Source: http://scobleizer.com/2011/02/26/thank-you-google/
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Monday, February 28, 2011
Thank you Google
Dear Google: yes, I know you are pissing off lots of businesses that today aren’t listed as high. CNN Money covers their plight. I wanted to say “thank you.” Why? In nearly every search I tried today results are better than they used to be. Not many people look out for the users in today’s [...]
DEMO 2011: It's All About Social
DEMO, the conference where companies get six minutes on stage to present their product, kicked off this morning with VentureBeat's Matt Marshall talking social. "It's all about social," said Marshall, explaining that social media companies like Facebook have grown at an unprecedented pace. It took half a century for IBM to hit $1 billion, whereas it only took Facebook a handful of years, he said.
With that in mind, let's take a look at three companies that presented this morning at DEMO and hope to latch on to the ever-expanding social web.
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AboutOne
AboutOne describes itself as a "location to manage memories and household information." In short, it looks almost like a Facebook for the familial unit, but with much more utility in mind. It serves as a place to not only store family-related documents (like instructions for the babysitter) but also information like car insurance and other useful documents. The site connects with other services via API, so that you don't even need to enter all of this information manually. Key in your car's VIN number and AboutOne can automatically import the model, make, year and everything else into the system.
The service also serves as an online location to store all sorts of other family-related documents, such as pictures and scans of your children's artwork. From this data, users can create newsletters for friends and family and even create online baby books, which they can then order hard copies of.
PhotoRocket
PhotoRocket jumps in the try to handle a key space in the social web - photo sharing. Facebook's photo sharing feature is one of its most popular, but photo sharing doesn't end there, with a plethora of other popular services. Where does PhotoRocket come in? It attempts to help users "share photos instantly in one step" to multiple destinations from a variety of platforms. Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen an app attempt this, but it's all in the execution. Just last week, we saw Chute display a similar product, but PhotoRocket tries to edge out competition with an important feature - integration.
PhotoRocket is available on Windows, Mac and iOS (What? No Android?) and shares content to Facebook, Twitter and a host of other sites. According to the company, it steps beyond competition by integrating directly into the operating system and letting users right-click on files, use a browser button or an app to share.
Social Eyes
Social Eyes, an ambitious app that lists among its competition some big hitters like Skype, is a "social video service that instantly connects you to your friends and groups of people who share your interests." So how does this differ from Skype? Social Eyes is a video and text chatting service that is centered on your existing social graph. You sign in using your Facebook login and it automatically populates your list of contacts according to your Facebook friends that have also signed up.
Social Eyes also does something Skype doesn't do - it organizes other users around interests, so you can join groups like "Current Events" or create your own group based on your interests. Beyond that, you can also record and send video messages to other users, so not everything has to be live. What keeps Social Eyes potentially a bit more above board than other live video chat services like Tiny Chat or Chat Roulette is its authenticated identity by way of Facebook Connect. Using Facebook Connect leads to greater accountability, and wearing of pants, than purely anonymous systems.
Discuss
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/NLHSXq8GjPQ/demo_2011_its_all_about_social.php
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Review of SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales and Win More Business With Today?s Frazzled Customers
First there was SHiFT, where we learned how important it is to analyze the successful sales we?ve made and identify the trigger events that get our prospects to actually buy.� Then I reviewed Selling to the C-SuiteRead More
From Small Business Trends
Review of SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales and Win More Business With Today?s Frazzled Customers
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Cartoon: Maybe Start Using Get Satisfaction, Too?
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With Mubarak, that process is now complete. With Ghadafi, it's still underway - and every day, the damage to his country and people multiplies. And while the debate still rages over how large a role social media have played in the past month's events across the Arab world, there's no question that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have given the rest of us a window into a remarkable period of potentially profound, historical change.
If you want to see what that looks like, and you haven't been following Andy Carvin's Twitter feed, definitely check it out. He has been retweeting tirelessly since the early days of what many are calling the Jasmine Revolution, giving voice to an incredibly diverse range of people.
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Toyota Recall Comes on Company?s ?Day of Reflection?
Image of Toyota City by Patrick Ragnarsson/Flickr Toyota is recalling 2.17 million cars to fix gas pedals that could get stuck in floor mats. If you hear a hissing noise, don't worry, it's just the sound of Toyota's public image deflating even... Read more
Source: http://www.businesspundit.com/toyota-recall-comes-on-companys-day-of-reflection/
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New Home Sales Lowest Since 1967
(Image: MortgageCalculator.org) New home sales are dismally low. You could blame the weather, but the truth is that when you can't find a job or your income down, banks aren't very excited about loaning money to you, and you don't have much... Read more
Source: http://www.businesspundit.com/new-home-sales-lowest-since-1967/
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Sunday, February 27, 2011
A List Games creates service to market self-funded indie games
A new business called A List Games is launching a service to make it easier for independent digital game developers to market their video games.
Pasadena-based A List Games (we can’t bring ourselves to spell it as they do: [a]list games) says it will identify promising digital games — mobile or social games that are distributed through app stores or online — and market them in ways that big game publishers do. It can, for instance, tailor marketing campaigns from soup to nuts, covering market research, planning, creative, and even media buying. That’s a first for the game industry.
Indie game makers often have a tough choice. They can sell out, or shell out. If they get a lot of money to publish a game from a major publisher, they often lose control of the game content. That’s a form of selling out. If they go it alone, they can wind up shelling out a lot of money to fund their games and market them. The problem for the indies is that, while there is a boom in mobile gaming, only a tiny percentage of the games are making money.
A List Games, a division of digital marketing company The Azyenberg Group, says it takes one of the big risks out of traditional publishing deals. Many indie game makers are scrappy enough to find their own capital, so A List Games will not fund games. That’s a big difference between what A List will do and what a traditional publisher does. A List Games calls itself a “go to market” company. While it won’t fund games, it will fund the marketing plans for the games. In exchange, it negotiates how it can be paid: perhaps by getting a share of royalties or some other way.
A List will focus on marketing because too many good games are getting lost in the clutter among tens of thousands of releases of new mobile and online games. It will tap Ayzenberg Group, which has focused on marketing video games for the past 17 years. It has helped market hundreds of titles and it creates incentivized sharing programs, which are an increasingly big component in building audiences for games. It can, for instance, use the incentive marketing programs that Ayzenberg developed to get new players to try our games such as World of WarCraft.
A List Games will make commitments to spend a certain amount of money on media advertising. That’s pretty rare for small budget digital games. The company is focused on online, massively multiplayer online, social, and mobile games for iPhone and Android devices.
A List Games is headed by general manager Steve Fowler, former vice president of business development at the Ayzenberg Group. Its chief strategist and creative director is Eric Ayzenberg. Strategy Analytics estimated that the digital online game market will double to $24.8 billion by 2013, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 19 percent.
The� A List Games business was started earlier this year. Rivals include traditional game publishers and indie developers who do their own marketing, as well as public relations firms that do a lot of marketing. Advisors include former Microsoft games chief Ed Fries, Smith & Tinker founder Jordan Weisman, Big Screen Gaming founder Alyssa Padia Walles, and analysts Michael Pachter and David Cole, as well as Ben Straley, head of metrics firm Meteor Solutions.
Companies: A List Games, [a]list games
People: Steve Fowler
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/E_oFwQxhq00/
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Marketing and The Bubble
Rand Fishkin has a good post in response to my marketing posts over the past two days. In it he makes this assertion: For the first few years that I was in the "web world," 1997-2001, there was a dangerous...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AVc/~3/E86P-Nh7x-c/marketing-and-the-bubble.html
My Web Without Facebook Connect
How important is Facebook? Very, and not in ways you and I realize. Sure you can see status updates and photos of your friends. What really is indispensable about Facbeook -- its ability to glue the web together. I found that out the hardway. 
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/0i08FPaHviA/
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One on One: Gail Goodman of Constant Contact
Welcome to another in our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact, spoke with Brent Leary in this interview, which has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, page down to the loudspeaker icon at the end of the post.
* * * * *
Small Business Trends: Constant Contact has been around for aRead More
From Small Business Trends
One on One: Gail Goodman of Constant Contact
One on One: Gail Goodman of Constant Contact
Welcome to another in our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact, spoke with Brent Leary in this interview, which has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, page down to the loudspeaker icon at the end of the post.
* * * * *
Small Business Trends: Constant Contact has been around for aRead More
From Small Business Trends
One on One: Gail Goodman of Constant Contact
Saturday, February 26, 2011
How Social Media Is Pushing the Limits of Legal Ethics
As social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter continue gaining prevalence among mainstream America, they're having a greater effect on the administration of justice in our court system, with everyone from jurors to judges skirting potential ethical lines. 
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/kN6xMsE7MY8/
Review of SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales and Win More Business With Today?s Frazzled Customers
First there was SHiFT, where we learned how important it is to analyze the successful sales we?ve made and identify the trigger events that get our prospects to actually buy.� Then I reviewed Selling to the C-SuiteRead More
From Small Business Trends
Review of SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales and Win More Business With Today?s Frazzled Customers
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Small Business News: More Legal Tips For Your Business
Though the legal side of your business may not necessarily involve making money or expanding your client or customer base, mistakes can certainly cost you money thus threatening even a profitable business if the errors are particularly costly. Here is the latest from around the Web of legal tips you may want to consider to protect your small business today and in the future.
Tips
Avoid liabilities at your business. Here are three tips for decreasing the chances of slipsRead More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: More Legal Tips For Your Business
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Credit card of the future
This article is reposted from Rackspace’s Building43 with permission. Credit/Debit card fraud is a huge problem that costs banks and consumers billions of dollars per year. NagraID is tackling this problem by creating the credit card of the future, complete with computer chips and other security features that promise to make transactions both more secure [...]
Source: http://scobleizer.com/2011/02/23/credit-card-of-the-future/
How Outfit7 Built A Toy App Powerhouse
Slovenian start-up Outfit7 last year managed to quietly rack up more than 60 million downloads of its Talking Friends apps, led by its breakout hit Talking Tom Cat. The company has built a fast-growing empire by constructing a modern toy with communications at its heart.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/Hcf1MPL67vY/
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Friday, February 25, 2011
Startups Aim to Make Augmented Reality Easy & Cheap
That may be an opportunity for market disruption and two startups launched this week that think they can radically democratize the creation of AR. Daqri is a low-cost QR and AR publishing platform for businesses and consumers that was unveiled at the Launch conference this week in San Francisco. Even more ambitious is the Georgia Institute of Tech's newly released iPhone app called Argon, an open standards based AR browser. (iTunes link)
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Argon's creators call the service "the world's first open standards-based mobile augmented reality browser." The research institute that built it is funded by global telephony infrastructure company Alcatel-Lucent.
Not based on open standards but also not born of the academic research world is Daqri, a very business-friendly, low-cost AR publishing platform built by veterans of the robotics and defense tech worlds. Judges at the Launch conference this week, where Daqri debuted, were confused by the open-ended nature of the platform and probably by the founders' Middle American (not Silicon Valley slick) demeanor.
The communication paradigm is new enough that use cases are challenging to come up with. That's the optimistic way of putting it; many people believe that AR is all smoke and no sizzle, that it's never going to go anywhere because it doesn't deliver real, lasting value.
In the video below, you can see a Daqri browser user looking at how a marble counter top would look if it were installed in their own kitchen. There are clearly some cases where super-imposed visual communication is useful and Daqri offers it as a turn-key service, with easy management over time, at commodity pricing. The company also offers QR to mobile landing page publishing.
Disclosure: Alcatel-Lucent is a sponsor of ReadWriteWeb.
Discuss
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/0UBOPUGVMao/augmented-reality-publishing-i.php
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Grameen IT CEO on how technology transformed Bangladesh
Kazi Islam describes his job as “implementing the future”. He is the CEO of Grameen IT which runs the IT services of Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s biggest mobile carrier.�Islam grew up in the U.S. become returning to his home country. �”I lived in the future. I went back into the past. My job is to implement the future” he says. Islam is convinced that emerging countries like Bangladesh will determine which technologies survive and dominate in that future. I talked to him about how technology has transformed his country and why tech companies need to pay attention.
Grameenphone is a billion dollar business in a country where the average revenue per subscriber is 1 or 2 dollars. One of company’s first innovations was the Village Phone scheme, established at a time when a mobile handset still cost $1000. The program gave villagers access to micro credit to buy a mobile phone that could then be rented out to other villagers. Islam told me that 10 years on Village Phone has become a victim of its own success as handsets and minutes dropped in price. Now you can buy a handset for 10 dollars.
“The village phone concept completely changed a nation through a technology. The measuring stick �is how many people are using mobile phones today. 12, 15 years ago if you were telling me that 60 million people (in Bangladesh) would have a mobile phone, people would just laugh at you.” he explains.
GrameenPhone now provides a range of services which go way beyond the traditional scope of a mobile carrier. One of the most popular is BillPay. Paying a utility bill in Bangladesh, and many emerging companies, is an arduous business involving hours of queueing to pay the bill and then queueing again to confirm that the money was received by the utility.
BillPay allows instant payment via mobile. Islam told me that a surprising side effect is that “people are voluntarily going and paying. Before people would put it off. From the government side their revenue went up significantly.”
Buying a train ticket used to take a whole day. Now 50 percent of all train tickets are sold through mobile services and a huge number of tickets can be sold in a matter of hours. Grameenphone also provides a hotline where farmers can get advice on problems with their crops. “60 percent of our employment is agri-based. If your crop is infected, for example, you have no way of finding out what is really happening. You can make a phone call and describe. You can take a photo on a mobile phone and send it in an MMS”.
Mobile healthcare is also an important focus, in a country where 390 out of 1000 women die due to complications in childbirth and access to basic health information is limited. “On average our very optimistic number is that we live to be around 62 years. That means compared to the U.S. we live 10 years less. A significant part of that is because their mother was not healthy and their birth was not perfect. So we start with birth.”
I queried Islam on the biggest misunderstanding on how new technology is used in emerging markets. “The biggest misconception is that there is no business opportunity. In my mind that misconception comes from laziness.” He also thinks that making fast money should not be the first priority of an entrepreneur. In his opinion, this is one of the reasons that most startups focus on the US and European markets. “Worry about people first. Whatever technology you build if it is people-focused and ultimately people embrace it, you are going to make a decent living” he insists.
Islam also condemns technology companies for not taking the emerging countries, home of half of the world’s population, into consideration when designing new products.
“In none of them you will see a criterion which says that this particular product has to be applicable to emerging countries,” he says. “If you forced innovators to think about this the world would be different. That particular tick box is missing. If companies are still not thinking about emerging markets and emerging market populations, they are committing two big crimes. One is to themselves; they are missing out on the financial opportunity. They are also depriving these people of the benefit of this technology.”
When I asked Islam about the technology sectors in which emerging countries will lead his answer was emphatic: “Everything”. While developed countries have made huge investments in infrastructure like fixed line telephony, emerging markets are an open field. “In Bangladesh there are less than 250,000 fixed line phones but there are 66 million mobile phones. Emerging markets will dominate in line of what innovations succeed in the future. Mobile is a big example of it”. Bangladesh also has one of the largest deployment of individual solar home systems covering 300,000 rural homes. How is this possible when people are only making a dollar a day? According to Islam, entrepreneurs have developed new business models as well as technology to sell to this market.
One technology which Islam predicts will create an explosion of new business is mobile finance. Bangladesh is a cash-based economy where very few people have bank accounts. “The moment you solve the mobile financial part of it, your service industry is going to explode since the service providers can collect the money.” Grameenphone is planning to introduce P2P mobile payments and other financial services.
“If you look at Bangladesh, 10 years ago our per capita income was 200$. Today our per capita income is around $900. Can you imagine in the US people’s per capita income going up by 500 percent in 10 years? It is happening because of technology” Islam concludes.
People: kazi islam
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/DL3EicOzO5c/
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Wikipedia's Goal: 1 Billion Monthly Visitors by 2015
The Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia and nearly a dozen other wiki-based projects, announced its five-year strategic plan today. The plan is the product of a collaborative effort that began in 2009 and involved more than 1,000 participants from around the world. In it, the organization lays out a number of goals it hopes to reach by 2015, including increasing the number of editors, articles, users and more.
After more than a year in the making, Wikimedia released the final version today, saying that it is "energized and enthusiastic about where Wikimedia is heading."
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The plan itself is an impressive oeuvre in its own right and showcases the potential of the Wikimedia community. Not only is it the product of more than 1,000 contributors, but it was birthed from more than 50 languages, 900 separate proposals, and hundreds of discussions, "both face-to-face in cities around the world, and via IRC, Skype, mailing lists and wiki pages." In the process, the team of collaborators created 1,470 content pages which have been summarized and condensed into this final strategic plan (.pdf).
According to the announcement, there are a number of metrics Wikimedia will go by to determine success.
- Increase the total number of people served to 1 billion
- Increase the amount of information we offer to 50 million Wikipedia articles
- Ensure information is high quality by increasing the percentage of material reviewed to be of high or very high quality by 25 percent
- Encourage readers to become contributors by increasing the number of total editors per month who made >5 edits to 200,000
- Support healthy diversity in the editing community by doubling the percentage of female editors to 25 percent and increasing the number of Global South editors to 37 percent
So how far does it have to go? Currently, Wikipedia serves just over 400 million unique visitors monthly (it had 414 million in January) and contains just under 18 million articles across all languages. In December, there were nearly 80,000 "active editors," which are defined as editors who make five or more edits a month. That means that Wikipedia is looking to more than double both its traffic and its active editors over the next five years.
What will it take to reach these goals? The first step to serving a billion people monthly is creating the infrastructure to handle this sort of traffic. To do that, Wikipedia will create new data centers and deploy caching centers in a number of locations. In order to increase participation and editor retention, the organization also plans on a number of outreach initiatives, as well as developing tools like a rich-text editor to simplify the editing process.
Most importantly, Wikimedia will need money and lots of it. How much? More than 3X the $16 million the foundation raised at the end of 2010.
Remember that banner ad featuring Jimmy Wales' pleading mug? Your likely to see that a lot more over years to come.
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