Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
“We will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to be social,” says Charlene Li at Forrester Research, a consultancy. Future social networks, she thinks, “will be like air. They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be.” - The Economist
As much as I’m a marketer and would love to believe this, I think it’s just flat inaccurate.
This prediction completely discounts the fact that part of what makes the Internet the Internet, is because of commerce. Commerce exists by the nature of creating significant value to others.
Because of this, there will always be newer networks with newer technologies. Newer networks with different demographics. Newer networks with varying costs (not just currency) to participate.
Whenever I see claims like this, I come back to other functions that exist due to the fundamentally social nature of humans: BBS systems and message boards. While certainly widespread, they are separate and distinct in their own markets. You do not see my message board posts on Yahoo!’s customizable home page.
Will there be aggregators, such as with RSS and e-mail? Absolutely. But they will be separate functions and networks of their own.
Is it archaic that we go to coffee shops to be social, when we can make coffee or hang out with others in our own homes? What about going to restaurants to eat food, when we can eat in our own homes?
The reality is that a portal exists because people want disparate information aggregated. A social network exists because people want to socialize online. Search engines exist because people want to find things more easily.
There’s a reason why Starbucks isn’t known for their dinner meals.
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
StumbleVideo launched today and Andy Beal got a first look, digging in with yet another thorough writeup.
With the launch of StumbleVideo, the company is betting that people will enjoy discovering new videos in the very same way, and spend even more time “channel surfing”. “People demand instant access to online video content that’s personally gratifying, and they don’t want to spend all day looking for it. That’s where StumbleUpon fits in,” says Feller. “StumbleVideo allows people to discover great videos they would likely never find using traditional keyword searches. The experience is like channel surfing through video content that is laser-targeted to your tastes.”
And without further ado: First Look: StumbleUpon Announces New Video Surfing Site, StumbleVideo
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
I have to admit something first: I’m totally stoked about the potential in the mobile market. After going to a few sessions at SES Chicago and getting a MUCH better grasp of what’s happening in the mobile space and why it’s so significant, part of me has been quite consumed by the industry.
Ok, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I feel much better.
I had the pleasure of seeing/hearing Matt Tengler, Senior Product Manager at JumpTap, speak on the many ways that they are advancing the market. Let me tell you, I was very impressed.
Not only does JumpTap provide mobile search, but they also provide the advertising that goes alongside it, a way for mobile publishers to monitize their content and ways that mobile operators can provide a more useful browsing experience. Basically, they’re pretty much leading the way in creating this industry.
With the announcement that Virgin Mobile USA is going to be utilizing JumpTap for search and their search advertising, this is a huge win for both JumpTap and the growth of the mobile industry…if for no other reason than deals like this validating its future to those who may still be skeptical. (ie: us Americans who are so connected to our laptops for Internet access when so much of the rest of the world is using their phones as the primary device for online access.)
Keep an eye on the mobile space. And keep an eye on JumpTap.
Wednesday, December 13th, 2006
IBM has decided that Second Life has become to valuable to ignore and has decided to launch a Second Life Business Group.
Second Life is one of the main areas in the new IBM group, but not the only one, Wladawsky-Berger said. “I really believe that highly visual and collaborative interfaces will become very important in the way we interact with all IT applications in the future,” he said.
I’m curious as to what those other groups are. I would be willing to bet that MySpace, FaceBook and Bebo would be included in there.
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