Amazon: a Template for Shops?
Bustos: Amazon, the gold standard in eCommerce, and 10 reasons not to copy them; http://j.mp/9cAdZC (via @mseibert)
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Tagged: Amazon RSS
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Gerrit Eicker
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Gerrit Eicker
Net Neutrality: Facebook vs. Google
Facebook breaks with Google: continues to support net neutrality for landline and wireless networks; http://j.mp/a4Yvzb
Gerrit Eicker
eBooks vs. Books
Why eBooks are better than paper books: highlighting, notes, look-ups, social media and search; http://j.mp/btdjXw
Gerrit Eicker
Amazon Goes Facebook
Amazon connects to Facebook, suggests products and gifts for friends; http://j.mp/cbzd8B
Gerrit Eicker
Gerrit Eicker
Google Editions and Small Bookstores
Google Editions partners with the American Booksellers Association, an ally for small bookstores? http://j.mp/cAtNHv
Gerrit Eicker
The Internet
Naughton: 9 key steps to understanding the most powerful tool of our age, the Internet; http://j.mp/b7puKP
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Gerrit Eicker
Naughton: “The strange thing about living through a revolution is that it’s very difficult to see what’s going on. … We’re living through a radical transformation of our communications environment. … Often, these interpretations are compressed into vivid slogans, memes or aphorisms: information ‘wants to be free’; the ‘long tail’ is the future of retailing; ‘Facebook just seized control of the internet’, and so on. … Here’s a radical idea: why not see if there’s anything to be learned from history? … So let’s conduct what the Germans call a Gedankenexperiment – a thought experiment. Imagine that the net represents a similar kind of transformation in our communications environment to that wrought by printing. What would we learn from such an experiment? … The most common – and still surprisingly widespread – misconception is that the internet and the web are the same thing. They’re not. … Disruption is a feature, not a bug. … The internet’s disruptiveness is a consequence of its technical DNA. … Think ecology, not economics. … Complexity is the new reality. … [Common] strategies are unlikely to work in our emerging environment, where intelligence, agility, responsiveness and a willingness to experiment (and fail) provide better strategies for dealing with what the networked environment will throw at you. … The network is now the computer. … The Web is changing. … Huxley and Orwell are the bookends of our future. … Our intellectual property regime is no longer fit for purpose. … The sad fact is that if there is a ‘truth’ about the internet, it’s rather prosaic: to almost every big question about the network’s long-term implications the only rational answer is the one famously given by Mao Zedong’s foreign minister, Zhou Enlai, when asked about the significance of the French Revolution: ‘It’s too early to say.’ It is.“
Gerrit Eicker
We, the Google Killer
Atkins-Krüger: The Google Killer will come from the organisation connecting human knowledge mobile; http://j.mp/bqJZY5
Gerrit Eicker
Gerrit Eicker
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Gerrit Eicker
pC: “A question for you. When was the last time you surfed the net? Can you remember when you just clicked around looking to discover new sites or a site to occupy your time? Now ask yourself when was the last time you sat on your couch or laid in bed clicking the remote looking for something to watch on TV. Finally, how long do you regularly spend on Facebook? How much time do you spend checking out your Wall, your friends’ Wall and hopping from profile to profile checking people out? … Everything that the net was 5 or more years ago, Facebook is today. … Facebook is putting out trojan horse after trojan horse and no one seems to care. The only thing FB has not done is create a mobile operating system ala Android/iPhone as a platform for applications. … There is no doubt that this is NOT the direction that Facebook wants to go. They want to remain independent. But just as Apple and Google quickly turned from friend to foes, Facebook will soon be the object that both of those companies see in the rearview mirror. I don’t see either Apple or Google as being suitors to buy Facebook. That isnt their style. On the other hand, its straight out of the Microsoft playbook. If you cant beat them or outlast them, buy them.”
TC: “The fact of the matter is that Facebook is one of the most powerful forces on the web and they’re now using that position to introduce a new platform that will yes, help them. Shocking, really. A company that wants to do something that will benefit itself. But I do believe that Facebook, at least in part, believes this will also make the larger web better too. But that’s not going to be good enough for some, because it’s not fully open. Nevermind that plenty of these fully open solutions always being advocated never make it off the ground for one reason or another. … Of course, then publishers don’t have to use Facebook’s Like button. But they will — I can think of nearly 500 million reasons why. Love it or hate it, that’s the way it is. It’s not good versus evil. It’s not black versus white. It’s a million shades of gray, as always.”
VB: “Concerns are already rising among users around overly sharing of personal information. ComputerWorld’s IT Blogwatch bloggers spotlight several concerjs, including the automatic opt-in to share your information when visiting websites through Facebooks new open graph feature.”
TNW: “There has been a lot of chatter, since Facebook’s F8 announcements, about how the company will be the downfall of Google. Or, in some cases, the chatter is about how it will push Google to do what it does in a different manner. … Face it, you wouldn’t dream of doing investigation for a research project using Facebook search. That is of course, unless that research were more appropriate to what Facebook does. … The question that arises, though (especially given the power behind the social graph API), is how long this situation will remain as it is. Will Google eventually have to step up its game directly to combat Facebook? It’s possible. Not likely, but possible.”
RWW: “Facebook Open Graph: The Definitive Guide For Publishers, Users and Competitors. … The bits of this platform bring together the visions of a social, personalized and semantic Web that have been discussed since del.icio.us pioneered Web 2.0 back in 2004. Facebook’s vision is both minimalistic and encompassing – but its ambition is to kill off its competition and use 500 million users to take over entire Web. – Whether we like it (pun intended) or not, we have to understand what this move means. … With this release, Facebook asks users if they are willing to trade off privacy for personalization. To be clear, no personalization is ever possible without users telling a system about their tastes. What Facebook is asking for is necessary in order to then create personalized Web experience. Whether users want this sort of thing is a different question, but assuming that you want to know more about your friends you will. … So any site that already has social networking built in has to decide to abandon that before jumping into the Facebook Open Graph. The even worse problem is the ownership of ratings and comments. Are publishers really ready to give that up? … This is aggressive and brilliant move by Facebook – and Twitter, Google, Yahoo, MySpace, AOL, eBay, Amazon and others, except for Microsoft, should be really worried. … Technically speaking, what Facebook has done is elegant and correct. From markup, to plugins, to API, all of it is modern and awesome. The missing bit is that Facebook appears to be the only repository of data in this equation – and that makes the whole offering seriously closed. … One of the most exciting parts of the Facebook announcement to me personally is the possible breakthrough in semanticizing the Web. … Facebook made a major chess move. It might have checkmated its competitors, or perhaps it might have to lose another piece like it lost Beacon. Whichever is the case, right now there are deep implications for Facebook and its competitors, publishers, users and the Web at large. What Facebook has announced cannot be ignored and can not be undone. Everyone needs to figure out the next steps and understand what to do.“
Twitter: “Twitter @earlybird Exclusive Offers are special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events that are promoted by the official Twitter @earlybird account. We partner with select advertisers and retweet offers that they have crafted only for the Twitter community. Our advertising partners determine the terms of the offer, including availability, amount, and price. As with other forms of advertising from Twitter, we are focused on bringing value to our users and will keep your interests in mind as we develop this program. … Does Twitter make money from this? – Yes, we earn revenue through our relationships with advertisers. Our focus will be to try and make these deals interesting and of value to you. We take pride in being selective about the type of deals we highlight and hope they will be an exciting way to start your day.”
NYT: “The idea borrows from private and limited-time sale sites, like Gilt, Groupon and Woot (which Amazon.com recently acquired), a recent trend in online shopping. It also takes advantage of what companies like Dell, which attributes millions of dollars in sales to posting deals on Twitter, are already doing. … The first deal will appear soon, Mr. Garrett said. They will initially be nationwide, but Twitter is considering offering deals specific to cities or countries later on. If @earlybird takes off, Twitter could become a competitor to Groupon and the many other local daily deal sites, as well as to Woot, Gilt and others.”
VB: “Twitter is taking a page from some heavily venture-backed startups in flash sales and social buying like Gilt Groupe and Groupon that offer limited-time only deals sometimes paired with built-in viral mechanics that deepen the discount if friends are recruited. It’s not clear if viral mechanics will come to play as central a role to EarlyBird as they have been for other social buying startups. Right now, it looks like a very simple first come, first served model.”
TC: “Twitter outlines that it has deals with select advertisers in place, but welcomes suggestions of a product/event sent by @reply to @earlybird. Nevertheless, since Twitter clearly looks at this like a significant potential revenue stream, they are keen on emphasizing that it will be selective about the type of deals they highlight.”
Guardian: “If early reports from Coca-Cola are anything to go by, promoting products directly through Twitter is proving a lucrative return on modest investment. Speaking to the Financial Times last week, Carol Kruse, vice-president for global interactive marketing at Coca-Cola, said the number of impressions (views of the sponsored trending topic) Coca-Cola had received in the short period from launch had been ‘phenomenal’ – 86m in 24 hours with an ‘engagement rate’ of 6%, compared with the average 0.02% of users engaging with a standard online advertisement.”
RWW: “Opt-in subscription to advertising as part of a user’s social stream is likely to be a very important model in making social media financially viable. Facebook today unveiled a radical new subscription recommendation feature that is similar if more sophisticated looking and non-commercial so far.”
TNW: “Apparently Twitter just hasn’t branched out quite enough to keep itself happy yet. Bearing that in mind, the same birds that carry away the failwhale seem to have some spare time on their hands, so they’re out scouring the Internet looking for bargains.”
RWW: “It’s a nicely poetic slide into second base when it comes to Twitter advertising. @earlybird focuses on the ‘you saw it first’ experience that is one of the main attractors of users to the Twitter service.“