizon – broke down last week amid reports of the two companies trying to forge a deal in private, something they both denied.
But the two companies have been discussing the concept of net neutrality – an internet tenet stating that all content should be delivered at the same speed on a level playing field – for some time. "[...] "[...] Adam Green: Google Goes "Evil" I just got off a media conference call with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg.
They announced a new policy recommendation that would kill the Internet as we know it, if implemented by FCC Chair Julius Genachowski and other policy makers. The Google/Verizon deal (also posted online) basically says: The old "wireline" Internet that will be irrelevant in a few years? We propose a "new, enforceable prohibition against discriminatory practices" on that.New "wireless services" (aka the entire future of the Internet)? No equivalent nondiscrimination rules for that, but we'll "create enforceable transparency rules. " Google, a company that I've long admired and currently hold thousands of dollars of stock in, just "went evil. " That's why over 300,000 Americans have signed an open letter telling Google "don't be evil" -- protect Net Neutrality and the Internet's level playing field.
We know why Verizon did it. So, they cut a deal with the bad guys. Facebook E-Commerce: A Look At Facebook Shopping Carts. Facebook pages can be quite a dynamic location for your brand and now there is a growing push towards monetizing pages from within Facebook. By utilizing shopping cart software built exclusively for Facebook, retailers can now sell products right on their Facebook pages – no need for users to ever exit Facebook.com. These e-commerce platforms are still quite new, and users should be aware of the eventual fixes and potential upgrades that they will have to prepare for when implementing. However, for those with large fan presences, these e-commerce platforms can be extremely beneficial. Milyoni Milyoni’s iFanStore is one of the highest profile Facebook commerce apps, and packs a great deal of shopping features into a Facebook application. iFanStore is currently used by some of the larger names in commerce, from the NBA to the UFC to the Onion this cart has fit their Facebook commerce needs.
Overall, iFanStore is a very robust shopping cart for high level Facebook e-commerce. Payvment Ecwid. Tracking Google's Acquisitions. Facebook Places: The Real-Time Web Without Search. As the internet has evolved and devices have proliferated, people have begun discovering the benefits of real-time information sharing. To date, they have primarily accessed this information with real-time search tools, such as through Twitter, or lesser known Facebook search engines like Booshaka, OneRiot, and Open Facebook Search.
Google itself has made real-time results a more prominent part of its search engine. Facebook Places has the potential to change how people find and use real-time information. Instead of chaotically searching various location service venue pages, keywords, or hashtags, users can now find information about real-world events and locations on Places pages thanks to the Places API. Here’s an example of how that works in action. The SF Street Food Festival was held in San Francisco this weekend, in the heart of a city full of social media users. Beyond featuring a wide variety of great food, it also showcased how people share and consume real-time information.
Google tests search that delivers results as you type. Google is developing a new kind of search capability that delivers the results instantly as you type the letters. The new experiment was discovered by search engine optimization (SEO) consultant Rob Ousbey, who noticed the results being delivered instantly and then recorded a video to show it. Google confirmed to TechCrunch that the video is real. It will be interesting to see if the new capability is launched as a standard part of Google’s search engine.
It could save us all time as we type familiar searches where we know that the instantly-delivered search result is most likely the one we want to click on. You’ll notice in the video that the search results change as more letters are added and the terms of the search become different. Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman, told Techcrunch, “At any given time we are running between 50-200 search experiments. Facebook-alternative Diaspora set to launch in three weeks. Diaspora, the open-sourced Facebook alternative initiated by four New York University students, will be launching in three weeks, its creators announced in a blog post today.
The project garnered a large amount of press back in May when it raised over $200,000 on the social pledging site Kickstarter based solely on the idea of building a “personally controlled, do-it-all, distributed open source social network.” In other words: the anti-Facebook social network. At a time when Facebook’s privacy concerns were the topic of the moment, many rallied behind Diaspora’s untainted ambition and pledged a donation, including Facebook’s own Mark Zuckerberg, who compared the idea to Facebook’s early peer-to-peer sister project, Wirehog. “I think it’s a cool idea,” Zuckerberg said in a Wired interview. While Diaspora may be on its way to making a viable alternative in terms of the product, it still has hurdles to cross when it comes to user adoption. Most Companies Have Social Media Strategies. Companies Have or Will Have Strategies As mentioned above, about three-quarters (72%) of companies currently have a social media marketing strategy.
Of the 27% without a social media marketing strategy (1% were undecided), 80% plan to have one within the next 12 months. Furthermore, only 11% of companies without a strategy definitely do not plan to implement one in the next 12 months, with 9% undecided. Investments Will Grow Another three-quarters of companies (75%) plan to increase their social media investment in the next 12 months. As with the previous question, a high percentage of respondents (13%) don’t know, with only 12% definitely not planning to increase social media investment. One-third of Increases Tied to Specific Project Of companies planning a social media spending increase, about one-third (35%) are tying it to a specific project or custom media program. In 90% of companies, managing social media is a part-time job mixed in with other responsibilities.
Get Social Insights From Email Contacts With Flowtown. Since it launched late last year, social email marketing tool Flowtown has gained over 15,000 customers, most of which are small businesses, with its unique combination of email and social analytics. The startup showed it might be onto something yesterday when it announced it raised $750,000 in seed funding from a group of well-known angel investors, including Mitch Kapor of the Lotus Development Corporation, Mark Goines of Mint.com, Dave McClure of 500 Startups, and others.
Flowtown lets you import a list of email contacts and find out more information about each person via any social networking profiles they may have. For example, let's say I have a customer or colleague named Steve. I can pull him up in Flowtown and see if he's on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. In addition to data about individuals, Flowtown breaks down your entire mailing list and shows what percentage of subscribers are on each major social networking site, as well as demographic and geographic data. Google tests 'streaming' search engine. Protecting your mid-size business from today’s security threats Google is testing a new incarnation of its search engine that rejiggers results pages as you type, according to a video captured by a UK-based SEO.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But judging from the video, Google refers to this as "streaming" search. As you key new characters into the search box – or remove characters – the entire search results page changes accordingly. "You don't even need to hit the 'Search' button anymore," says the SEO, Rob Ousbey. "Google updates the results for you while you're typing. " You can see Ousbey's video here: Basically, Google is taking its "Suggest" tool a step further. But again, "streaming" search is – at this point – only a test.
Update Google has now sent us the same statement it sent to TechCrunch, seeming to acknowledge that the video depicts a real Google test. Protecting your mid-size business from today’s security threats. Google unleashes phone calls from Gmail. The Promise of More Sales Prompt Some Firms to Make That Social Media Position Full Time. Ford’s SYNC System to Enable “Cars as a Platform”? Facebook reveals the details behind Places. French Net Neutrality is on Death Row. Google TV Is a Tough Sell Among Would-Be Partners. Placecast and Location Labs team up for location-based shopping alerts. Like.com confirms purchase by Google: Supercharged visual search coming soon? Google TV’s universal search and Dish Network integration in action (video) Google spanked for bidding on its own ad auctions. The World Of Signage Photo Contest: Join In and Win a Digital SLR Camera! - Smashing Magazine. Slide’s History Indicates Google’s Social Plans.
Facebook Buys Chai Labs, a Semantic Search Startup Founded by a Former Adsense Leader. Social lending platform Funding Circle launches as a Zopa-for-SMEs. HP’s PR nightmare spreads across the internet with nude photos of Jodie Fisher. Justin Kownacki - What I’ve Learned From Blogging Weekly Instead of Daily. Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog. Top 10 Social Networking Websites & Forums - July 2010. Optimizing Facebook Status Updates For Local Marketing. Wow - Death Threat Spam Emails - This would scare the pants off of me. Big Brands Using Weekly Circulars on Facebook.
Celebrity Video Biz Pins Hopes on Facebook Viral Effort. Search Agencies Gain Momentum in Display Ad Market. New Ripple6 Units Put Social Conversations in Display Ads. Digital channels ‘making telemarketing obsolete’ Sainsbury’s online video campaign introduces the ‘Tiny Taste Team’ Determining a Social Media Fan’s True Value. Update on Google Wave. Woot: Test PayNearMe And Get A Ton Of Free Facebook Credits. P&G Facebook Store = 1000 Transactions/Hour. P&G Facebook Store = 1000 Transactions/Hour.
P&G Teams Up with Amazon to Sell on Facebook.