There has been a huge amount of buzz regarding Google OpenSocial, the new social application platform for developing common APIs using relatively open standards that launched yesterday. With huge names in the social world jumping on the bandwagon (MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, etc) with an overall network of users that greatly outnumbers Facebook, it is understandable why everyone is so excited. This news promises decreased development costs, richer applications, wider marketing reach, social networks coming together, peace love and happiness in the cyberworld...
But pushing the hype aside, let’s take a closer look at who is OpenSocial good for?
(Answer after the fold...)
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Hulu’s recent decision to reject 30-second pre-roll ads falls in line with the stance taken by YouTube back in August. Both video platforms have opted for overlays, initiated by Videoegg and ScanScout, which they deem more conducive to satisfying user experiences. However, for its long-form content (half and full hour programs), Hulu offers sponsor introductions starting at two minutes of pre-show ads for half hour programs.
While Hulu and YouTube have chosen not to run pre-roll ads, a study released by the Online Publishing Association (OPA) in June calls into questions whether pre-rolls should be rejected outright. The study claims that consumers 30-second ads are more effective at driving brand awareness, likeability, and consideration than shorter ads.
While it may not come as a shock that longer ads promote these brand attributes, the study does not measure the impact that these ads have on the user experience. Google/YouTube fought back two months later, citing their research that suggested that abandonment rates were nearly 75% with 15-second ads while only 10% with the overlays. They continued to note that click rates on the overlay ads were around 1-2% and that 75% of those watched the entire ad.
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So everyone was talking about the Google Phone. Now everyone is talking about Android. It’s not iPhone-level buzz. Not yet anyway. If you don’t know the details, well, Google “Open Handset Alliance”. The short answer is it’s a bunch of wireless players (T-Mobile, Sprint, HTC, Samsung, Motorola and the like) getting together with Google around a new, open platform for wireless devices.
So what do the participants get out of it?
Google gets an opportunity to become a major part of the wireless landscape and to significantly extend its ad network.
The lagging carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile get a platform that, in theory, enables them to develop richer data applications more quickly and easily. It’s also probably the closest that they’ll get to countering the iPhone in the mid-term. The brand association with Google probably doesn’t hurt either.
For manufacturers, Android will simply be added to the stable of platforms they use in developing new devices. HTC, for example, is currently developing a new device using Android, but isn’t planning to abandon Windows Mobile 6 used in most of its current smart phones.
So what about consumers? I’ve seen very little talk about what the user gets out of this. Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO said "The fundamental problem that most phones people have today is that they don't have fully powered Web browsers." It is? I’d say one of the more fundamental problems they typical user would note is that the phones don’t perform as they expect them to.
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