Mereja

Author: Frederic Lardinois

  • Seesmic Look: Bringing Twitter to the Mainstream

    seesmic_logo_jul09.pngSeesmic just announced the launch of Seesmic Look at an event in New York City. Seesmic Look, which is a Windows-only product, is anything but your standard Twitter client. Seesmic Looks is targeted at mainstream users who would normally be intimidated by the complexity of standard Twitter clients like Seesmic or TweetDeck.

    Sponsor

    seesmic_look_ellen.jpg

    As Seesmic’s founder and CEO Loic Le Meur told us yesterday, there hasn’t really been a lot of innovation in the Twitter ecosystem when it comes to Twitter clients. Seesmic Look is squarely aimed at mainstream users. Instead of giving users lots of options, it tries to keep things simple. Users, for example, don’t have to decide which users they want to follow. Instead, Seesmic has created an interactive experience that is more like browsing TV channels than using a traditional Twitter client. Seesmic Look offers a curated list of Twitter accounts that are organized by interests like news, sports or celebrities.

    These curated channels are hosted on Seesmic’s servers and Seesmic plans to regularly update these lists

    Seesmic collaborated with Microsoft on this product and conducted extensive usability testing to make sure that the software is easy to use. The application was optimized for Windows 7 but will work on any modern Windows operating system.

    Emphasis on Design and Usability

    Seesmic clearly devoted a lot of time to getting the design of the app right and the screenshots don’t really do it justice. Depending on the mode (timeline or playback), tweets fade in and out and scroll across the screen, for example. The background of the app changes continuously and matches the Twitter background of the user or brand you are looking at. Seesmic also supplies two built-in themes: one light and one dark theme. More themes will follow in the future.

    seesmic_look_time.jpg

    Not for Power Users

    It’s important to note that Seesmic is intentionally not targeting power users with this application. This does not mean that the app isn’t also a fully featured Twitter client. Users don’t need a Twitter account to browse through Seesmic Look’s channels. If they do sign in, however, they can browse their inbox (direct messages and @replies) and their personal Twitter stream. The app also supports lists and Twitter search and trends are prominently featured in the user interface.

    For now, new users can’t set up a new Twitter account in the application, but Seesmic is working together with Twitter to make this possible in a future version.

    Seesmic Look for Brands

    In addition to the Seesmic-curated channels, Seesmic Looks will also give brands the option to showcase their Twitter accounts in branded channels. Among the 8 launch partners Seesmic announced today are Red Bull, the Huffington Post, Kodak, CNN Money and Ford. Le Meur told us that these companies are currently getting free exposure during the launch phase. Seesmic plans to charge monthly fees for these channels in a few month. Brands will also be able to create their own themes and distribute branded version of Seesmic Look in the future.

    For Seesmic, this represents an obvious opportunity to create a revenue channel. To get these brands into the app, Twitter has partnered with Microsoft, which was responsible for bringing roughly half of today’s launch partners to Seesmic.

    seesmic_look_redbull.jpg

    As Le Meur told us, Twitter itself is also quite excited about the prospects of this app and has given it its official seal of approval to the app.

    This is definitely an interesting strategy for Seesmic. Brands obviously want to use Twitter to connect to mainstream users. For a lot of new users, however, understanding Twitter is simply too complicated. Twitter has always struggled to convert new users into regular users, which explains why the company would be so interested in supporting this project.

    In our discussion yesterday, Le Meur acknowledges that the current crop of Twitter tools isn’t doing a good job at making Twitter easier for this group of users. Seesmic Look is easy enough to use for mainstream users and – if successful – could herald the arrival of a new crop of Twitter clients that are exclusively aimed at making Twitter easier and more fun to use.

    Discuss


  • Amazon Prepares for the Arrival of the Apple Tablet: Gives Authors and Publishers a Bigger Royalty Cut for E-Books

    amazon-logo.pngAmazon just announced that it is now offering publishers and authors a new 70% royalty option. Publishers and authors who choose this option will receive 70% of the list price from sales of their e-books in the Kindle store. In order to qualify for this option, publishers have to turn on the text-to-speech feature and make the e-book available in all locations for which the author or publisher has rights. In addition, publishers also have to sell the e-book for at least 20% below the price of the physical book and can’t charge more than $9.99 for the Kindle edition.

    Sponsor

    As Amazon notes in today’s press release, publishers and authors who choose the standard royalty option would only make about $3.15 from every sale of an e-book that sells for $8.99. Now, with the 70% option, these publishers would make $6.25.

    The 70% royalty option will become available for U.S. publishers on Jan. 27.

    kindle_logo_mar09.jpgThis is an interesting move by Amazon. A 70% royalty has become the standard among numerous industries, including Apple’s App Store. Of course, there are rumors that Apple will open up its own e-book store when (if?) it launches the Apple tablet/iPad/iSlate. According to the latest rumors, Apple is currently talking to a number of U.S. publishers in order to bring these publishers’ e-books into the iTunes store or into a new Apple e-book store.

    Publishers have long been unhappy with Amazon’s decision to keep e-book prices low by subsidizing them. Giving publishers a higher cut of the royalties as long as they fulfill Amazon’s requirements looks like a concession to these publishers. If Amazon expects to see competition from Apple in the near future, then this move would make even more sense.

    Discuss


  • Everybody Wants a Piece of the Mobile Advertising Market – Opera Acquires AdMarvel

    opera_logo_dec08.pngIt seems like everybody is scrambling to secure a piece of the mobile advertising market these days. Google is still sorting out the details of its AdMob acquisition, but barring any regulatory snafus, the acquisition should go through in the next few months. Apple acquired the relatively unknown mobile advertising network Quattro earlier this month. Today, Opera announced that it has acquired AdMarvel, a San Mateo-based mobile advertising company.

    Sponsor

    According to Opera’s new CEO Lars Boilesen, about 50 million people access the web through Opera on their mobile browsers.

    AdMarvel, Opera and the iPhone

    admarvel_large_logo.jpgIt’s interesting to note that AdMarvel also offers an iPhone SDK for developers. At the time of the launch of the iPhone SDK, AdMarvel CEO described the iPhone as “an amazingly innovative platform.” Opera hasn’t announced any plans to bring its browser to the iPhone. When we talked to Opera’s former CEO Jon von Tetzchner in December, he noted that the company wasn’t averse to launching a browser on the iPhone, but Apple’s App Store approval process was holding the company back from even trying to get an app into the store for the time being. It is worth noting, though, that Opera does offer an Android app.

    Augmenting Revenue Streams Through Mobile Advertising

    There can be little doubt that mobile advertising is one of the fastest growing markets in the mobile ecosystem. Google obviously wants a piece of this market through the AdMob acquisition. The company’s own AdSense and AdWords programs offers mobile solutions, but the popularity of AdSense and AdWords hasn’t really translated into success in the mobile space yet. Apple’s acquisition of Quattro is a curious move, as advertising isn’t exactly one of Apple’s core competencies.

    For Opera this move makes sense, though. Just like Apple hopes to profit directly from the iPhone apps and mobile sites that use Quattro, Opera will be able to profit from sites that use AdMarvel. Neither Apple nor Opera are traditional advertising companies, but both clearly believe that the mobile advertising market is poised for growth and that they can augment their current revenue streams by dipping their toes into this business.

    Discuss


  • BumpTop’s 3D Desktop Comes to the Mac

    bumptop_logo_mac_jan09.jpgBumpTop released The Windows version of BumpTop’s 3D desktop in April 2009. Today, BumpTop finally released a version for the Mac. BumpTop turns your desktop into a 3D experience, where documents are organized in stacks and you can pin often used files, folders or images onto the walls. BumpTop also incorporates a physics simulations, so interactions with your files on the 3D desktop feel extremely lifelike.

    Sponsor

    Turn Your Desktop into a 3D Environment

    While the Mac doesn’t offer multi-touch screens, BumpTop managed to incorporate some multi-touch gestures by using the touchpad on Mac laptops (these are only available in the Pro version). Swiping down with three fingers, for example, creates a new stack of files on your desktop. If you are using a desktop or an older laptop, however, you will not be able to make use of these gestures.

    Mac Version Give You a More Seamless Experience

    For the Mac version, the BumpTop team has tweaked the user interface so that it fits in nicely with the rest of the OSX experience. BumpTop still suffers from a slight disconnect between the desktop experience and running an application. Switching to the application takes you out of the 3D experience. Interestingly enough, this effect is less pronounced on the Mac than on Windows. On the Mac, BumpTop just becomes a seamless part of your desktop and stays out of the way. On Windows, BumpTop often feels more like an additional application than an integral part of the OS.

    For a more detailed look at BumpTop’s feature set, also have a look at our earlier review of the Windows version.

    Get a Free Pro Version

    The free version of BumpTop incorporates most of the most interesting features in the software, but the Pro version ($29) includes a number of cool additional features like multi-touch gestures, unlimited sticky notes on your desktop and a find-as-you-type feature that makes it easy to find documents on your desktop.

    The Pro version is a free upgrade to the first 100 people who sign up at this special ReadWriteWeb page.

    Discuss


  • One Third of U.S. Internet Users Now Post Status Updates Once per Week

    Forresterlogo.jpgA third of all Internet users in the U.S. now post status updates on social networking services like Twitter and Facebook at least once per week. According to new data from Forrester Research, more than half of what the report calls “conversationalists” are female and 70% are 30 years old or older. Forrester’s data also shows that 59% of all U.S. Internet users now use social networks and that 70% consume content on social media and social networking sites.

    Sponsor

    As Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff notes, two years ago, when the company first looked at similar data, people’s online behavior with regards to creating and consuming content was very similar to what Internet users are doing today. One major difference, however, is the rise of conversational interactions. People still blog, comment and vote on social news sites like Digg and Reddit. Over the last two years, however, the fastest growing group in Forrester’s surveys have been conversationalists who use Twitter and Facebook to post status updates and engage in conversations with their friends.

    More People Join Social Networks – Number of Creators Remains Stable

    Creators – those who publish their own blogs or upload audio they created – now make up 24% of all Internet users. Joiners – those users who maintain a profile on a social networking site – make up 59% of all users. Interestingly, while the number of joiners has grown rapidly, the number of creators has remained relatively stable over the last few years. This makes sense, though, given that it’s very easy to join a social network but relatively hard to create a podcast or maintain a blog.

    Forrester classified 17% of all respondents as “inactives.” These users don’t participate in social networking activities at all.

    forrester_conversationalists.jpg

    Discuss


  • Twitter’s Growth Slows Dramatically

    hubspot_logo_jan09.jpgAfter news about the landing of US Airways 1549 in the Hudson first broke on Twitter in January 2009, the microblogging service quickly captured the imagination of a new group of potential users. Throughout the first months of 2009, Twitter grew at a rapid pace, peaking at a growth rate of 13% in March 2009.

    Now, however, according to the latest data from HubSpot, Twitter’s growth is slowing dramatically. In October 2009, Twitter’s growth rate had fallen to 3.5%. On a positive note, though, the average active user on Twitter today is more engaged than six months ago.

    Sponsor

    hubspot_twitter_growth_jan09.jpg

    Most Twitter users, however – even if they are now more engaged on average – still have fewer than 100 followers. Only 18% of all Twitter users have more than 100 followers. A total of 81% of all users are currently also following less than 100 people. Just six months ago, the average user was just following around 40 accounts.

    hubspot_twitter_follower_counts_jan09.jpg

    HubSpot’s analysis also shows that more Twitter users now include bios (54%), links (65%) and location data (41%) in their profiles.

    International Footprint Increases

    As we pointed out earlier this month, social media analytics firm Sysomos also noted that most of Twitter’s growth is currently happening internationally. According to HubSpot’s analysis of over 5 million Twitter accounts, 40% of the top 20 Twitter locations are now outside of North America. In July 2009, only 15% were from outside North America.

    For Twitter, this means that its current user base is making better use of the service, but the company also has to worry that its growth is slowing down. Maybe some of the earlier high growth rates were inflated by spam accounts, but a 3.5% growth rate is very low and the overall trend is only pointing down at this time.

    Discuss


  • Broadband Speeds Increase Around the World – But Not in the U.S.

    akamai_logo_jan09.pngLooking at data from the third quarter of 2009, content delivery network Akamai just announced that the average broadband speed in the U.S. declined by 2.4% in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the same quarter in 2008.
    In the U.S., Delaware currently leads with 7.2 Mbps, though it remains far behind South Korea, where the average speed is almost 15 Mpbs. Currently, the U.S. is in 18th place, far behind Japan, Hong Kong, Romania and Sweden. The average U.S. broadband speed is currently 3.9 Mbps.

    Sponsor

    If you are looking for a fast Internet connection in the U.S., Sandy, UT and Iowa City currently offer the fastest connections. Delaware (7.2 Mbps), New Hampshire (5.9 Mbps) and Massachusetts (5.9 Mbps) are the top 3 states on Akamai’s list. The states with the fastest average broadband speeds can all be found on the East Coast.

    It is interesting to speculate why average speed in the U.S. declined over the last year. Chances are that a lot of people downsized their connections during the economic downturn. If you have a theory, let us know in the comments.

    broadband_across_the_world.png

    IP Addresses: U.S. Leads but China is Catching Up

    Akamai’s quarterly report also notes that the number of unique IP addresses increased by about 4.5% globally since the second quarter of 2009. The U.S. is still home to the largest number of unique IP addresses, but China is catching up quickly. In total, the U.S. was home to just over 119 million unique IP addresses in Q3 2009. fastest_connections_us_citiesakamai_jan09.pngWith 49 million IP addresses, China is currently a distant second, but the number of Chinese IP addresses increased by 30% compared to Q2 2009, while U.S. addresses on increased by 9%.

    Attack Traffic

    Akamai also looked at where most of the traffic from botnets and other attack traffic originated from. Russia (13%) is currently the source of most of this traffic, followed by Brazil (8.6%) and the U.S. (6.9%). On a positive note, it’s important to note that attack traffic from the U.S. declined from 15% compared to Q2 2009. Attack traffic from China declined even more. In Q2 2009, 31% of all of this traffic originated in China. Now, China is only responsible for about 6.5% of all attack traffic.

    Most of these attacks (78%) target port 445. On Windows systems, port 445 handles local printer and file sharing traffic.

    attack_traffic_akamai_jan09.png

    Discuss


  • Mozilla Drops Firefox 3.7 From Its Roadmap?

    firefox_logo_150.jpg

    Plans to Release it as a Minor Update to 3.6 Instead

    Earlier today, Computerworld broke the news that Mozilla plans to “dump” Firefox 3.7 from its schedule and change the way it develops and releases its browser. We talked to Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s director of Firefox, about these changes. Beltzner noted that Mozilla isn’t really “dumping” version 3.7. Instead, Mozilla took a closer look at its development roadmap and realized that there was simply no need to release Firefox 3.7 because the Firefox team now plans to release the most important update to 3.7 as a regular security update to Firefox 3.6.

    Sponsor

    Electrolysis

    The reasons for this change are actually rather straightforward. As Beltzner told us, given the often times chaotic nature of the open-source development process and the rapidly changing nature of the Internet, roadmaps are always moving targets. The most important update for Firefox 3.7 was supposed to be the integration of the Electrolysis project into the core browser. Electrolysis is a new technology in Firefox that splits the process that displays the browser UI, web content and plugins into separate processes. According to Mozilla, this will make the browser faster and increase stability, as malfunctioning plugins won’t be able to bring the whole browser down.

    No Need for 3.7

    Instead of shipping a completely new version of Firefox to integrate this technology, Mozilla has now decided to simply release this update as a part of a regular security update for Firefox 3.6. Mozilla doesn’t typically release major new features through these regular security updates. As Beltzner told us, however, Mozilla believes that this is a very important update and it wants to get this technology to users as fast as possible. Depending on how fast Firefox users switch to 3.6, the team might even release this update for older version of the browser as well.

    This doesn’t mean that Mozilla is changing the way it develops the browser. Beltzner did note, however, that nothing is set in stone and that Mozilla is always looking for the best ways to develop its software. For now, however, Mozilla isn’t planning to “slip in new features and functionality every few weeks.” Chrome, which is currently Firefox’s most interesting competitor, releases weekly updates and constantly adds new features. That, however, is typical for a young project like Chrome and will likely change as the software matures.

    Looking Forward

    Firefox 3.6 will be released in a few weeks and Firefox 4.0 is currently scheduled for the end of the year. Typically, Beltzner acknowledged, this is a time where there is some confusion about how to go forward and the confusion about version 3.7 is a good example of this.

    Discuss


  • After Operation Aurora, German Government Says Don’t Use Internet Explorer

    aurora_logo_jan09.jpgAccording to Internet security company McAfee, a security vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer allowed hackers in China to attack Google, Adobe and a large number of other companies, including Yahoo and Northrop Grumman. Microsoft has acknowledged this vulnerability and is currently working on a patch. Every machine running Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 on virtually every modern Windows operating system is affected by this vulnerability. In an unprecedented move, the German government has now told its citizens to avoid using Internet Explorer for the time being.

    Sponsor

    McAfee analysis showed that whoever tried to hack Google was using a previously unknown security vulnerability in Internet Explorer. It currently looks like the attackers targeted specific individuals and fooled them into opening a link or downloading a file onto their computers. Earlier reports claimed that a vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat made these attacks possible.

    Infect, Conceal Access and Siphon Data

    McAffee’s chief technology officer George Kurtz notes that this attack is a good example of the types of attacks that governments and large organizations are currently faced with. This new generation of malware is highly targeted and “designed to infect, conceal access, siphon data or, even worse, modify data without detection.”

    According to the German government, users should switch to alternative browsers, as other hackers will surely start to exploit this same vulnerability within days.

    Image credit: Flickr user nickrussill / CC BY 2.0

    Discuss


  • OneRiot Opens Up Real-Time Ad Network to All Developers

    oneriot_logo_mar09.pngReal-Time search engine OneRiot just announced that its advertising network RiotWise is now open to all developers. RiotWise is OneRiot’s attempt to monetize real-time streams by focusing on trending topics and giving advertisers the opportunity to highlight their own content in these streams or through regular banner ads. The private beta of RiotWise began in October 2009 and the company has steadily opened up the service to more developers. Starting today, any developer who wants to implement OneRiot in an app can do so.

    Sponsor

    oneriot_ads_example_jan09.pngAccording to OneRiot, the service’s ads perform very well. With regards to click-through rates, OneRiot argues that RiotWise ads perform three-to-four-times better than standard ads. We don’t have access to the service’s actual statistics, so we will have to take these numbers with a grain of salt. Given that RiotWise focuses on highlighting content based on what people are clearly interested in, it doesn’t come as a surprise that these ads would perform quite well.

    Some of the developers that have already implemented ads from OneRiot include the popular multi-service IM client Digsby and the BlackBerry Twitter client ÜberTwitter. Ads are delivered through OneRiot’s API and developers have considerable freedom in how they use these ads.

    For additional information about OneRiot’s advertising network, also have a look at our earlier coverage here.

    Discuss


  • Google Adds Real-Time Updates from Business Owners to Place Pages

    place_paces_jan09.pngGoogle just launched an interesting update to its Google Local Business Center that makes Place Pages more interesting and interactive. After claiming their business through the Google Local Business Center, business owners can now easily post short updates about their companies on their respective Place Page. In addition, businesses that have been claimed by their owners will now feature a badge that highlights the fact that the actual owner of this business has claimed and improved the page.

    Sponsor

    With Place Pages, Google aims to offer “a webpage for every place in the world.” Most users access these pages through searches on Google Maps.

    post_to_place_page.jpgAs Google points out in today’s announcement, business owners can use the new “post to your place page” feature to post updates about their businesses directly from their dashboards. This gives local businesses the ability to send out updates about new products or – in the case of local restaurants – to highlight daily specials and new menu items.

    It’s also good to see that Google is now giving local business owners the ability to make it clear that they have claimed their Place Pages and improved them with updated information (opening hours, phone numbers, etc.). Even though Google is quite good at generating this information automatically, getting the information directly from the business owners is likely to improve the quality of these listings and will make the information more trustworthy.

    Discuss


  • BackType Now Filters Out Boring Tweets, Launches New WordPress Plugin

    backtype_logo_jan09.pngConversations around blog posts now often happen offsite on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Sadly, a lot of plugins that try to bring these conversation back to the blog end up being somewhat useless, as large numbers of retweets can easily overshadow the more interesting tweets. Twitter search engine BackType just launched a major update to its search engine and a new WordPress plugin that aim to combat this problem. Starting today, BackType will filter out uninteresting tweets from its search results and its widgets.

    Sponsor

    Widgets and Plugins

    Last April, BackType released its first WordPress plugin. Unlike the original plugin, which features comments from sources like Twitter, Digg, FriendFeed,Reddit and other blogs, the new plugin only focuses on Twitter.

    Installing the plugin is straightforward. If you use WordPress, you can find the plugin and instructions for installing it here. If you use another blog engine, the widget can be found here. You don’t need to register with BackType to use this service.

    If nobody has tweeted anything interesting about your site yet, BackType will give your readers the option to send a tweet right from the widget. Sadly, BackType didn’t integrate a re-tweet feature into the plugin, which would have made the service even more useful for publishers.

    Here is the new BackType widget in action:

    BackType is obviously working in a crowded market. As a search engine, it has to compete with successful startups like OneRiot, while its plugin competes with more complete offerings from Disqus and JS-Kit. At the same time, though, the simplicity of the plugin is its greatest strength. If you don’t want to replace your current comment system but would like to bring in more discussions from Twitter to your blog, the new BackType plugin is definitely worth a look.

    Discuss


  • Bing’s Loses Market Share, But Success Rate Is Up

    bing_logo_may09.pngGoogle still dominates the search market in in the U.S., while Bing, Yahoo and Ask lost a small slice of the market in December. According to the latest data from Hitwise, Google’s market share continues to hover around 72%. Yahoo now owns 14.83% of the search market and Bing accounted for 8.92% of all U.S. searches. Hitwise also looked at the success rates for the top search engines. Hitwise defines this as “the percentage of executed searches that result in a visit to a site other than a main search domain.” Here, Bing used to trail Yahoo and Google by a significant margin, but is now on par with Google.

    Sponsor

    Bing’s Success Rate

    Bing’s success rate is now over 75%, while Yahoo Search still leads among the top search engines with a 79% success rate. As Hitwise’s Bill Tancer points out, though, it is important to note that portal search engines generally see simpler queries and more of these queries are navigational or brand queries. Inevitably, these searches tend to have a higher success rate, and while only 9% of the top 100 search terms on Google are brand or navigational searches, these types of searches account for 15.1% of all searches on Yahoo Search and 16.5% of all searches on Bing.

    hitwise_bing_success_rate.png

    Maybe Measuring Success Rate Isn’t the Right Metric for Bing?

    It is important to remember that Microsoft’s strategy with Bing, however, is to give users more info on the site so that searchers don’t even have to leave Bing.com. Because of this, the Bing team probably wants to keep the success rate rather low. It would be interesting to see how many of the searches on Bing that Hitwise would qualify as unsuccessful were actually due to the fact that the user got the answer to a query right on the site.

    Discuss


  • Twitter’s International Growth Continues

    twitter_bird_apr_09.jpgWhile Twitter’s growth has slowed down in recent months, new data shows that the popular microblogging service has found a lot of new users outside of the United States. According to new data from social media analytics and monitoring firm Sysomos, the U.S. now accounts for about 50% of all active Twitter users. This is down sharply from 62% in June 2009. The share of Twitter users from Brazil, Indonesia and Germany, however, has grown significantly over the last six months.

    Sponsor

    Brazil, Indonesia and Germany

    Brazil now accounts for 8.8% of all Twitter users – up from just 2% in June. Indonesia’s Twitter users now account for 2.5% of all users (up from 0.5%). The percentage of German users among all Twitter users is now 2.5%, up from 1.5% in the middle of last year.

    Users from Brazil now represent Twitter’s second most active population, followed by the U.K. (7.2%), Canada (4.35%) and Germany (2.49%).

    Interestingly, the U.K. still leads Brazil when it comes to the number of total tweets contributed. Here the U.S. leads with 56.59% (down from 50.9% last year), followed by the U.K. (8.09%). Twitter’s Brazilian population contributed 6.73% of all tweets.

    twitter_countries_sysomos_jan09.png

    Twitter’s most active users can be found in New York City, London and Los Angeles. Twitter’s hometown of San Francisco is home to the company’s 10th most active group of users.

    These numbers clearly indicate that Twitter saw significant growth outside the U.S. over the last six months. You can find Sysomos’ full report here.

    Nobody is Using Geotagging

    Sysomos got this this data by analyzing the profiles of over 13 million unique Twitter users who were active between Oct. 16, 2009 and Dec. 16, 2009.

    Given the recent interest in geotagging and geolocation services, we also asked Sysomos to look at the percentage of tweets that are currently being tagged trough Twitter’s Geotagging API. While we didn’t expect that large numbers of users were currently attaching location data to their tweets, we were surprised by how low this number currently is. Sysomos scanned 10 million tweets from Monday and Tuesday this week. Only 0.23% of these had been tagged using the Geotagging API.

    Given that the API has only been available for a few month and that only a small number of Twitter clients currently supports this service, it doesn’t come us a surprise that only a few users are currently using this service. This small number, however, also indicates that users aren’t clamoring to tag their location to their tweets.

    Discuss


  • Internet Rallies to Help Haiti: Here’s What You Can Do Right Now

    haiti_flag_logo.pngAs you probably know, Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake last night. According to the latest estimates, over 100,000 people may have died and large parts of the island’s infrastructure have been destroyed.

    Here is a short list of things you can do right now to get help to Haiti. Just watch out for unsolicited emails. Quite a few scammers and spammers are trying to profit from this catastrophe and have set up fake donation sites and are running phishing scams.

    Sponsor

    Text to Give Money

    As Twitter’s Evan Williams just noted on the official Twitter blog, giving money to relief organizations has never been easier. All you need is your phone.

    • The American Red Cross allows anyone in the U.S. to text HAITI to 90999 as an easy way to donate $10 to the recovery effort. The money is billed to your mobile phone account. According to the latest tally, the Red Cross has already raised over $800,000 through text messages.
    • Musician Wyclef Jean’s Haiti-focused organization, Yele is also accepting text-message donations. To donate $5, text Yele to 501501 or visit the foundation’s Web site.

    Of course, all the major relief organizations also have websites and will happily accept your donations. Our friends at Mashable have compiled a good list of worthy organizations.

    Stay Informed

    Here are a few Twitter lists you can follow to stay informed.

    If you know of other news sources, local bloggers or organizations, let us know in the comments.

    Discuss


  • Do the Size of Mobile App Stores Still Matter?

    iphone_apps_logo_aug09.jpgAccording to Mplayit CEO Michael Powers, the size of a mobile platform’s app store is now mostly irrelevant. Facebook-based mobile app store Mplayit took a close look at the most popular apps for Android, BlackBerry and the iPhone and found that the most popular apps on all three platforms tend to be very similar. As the popular app stores continue to grow, users on all the major platforms also drift towards the same known brands and hits like EverNote and Pandora.

    Sponsor

    Mplayit also found that one of the fastest growing app categories across all the major platforms are barcode scanners. Apps like ShopSavvy and RedLaser have clearly hit upon an unfulfilled need.

    Size Doesn’t Matter

    According to Powers, asking how many apps exist for a given platform is now a moot question. All the major platforms now offer more than enough apps and as long as people can find the apps they are looking for – and as long as these apps are good – most consumers will be happy. Most users simply don’t need 50 different apps to write their grocery lists.

    Looking at Mplayit’s list of the most popular apps across the top platforms, it also becomes clear that quite a few of these categories are being dominated by known brands like Shazam, Pandora, Evernote and Facebook. Mplayit, of course, is in the business of giving app recommendations across platforms and doesn’t fail to note that it’s own store is a good alternative for finding apps outside of the standard top 20 charts.

    Or Does It?

    To some degree, Powers’ comments about the size of today’s app stores rings true. Maybe it really doesn’t matter that the Android store only features about 20,000 apps and that the Apple App Store now holds more than 100,000. Maybe it is true that consumers tend to gravitate towards the same brands on all platforms.

    At the same time, though, having more apps in the store also means that there is a more active developer ecosystem around a given platform. While iPhone developers rightly gripe about Apple’s approval process, we’ve seen a lot more innovative apps for the iPhone than for Android.

    Is the size of the Android market holding you back from making the switch? Do you think Android has enough good apps that make up for the smaller app store? Do you think the quality of today’s BlackBerry apps is good enough? Feel free to let us know in the comments.

    mplayit_popular_jan09.png

    Discuss


  • Businesses Need to Formalize Their Social Media Policies

    cisco_logo_jan09.pngAccording to a new study, enterprises continue to deploy social networking tools at an increasing pace. At the same time, though, this Cisco-sponsored study also found that a surprisingly small number of businesses have implemented formal processes and policies related to their use of social media. IT departments have also been left out of the loop when it comes to the adoption of social media tools. Only 10% of the respondents currently involve their IT departments as primary decision makers when it comes to choosing technologies for externally facing social networking initiatives.

    Sponsor

    This study was sponsored by Cisco and carried out by the IESE Business School in Spain, the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the U.S. and the Henley Business School in the United Kingdom. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 100 companies in Europe, Asia and Africa. These businesses were selected because they were early adopters of social media tools.

    Most of the interviewed companies are using social networks (75%) and micro-blogging tools (50%) as their primary tools to reach their audiences. The study found that social networking tools like blogs, Yammer, Facebook and Twitter are now being used by almost every department in these businesses.

    The Honeymoon is Over

    As Neil Hair, assistant professor of marketing at Rochester Institute of Technology and one of the lead researchers of this study told us yesterday, it is also important to note that “the honeymoon period” for social media in the enterprise is coming to an end. Early projects were often led by one or two early adopters who were enthusiastic about the possibilities of using social media tools in their companies. Now, more and more companies are seeing social media as an integral part in how they communicate with customers and vendors.

    Missing Pieces: Governance and IT

    Only 1 in 7 companies have formalized a process for adopting and deploying these tools, however. Only 1 in 5 of the interviewed companies have created internal policies that govern the use of these tools by their employees. As the researchers noted, quite a few companies struggle with finding the right balance between “the social and personal nature of these tools while maintaining some amount of corporate oversight.”

    Very few companies (1 in 10) report that their IT departments are directly involved in their social networking initiatives. As these tools become more important, however, the the demand on IT to integrate these tools into the existing infrastructure will surely rise as well.

    cisco_social_networking_enterprise_policies.jpg

    Discuss


  • Google Launches Flu Trends For 121 U.S. Cities

    google_flu_trends_logo_oct09.pngGoogle just launched an updated version of Google Flu Trends, a service that predicts flu trends by tracking flu-related queries on the company’s search engine. Until now, Google only showed aggregate data for states in the United States. Starting today, Flu Trends will show data down to the city level for 121 cities. As Google notes in today’s announcement, this update was timed to coincide with National Influenza Vaccination Week.

    Sponsor

    flu_trends_city_level.pngGoogle also offers Flu Trends data on a country level for Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and most of Western Europe. Data on Flu Trends is updated daily.

    By tracking flu-related queries, Google has already proven to be able to accurately predict the flu levels on a state and country level. It looks like Google now feels like its algorithms are accurate enough to predict influenza trends on a more granular level. Until Google is able to validate this data, however, the company is labeling the city level estimates as “experimental.”

    Google and Google.org – Google’s non profit foundation – sponsor a number of influenza-related projects. Google, for example, now offers a vaccine-finding map and the company is working with the Public Library of Science (PLoS) to to give give scientists a place to collaborate and share research on influenza research on Google Knol.

    Discuss


  • Going Mainstream: eMusic Signs Deal with Warner Music

    emusic_logo_jul09.pngEMusic, the popular subscription-based music service, just announced that it has signed a deal with Warner Music, the world’s third-largest music company. This is eMusic’s second deal with a major record label. In its early days, eMusic mostly focused on featuring music from independent labels. Since the middle of 2009, however, eMusic has worked on expanding its reach by bringing more mainstream music to its catalog. The company announced a deal with Sony Music in June 2008.

    Sponsor

    Today’s deal with Warner Music allows the company to add 10,000 additional albums from Warner labels like Atlantic Records and Rhino Records. Thanks to this, eMusic will now be able to feature music from artists like Eric Clapton, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Depeche Mode. EMusic has about 400,000 paying subscribers.

    From Quirky to Mainstream

    For eMusic, this transition towards a catalog that focuses more on mainstream tastes has been rocky. When eMusic added the Sony Music catalog to its repertoire, the company also had to raise its subscription prices. Quite a few of eMusic’s most loyal users were unhappy with the direction the service was going and left the service. So far, however, eMusic’s users have reacted positively to the Warner deal.

    Streaming Coming Soon?

    According to eMusic CEO Danny Stein, the company also wants to offer a streaming music service in the near future. Stein told Reuters that the company still has to work out deals with the respective rights holders, though. Given that Apple just bought streaming music service LaLa, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that eMusic is also looking at streaming music. As consumers warm up to services like Pandora and LaLa, download services like LaLa and Apple’s iTunes have to react to the trend.

    Discuss


  • Google Plans to Upgrade Old Billboards in Street View

    google_dec_08.jpgAccording to a new patent that was just granted to Google, the company could soon extend the reach of its advertising program in Google Maps to Street View. This patent, which was originally filed on July 7, 2008, describes a new system for promoting ads in online mapping applications. In this patent, Google describes how it plans to identify buildings, posters, signs and billboards in these images and give advertisers the ability to replace these images with more up-to-date ads. In addition, Google also seems to plan an advertising auction for unclaimed properties.

    Sponsor

    In Google’s example, the software could identify the marquis and individual window posters on a theater property and replace them with new information. Through this, a theater could promote a new play in Street View, even if the actual Street View image is completely out of date.

    google_augmented_ads.jpg

    The patent describes a two-step process for identifying potential advertising real estate in these images. Google’s software first identifies interest points in the image (e.g. the edges or corners of an object) and then generates features around these interest points. Google can then augment this region of the image with a link or replace a part of the current Street View image with a new image.

    google_augmented_ads_placement.jpg

    What Happens When Somebody Wants to Put a Virtual Ad on Your Real-Life Billboard?

    One of the most interesting aspects of the patent can be found in the following paragraph:

    The link can be associated with a property owner, for example the property owner which owns the physical property portrayed. The link can alternatively be associated with an advertiser who placed the highest bid on the image recognized within the region of interest (e.g., poster, billboard, banner, etc.). Any portion of the geographic display image in which the region of interest is located can be selectable (e.g., hot-linked). For example, the image of the coffee shop can be hot-linked to an advertisement for the coffee shop.

    This does open up some interesting questions. It makes perfect sense for the owner of a local coffee shop to advertise through this system, but in this patent, Google also describes an advertising auction. Does that mean that a rival coffee shop could also bid for ad space on the virtual image of a competitor’s store in Street View? Chances are this isn’t quite what Google has in mind, though it could definitely be a possibility. Instead, it looks like Google could potentially identify some billboards and banners in Street View images and then replace these real-life billboards with virtual ads from the highest bidders.

    Discuss