State of the Blogosphere 2010
Technorati Blogosphere 2010: lines between blogs, microblogs, social networks are disappearing; http://eicker.at/Blogosphere2010
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Gerrit Eicker
Facebook Mobile
Facebook launches: new iPhone/Android apps, Single Sign-on via Places API, Facebook Deals; http://eicker.at/FacebookMobile
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Gerrit Eicker
TNW: “Facebook held its ‘mobile event’ for over 7,000 viewers. In his opening remarks, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, ‘Our goal is to make it so that no matter what platform you are building, your apps can be social…And that over the next few years, entire industries will be rethought as social applications.‘ He also mentioned that 200 million people now use Facebook via mobile devices.”
Ray, Forrester: “Today’s pronouncements demonstrate the ambition and vision Facebook has for itself in mobile computing and socializing over the long term, but in the immediate future Facebook now is poised to bring the wonders of checking in to the masses. … Facebook’s new Deals feature is uniquely positioned to bring rapid changes to consumer behavior over the next year. Here’s why: First, Facebook is a platform with 500 million avid users (compared to the 4 million who currently use Foursquare), and with each passing month more consumers are accessing and updating Facebook via their smartphones. Second, Facebook’s new Deal platform is free for marketers and SMBs; anyone who claims a location on the Facebook Places platform can easily and quickly launch an offer. Finally, marketers are lining up to create offers on this new Facebook platform. … One outstanding question is how Facebook’s new Places features will affect the fledgling LBS category. … It seems evident to me that the LBS space is in for some profound changes in the coming year as Facebook Places becomes as familiar to Facebook users as status updates and fan pages are today.”
SEL: “The world of location-based services changed dramatically today. And the changes that Facebook announced place the company firmly in the center of that very dynamic universe and ecosystem. – Toward the end of becoming a “platform” for mobile, Facebook made several significant announcements aimed at developers. There were also announcements aimed at consumers and marketers, ‘Deals’ being the big one. … It thus appears very simple to create an offer for Facebook Deals. The simplicity of this page will be significant for the millions of small businesses that will undoubtedly be interested getting access to this offering. And it will be opened up to small businesses in the near future – initially 20,000 and then the broader audience. … Deals will be a big hit with both consumers and marketers, whether large or small. Coupons is one of the most effective and popular forms of mobile advertising and Facebook’s reach will make it a huge player in this segment. – It will take a little while to digest all the implications of these announcements as well as to see their impact on the market and the mobile ecosystem as a whole. But I’m pretty confident that they’ll be significant and even lasting.”
IF: “Facebook is seeking to allow developers to build in a social environment no matter what phone they’re building on, whether that’s RIM, Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, or the mobile web. The company recently reached the milestone of 200 million people actively using Facebook mobile products across all platforms. … ‘You can rethink any product area to be social, have it be more engaging, have it grow virally, and remake whole industries’ says Zuckerberg.”
VB: “With a new single sign-on feature, Facebook aims to become the way users log into all their mobile applications. It’s already doing this to some extent, by allowing users to log into non-Facebook websites using Facebook Connect, but the company’s mobile chief, Erick Tseng, said the goal here is to make the process as simple as possible on phones, where typing in user names and passwords can be a huge pain. … On the privacy front, the news today doesn’t seem hugely significant, but I still expect some complaints when users start seeing Facebook data showing up in other apps.”
Guardian: “Facebook today revealed a series of improvements to its service on mobile devices in a move that lays the foundations for new revenue streams from retail stores, venues and small businesses. – Mobile is seen as a powerful platform for the expansion of Facebook, particularly in the developing world where internet adoption is increasingly skipping desktop computers and growing rapidly on the mobile web. … Facebook’s head of mobile business, Henri Moissinac, told the Guardian the improvement could be interesting for developers. ‘Augmented-reality apps like Layar will be able to visualise deals in real-time around a user’s location,’ he said.”
Gerrit Eicker
Facebook Places
Facebook cements location, Facebook Places as a key feature of future developement; http://eicker.at/FacebookLBS
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Gerrit Eicker
TNW: “Obviously, today’s event cemented location/Places as a key feature of Facebook. Expanding the ability to check-in on Android is an especially good move for Facebook at this point, as is the opening up of its Places APIs to all developers. Before today, the Places platform was simply too limiting to show what it is capable of, and now we should start to get a taste of that potential (or not). … Facebook, for the foreseeable future, is dependent on Apple’s and Google’s location determination. – Of course, once Facebook has that, it then translates that to its own Places database (and/or compares it to the third-party check-in app that is feeding Places) or users can create the venue. This last part was a huge issue at smaller location startups, and Facebook said that it realizes that this will be a hurdle to get over with Places moving forward. … What Facebook will end up doing beyond today, we’ll have to wait and see, but it certainly sounded from my discussions that the wish lists is already quite long, and that Facebook expects that those future enhancements will allow it to dominate this space.“
Gerrit Eicker
Pirates!
Arrington: If you have not started a company… you are no pirate and you are not in the club; http://eicker.at/Pirates
Gerrit Eicker
Google Boost
Google automates keyword determination and bidding for local business ads with Google Boost; http://eicker.at/GoogleBoost
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Gerrit Eicker
Google: “Boost enables business owners to easily create online search ads from directly within their Google Places account. No ongoing management is needed after the initial set up, and this beta is currently available to select local businesses in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago. – Boost ads are eligible to appear in the ‘Sponsored Links’ section of Google.com and Google Maps search result pages. … To create your ad, all that is required is a short business description, a web or Place page, your business categories and a monthly budget. From there, our system automatically sets up your ad campaign – figuring out the relevant keywords that will trigger your ad to appear on Google and Google Maps, and how to get the most out of the budget you allotted.”
RWW: “As a program of Google Places, Boost could offer substantial monetization that would enable Places to experiment with other innovative location-based technologies outside of advertising. Consulting analyst firm PSFK has identified what it calls Pre-View, real-time data and video served up from local shops, as a key part of the future of retail, for example. Experiments or acquisitions in that field could be made all the more feasible by a fat pipeline of revenue produced by local advertising made easier through automation.”
SEL: “I just spoke to Google and discovered that agencies and third parties managing multiple SMB AdWords accounts cannot get access to these ads at present. I also discovered that $50 is the minimum monthly spend regardless of location or category. However dollar figures and estimated clicks will be category and be location sensitive. Advertisers can spend more than the suggested maximum by using the custom button to specify a higher or different amount.”
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jk73
It is clearly an extension of a businesses investment in local and Google’s interest in all things local and mobile at the moment. However, my biggest concern is how will you be able to monitor and control spend and CPA?
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Gerrit Eicker
Obviously you can only control your monthly spend: convenience vs. control.
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Gerrit Eicker
Google Small Business Blog
Google: Most every business, including ours, starts small. Introducing the Small Business Blog; http://j.mp/GoogleSMB
Gerrit Eicker
Microlending Blossoms
Backing a hot dog stand: Microlending via sites like Kiva is no longer just for the developing world; http://j.mp/8YLqxe
Gerrit Eicker
Silentale
Keep track of your contacts and conversations: Silentale is a kind of personal CRM system; http://j.mp/9joZZW
Gerrit Eicker 08:35 on 5. November 2010 Permalink |
Technorati: “The 2010 edition of State of the Blogosphere finds blogs in transition – no longer an upstart community, now with influence on mainstream narratives firmly entrenched, with bloggers still searching for the next steps forward. Bloggers’ use of and engagement with various social media tools is expanding, and the lines between blogs, micro-blogs, and social networks are disappearing. As the blogosphere converges with social media, sharing of blog posts is increasingly done through social networks – even while blogs remain significantly more influential on blog content than social networks are. – The significant growth of mobile blogging is a key trend this year. Though the smartphone and tablet markets are still relatively new and most analysts expect them to grow much larger, 25% of all bloggers are already engaged in mobile blogging. And 40% of bloggers who report blogging from their smartphone or tablet say that it has changed the way they blog, encouraging shorter and more spontaneous posts. – Another important trend is the influence of women and mom bloggers on the blogosphere, mainstream media, and brands. Their impact is perhaps felt most strongly by brands, as the women and mom blogger segment is the most likely of all to blog about brands. In addition to conducting our blogger survey, we interviewed 15 of the most influential women in social media and the blogosphere. – These changes are occurring in the context of great optimism about the medium: over half of respondents plan on blogging more frequently in the future, and 43% plan on expanding the topics that they blog about. Bloggers who get revenue from blogging are generally blogging more this year than they were last year. And 48% of all bloggers believe that more people will be getting their news and entertainment from blogs in the next five years than from the traditional media. We’ve also asked consumers about their trust and attitudes toward blogs and other media: 40% agree with bloggers’ views, and their trust in mainstream media is dropping.“