Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

For some, it's coffee. For others, it's thinking about what awaits them at home. And for a select few, it's about what is at home. For those like Molly Layton, working from home has it pluses -- including being able to take a break from the digital world to enjoy time with her favorite co-worker: Riley.
 

It's hard to have a bad day when there is a dog curled up on your feet. While it can sometimes be difficult to conduct business as usual, it is not impossible.  I recall more than a few conference calls that were interrupted by some fierce barking on my end, usually at the postal delivery service. I'm blessed with great co-workers in both my home and business offices though, which means once everyone has shouted "Hi Riley," and laughed a bit, we've always been able to get back to the business at hand, with the mood of the participants noticeably lightened.

Pets are generally patient creatures - they also possess an uncanny ability to intuit or sense when owner stress levels are rising. Once they pick up on it, they seek to intervene. You may be able to put them off for a little while, like postponing an internal meeting, but the longer you make them wait, the more disruptive they tend to become. It is, I would say, generally perilous to ignore them.

The results of taking their urgent calls, and following their lead, so to speak, can be surprisingly productive. Sometimes Riley and I play, sometimes we go off leash and tear up the park, and sometimes we just wander and sniff every little corner of this fabulously smelly world. Often I find that complex problems (that no amount of time spent in front of my screen have solved)  miraculously resolve themselves in my head while my body is in motion.

Spending time like this, I've begun to see that the break from work is just as valuable as the time spent working. I'm grateful for my office manager, Riley, who helps me to get back on track, whenever I begin to stray.

But what about those of us who work in an office every day? There have been plenty of studies that show pets in the work place are beneficial. Many sources (including the American Humane Association) state they can:

1. Improve morale
2. Increase productivity
3. Inspire better performance
4. Reduce stress
5. Lower absenteeism
6. Increase willingness to work longer hours
7. Act as ice-breakers during client visits
 
And it looks like many companies have tried it out. If that's a requirement for you, use Simply Hired to find your next dog-friendly employer. When offices do allow you to bring in your pet, they usually have policies -- to keep it fun. Guidelines like only on certain days/times, sign up sheets, "three strikes you're out" in regards to accidents, no barking, must be clean and on a leash often apply. 

Organic, Inc. is the first company I've worked for that offers pet insurance -- in both our U.S. and our Canadian offices to help cover the costs of your pet's healthcare. At first, I thought it was silly. Since, I've come to believe it says a lot about the company.

A happy puppy is just as cheerful as the new mom bringing in her newborn and provides a pleasant lift in the atmosphere.
 
Are pets the break we need to pull us out of this interactive universe and clear our heads? Does your office allow pets?
 
Molly Layton
Sarah Jo Sautter

Exhibit A: BooneOakley's new website.



Did you click? Press play. But try clicking from the traditional URL too: booneoakley.com. See how you were seamlessly ported off to the YouTube video. It is the agency's site. One that has embedded links to the portfolio and all other points of relevant interest. And all presented in convenient YouTube format. Shareable, embeddable, and comment-able. And , as one commenter noted: "Boone Oakley - 1, The rest of you hacks - 0."

Exhibit B: Getyourbasketballon.com.



Blast Radius hires Charlie Murphy from The Chappelle Show to star in an elaborate and ingenious mythology around the man who beat out Michael Jordan for the last spot on his 10th grade basketball team: Leroy Smith. Deliberately lo-fi, the site's brilliant integration of YouTube and social media is matched by the talent on hand. Better still, it promotes Nike subsidiary, Brand Jordan, without a single Jumpman logo to be seen. And Charlie Murphy as a ludicrous basketball motivational specialist? It's like unaired Chappelle show sketches.

Now, for the rest of us? Time to get our YouTube on.

Daniel Turman

PS. Hat tip to Sacha Reeb for finding the BooneOakley site and providing the following commentary: "Smart site placement. Direct viral path. Endless seeding possibilities." Agreed. See Exhibit A.

PPS. Not all of the Leroy story is a myth. He really did beat out Jordan for the one spot for a sophomore on their team, largely because he was taller. And as an homage, Jordan used the name "Leroy Smith" as his alias when checking into hotels throughout his career.

San Francisco residents now have an easier way to complain. Mayor Gavin Newsom, a big Twitter user (he first announced his bid for governor of California via Twitter), is looking to kick the city's customer service up a notch. Residents (or really anybody that's on Twitter) can send Tweets to @SF311 reporting potholes, city de-beautification adbandoned vehicles and more.

Based on the Tweet signatures, it looks like the city has a couple people devoted to reading and responding to these Tweets. They say they want to reciprocate the follow, but they are currently only following about half of their followers. But I guess I should give them some slack. It's only their first day at this. (And they already have 28 Tweets!)

They also encourage you to direct message (DM) your complaints.

"Hi, we're processing your Tweet. For faster service, please us a DM as only DM's are monitored real time"

Initially it sounds like an efficient means for resolving problems. If this works, it'll be interesting to see if other cities follow. But I see a few things that may cause some hang-ups.

1. How do you detail your complaint in 140 characters or less? Some problems just require more explanation.
2. How do they keep it positive? Why would I want to follow them? Will they ever start the conversation instead of just responding to it?
3. Can't you only DM someone if they're following you? So how will that service request response work if there's no follow?

Would you like to see your city do this? And do you think it makes for faster resolution of city problems?

NOTE: Thanks to David Feldt for the news.
Sarah Jo Sautter

In mid-April 2009, two Domino's pizza employees decided it would be funny to pull a little YouTube prank. One employee prepared sandwiches for delivery while putting cheese up his nose and blowing nasal mucus on the sandwiches - all while his co-worker provided up-close camera work and a play-by-play narrative. Within 24 hours, over a million people had viewed the video. The incident brought a whole new meaning to brand reputation "nose-dive". Domino's sales plunged overnight.

In mid-May 2009, Michael Silveira - a 22 year old lab technician who does not own a car, got fed up with receiving unsolicited phones calls to purchase an auto warranty. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Silveira decided to seek revenge on the auto-warranty company by leaving voice-message recordings of Rick Astley's 1987 song "Never gonna give you up" - sort of an audio version of "RickRolling". Silveira invited other disgruntled customers to join him in his crusade- by publicly posting phone numbers and addresses on various activist sites. The online mob resulted in overloaded phone lines, changed voice mail greetings and even arson threats for the Irvine, CA based warranty company, AutoOne.

FRIEND OR FOE?
Both of these powerful examples prove the new social media customer service formula: one outraged customer + two fast typing thumbs + 50 Twitter followers = a formula for corporate catastrophe. If there was ever a time for companies to step-up their customer service practice, that time is now.

According to a study by the London School of Economics, brands must increase positive word of mouth by 7% to generate 1% of business growth - or reduce negative word of mouth by 2%. Which proves: negative word of mouth adversely impacts business growth. With today's available social media, the potential for bad word of mouth to go viral is greater than ever. Disappoint just one customer - and be ready for the possibility that she tells her circle of social media friends, and so on, and so on - to create a wildfire swirl of "bad-vocacy" about your company.

There is good news however. Besides customer service, social media can be used to successfully blend initiatives of other traditionally siloed aspects of business- research, marketing, sales, and product development. Most businesses are still fumbling their way to adapting to this new model. Even though their customer's conversation draws no lines between these topics- the disciplines are still disparate within their organization. But some companies are successfully proving communicating through social media does, in fact, result in business gains.

Data has long been pervasive. Humans seem endlessly intrigued with cataloging and collecting things. We are constantly looking back to look forward. Historical data has helped us prepare for re-occurrences and understand complicated spans of time that may be seemingly unrelated. Data is becoming increasingly easier and easier to collect and it's really starting to pile up.

Numbers by themselves can never tell a story and that's where the fun begins. Visualizing and finding/telling interesting stories with these mountains of data has become almost as important as the data itself.

I am so impressed by both ends of the data visualization spectrum. Taking huge data sets that appear insurmountable and creating visually stunning works of art that allow a viewer to dive into. These often create lasting impressions and let viewers experience the data as a piece of art containing layers and layers of information. Equally impressive, if not more important is the ability to tell concise stories by stripping the data down to its most crystallized form. Making complex data sets accessible and approachable is a task of flawless organization and design restraint.

Here are some recent data visualization pieces that I have found intriguing. Hope you enjoy.

Random Walk. What does randomness look like?

The World of 100. What would a world with a village of 100 people look like? Think beautiful posters with simple vector graphics that related to statistical slices of the world. Gender, Literacy, Education, Food and Computers are just a few.

Roambi: An iPhone app dedicated to the display of data.

Do these representations resonate with you more than straight up text would?

Dwayne Raupp

The 2009 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is just around the corner. Rumors of new iPhone hardware and software are running rampant. One frequently surfaced request (or more accurately, complaint) is the lack of Flash support on iPhone and iPod touch. While I can see why the general public raises that question, I am perplexed when it comes from technology pundits/bloggers and interaction design professionals. Simply put: Flash is ill suited for the touch interface.

Consider the following issues:

1. Rollover does not compute
On a touch interface, touching is clicking and dragging is scrolling. There is simply no rollover event. Unfortunately, more often than not Flash-based interfaces rely heavily on rollover to trigger control mechanism or content delivery. This problem serious undermines the practicality of Flash implementation.

This is Hulu player with rollover.


 Without rollover, you can't even pause the video.

2. No assisted text input and menu selection
To alleviate the inherent restrictions of small screen (and fat fingers), Apple introduced some UI enhancements to improve the usability of touch interface. Two obvious instances are the text field and menu "picker." Flash programs cannot invoke these assisted UI components, thus making mundane tasks such as menu selection and keyboard control difficult, if not altogether impossible.

 

You won't be able to access input assistance with Flash.

3. Non-standard UI can be non-functional
Flash designers for years have been pushing the envelope of interactivity by breaking UI conventions. Some of them are so out of the norm that they are barely usable on a computer. Now imagine running them on a small touch screen. UI anomalies as benign as scrollbars without up/down arrows will be broken, not to mention more serious offenses.

None of the Favourite Website Awards winners are likely to function flawlessly.

The Emerging Experiences team at Razorfish recently unveiled their experimental retail platform Razorfashion. The system is built around a multi-touch enabled surface display that aims at augmenting the user's shopping experience in offline stores. It is indeed an interesting exploration and contains several inspired ideas. However, this "retail experience" that Razorfish created may not actually be a consumer darling in a real retail space. Here's why:

Retail experience that isn't

Due to iPod's dominance, some competitors attempted to unseat it by introducing new killer features. One of these seemingly attractive innovations was wireless song sharing, however it never gained much traction. The problem is that it goes against people's expectation of what "sharing" embodies in physical space. When you are together with your friends, the music is shared by co-listening through the same pair of headphones or speakers. The wireless transmission of files deprives users of the intimacy or camaraderie that the act of sharing traditionally promises. Same problem here. The retail experience for most shoppers is the enjoyment of seeing/feeling/touching merchandises, comparing/matching them side by side, trying them on, and admiring oneself in the mirror. If one wishes to "shop" on a computer screen, he or she can simply stay home.

In the nascent stage of e-commerce, many had the misguided notion of replicating brick and mortar experience in the cyberspace. Some went so far as to champion 3D virtual mall built around the (then) cutting-edge VRML. Now the pendulum has swung to the other end; efforts such as Razorfashion aspire to recreate digital experience in physical space using the (now) cutting-edge touch surface. It just might be as futile. It is my opinion that our digital social lives have evolved to the point that the real world is starting to collide with the virtual one. Experience design professionals now need to take a hard look at how these two realms can compliment and enhance each other. Replication is not the answer.

Crossing the chasm and then back

In order to induce such a tectonic shift in shopper behaviors, a critical mass is needed to create strong enough network externalities. Razorfashion's clever responses are a) to create an inter-store system that facilitate a continuous experience in the same shopping center, and b) to leverage the consumer's personal social networks such as Facebook.

The former would be a vast infrastructure-building initiative. Not only the cost can be prohibitive, it also ignores the differences in branding requirements of all these diverse stores in the same mall. One design does not fit all, and some brands may flat out refuse to be associated with any modern technology. Even if we somehow manage to establish such a network, the user's personal data is portable only through his or her own mobile device. Coupling with the fact that the social network touch points Razorfashion trying to duplicate already exist on said mobile device, one has to question the wisdom of building an elaborated display network in the first place. Why not keep the experience on the mobile device from end to end?

Private touch in public space

There is no question that the characteristics of multi-touch interface such as tactility and direct manipulation lend itself well to small devices that are personal and intimate in nature. Problems however arise when the surface is scaled up. Most early applications of large-scaled touch interface were collaborative "workbench" systems. Since they were often used in semi-private settings with trusted participants, the tension between private and public modes of computing, while emerging, was still well contained. Nonetheless, the simple act of bringing up the surface from its traditional upward-facing orientation to its new full-frontal public posture stirs up that tension to new height. Exactly which parts of people's shopping experience they deemed private and which parts public need to be researched and then addressed accordingly. Razorfashion's social network mashup features further underscore the issue.

The deployment of multi-touch surfaces in public space also faces a couple of problems that are trivial but not any less real. First, due to the size of the display certain operations are difficult or imprecise to operate with just one hand, thus all the two-handed actions that you saw in the Razorfashion demo video. This would spell trouble in its intended environment, where users are likely carrying shopping bags or handbag. The second issue is one of sanitation--real or perceived. Witness how people loathe the finger smudges on their iPhone; now imagine magnifying that smeared screen and placing it in a shopping center where sees thousands of visitors...in flu seasons. It seems a contact-less gesture-controlled interface, not unlike the Xbox Project Natal, is more suitable for large public display.

Despites the aforementioned issues, projects such as this and IconNicholson's interactive mirror are important trials that surely will one day lead to better retail design and services. Integrated online/offline service design is likely to become the new focal point of the industry. It is exciting times to be an experience designer.

Fang-Yu Lin

I'm going to let you in on the Search industry's dirty secret...

Google is slipping.

Google's big innovation was in realizing that a link to content is the same as a vote. By tracking all the links pointing to a page of content Google assesses how influential that page is - its reputation. Google calls this 'PageRank' and it's old tech.

PageRank assigns a reputation score to the URL where content is published. This makes it a great fit for content that stays put in one location. However, evolving content distribution via blogs, RSS, guest columns, and syndication are a challenge for PageRank. Tweets, retweets, micropublishing, ratings, and comments - even bigger problems.

The solution lies in associating reputation with the identity of the author - a PageRank for People.

Adaptive Path, an experience strategy, user research and design firm recently announced the completion of their Mobile Literacy project. They studied mobile device usage in rural Gujarat, India.

As the lead Experience Architect for Chrysler International, I'm anxious to learn the full findings of their study. One tidbit of information agrees with what we learned researching our International mobile users. (Check out the Jeep South Africa site on your phone -- or shrink your PC browser.)

In many parts of the world, low cost mobile phones are more often used than PCs to access the Web. In fact, many international users do not own a PC, so they access the web exclusively from their mobile devices.

So what does this mean for those of us trying to reach these audiences? Here are three crucial tips to consider when planning:

1. First and foremost, do not ignore the need to create an exclusive mobile website. While many users will attempt to access your sites from their mobile devices, this will only lead to frustration. It's very likely that parts of the architecture, page weight, and technology will not work in a mobile web browser.

2. Take the time to consider your navigation and architecture. Top nav, side nav or however you've structured your navigation does not translate to the mobile architecture. Instead, you'll need to create a nested architecture and rely heavily on breadcrumb trail navigation.

3. Be ready to pare down your content. Your mobile website shouldn't be simply a modification of your existing site. Leave out information that isn't relevant to a user on the move. It's not a likely that a mobile user will browse for extended periods of time, so it's important that you surface the information most relevant to them.

Anthony Viviano

The U.S. Postal Service recently launched a very nice way to use augmented reality (AR). Their Virtual Box Simulator is unusual in that it offers real utility by allowing users to determine appropriate box size for what they want to ship. Simply print out their eagle logo. Then use your webcam.

Branded AR executions are under fire these days and agencies who use the technology are often derided for buying into a novelty that offers little value to end users. Some critics have even gone as far as to draw comparisons with Second Life.

Dan Neumann notes: Recently, I've seen a few executions that seem to defy much of this criticism. This is one of them.

Karri Ojanen wrote about a mobile application that broke through this with entertainment value. The Virtual Box Simulator is another. And it appears to bring much product and service value. How long before the other shipping companies follow?

Thanks to Dan Neumann for the link.
Sarah Jo Sautter

Today is the day where many Americans across the nation will see a blue screen on their television sets. Yes, today is the day where the plug is pulled on analog television and we go all digital!! But analog TV isn't the only thing rumored to die this weekend. Apparently there is some Twitpocalypse upon us, similar to the y2k bug that will cause Twitter to crash on Saturday.

What's Been Happening This Week?

Signs of the Twitpocalypse
Whether or not Twitter actually blows up this weekend, news surrounding the site this week has been increasingly negative. Statistics have been showing that Twitter's phenomenal growth has suddenly stopped. On top of that, there is a big debate on whether or not the average Twitter user is very active at all. Meanwhile, some of the fairly active celeb users (like Trent Reznor) have been quitting... and the super fans have been claiming Twitter has "jumped the shark" as @campaign messages have been showing up just about everywhere.

Much Ado About Online Identity
Rather than go into lots of detail about the Facebook vanity URL announcement (a topic deserving of its own post), I will simply say that not everyone is happy about it. Some think this is another "Facebook becoming MySpace" symptom, while others see it as an great opportunity to side step the not so user-friendly search functionality within Facebook.

But Facebook isn't the only one who is toying with (or needs to toy with) putting some social identity and authority into their system. Twitter is looking to launch verified accounts, not yet for brands, but for artists, athletes, politicians, etc. Our own Marshall Clark wrote an excellent piece on how social ranking needs to become a huge part of how Google displays their search results.

Other Miscellaneous Items
- Digg Allows Community To Choose Advertisements
- Facebook Offers More Interactive Ads to Brands
- YouTube Just Became the TwitPic of Video

Marta Strickland

Check out this unboxing video for the Samsung WB1000. Ok, it's a spoof but a very clever one. I was fooled at first and I don't think I was the only one judging by the comments.

The interesting thing is that the video is posted in two places. On Samsung's Youtube page, as well as a regular user edanhush184, who seems to be getting more views than Samsung's page.

And what exactly is "unboxing"? One of the most celebrated geek rituals...

"It begins with a rush right from the moment of purchase, whether online or off, to the foreplay of opening the package, examining its contents, and ends with the exhilarating finish of turning on and using your tech toy... Think Lolcats riding rainbow rollercoasters; the sensation in the pit of your stomach...that unforgettable." Jank (nixiepixel.com)

Adam Turinas

What if you could re-envision the trading floor with a web 2.0 focus? What if a RIA could expose you to a network of insiders? What is you could analyze Morgan Stanley's extensive historical trading data with your own models? What is Morgan Stanley pushed the envelope of transparency to provide you with more data than has ever been available before?

Check out the Matrix by Morgan Stanley microsite and product overview: http://www.morganstanley.com/matrixinfo/

It is an ambitious new rich internet application that is changing the way people think about the trading floor. Capabilities include advanced data visualizations, human curated (by MS of course) and machine filtered information for the torrents of relevant financial information and news, and social graph/IM/messaging features to connect to a network of your peers. The experience was built using Adobe's Flash Platform technologies, and integrates real-time data, with the delivery of audio, video, reports and rich interactive charts using the Flex framework. Truly revolutionary experience design from a Bank.

Dean McRobie

A close friend of mine used to work at the Virgin Megastore here in San Francisco. An affable fellow, he coordinated the in-store sets by the rather diverse array of musicians who used to pop up to do a few songs. Increasingly, he also managed other areas of the operation when fewer musicians started showing up. As sales of music slowed and the store grappled to reorganize around merchandising, my friend started to lament his fate within the larger context of music retailing. "I didn't get into this to sell t-shirts," he said to me once. He quit and went back to work as a trombone player in a number of local bands.

Well, today is an interesting day. And somewhere this gentleman is probably going to see this post in my Facebook feed and have an interesting moment of introspection. Because there is not one, but two fascinating pieces of news coming out of Viginland today. First, yesterday marked the closing of the flagship of Virgin's Megastore chain--the 57,000 square foot, two level outlet in New York's Union Square. But much more significantly, today Virgin announced a plan that may eventually prove to unseat Apple's iTunes and redefine the model by which the increasingly digital world of media is consumed. In fact, if you're my musician friend you might want to sit down right about now.

Unlimited MP3 downloads. From the world's largest music family of record labels in the industry: Universal Music Group. For $24.50 a month.

People familiar with the service said it would cost 10-15 pounds ($16.30-$24.50) per month, which could appeal to parents concerned by children accessing illegal sites.
The service, which both sides described as a world first, would allow Virgin Media broadband customers to both listen by streaming and download to keep as many music tracks and albums as they want from Universal's catalog.

The music will be in the MP3 format, meaning it can be played on the vast majority of music devices, including the iPod and mobile phones.

The service, which would compete with Apple's iTunes, is set to launch later this year.

Unlimited MP3 downloads. For a flat monthly fee. Say it again. All of a sudden, the entire model of consuming music is flipped on its ear. Just like that, the primary consideration is no longer the cost or illegality of acquiring music, but the cost of storing it digitally. The ownership issue might even be rendered moot by a new breed of consumer--one who is probably also intimately familiar with the streaming-download model--that doesn't need to own the music to enjoy it pretty much whenever and wherever.

While I couldn't reach Lars Ulrich of Metallica for comment, one has to wonder how this model can adequately support the payment of artist royalties. Moreover, one has to wonder what this portends for all manner of copyright-protected media. Are subscription services the future of other forms of media as well? With this media increasingly consumed via digital device and stored on hard-drive(s), "ownership" in the sense defined by the thousands of LPs I currently have in storage may be headed out the door. We'll just pay some set amount, borrow what we want, in whatever degree of permanence we desire, and then press delete when we're done.

It's hard to believe, but it has been scarcely more than 100 years since the mass marketing of gramophones began and with it the era of the consumption of recorded music. Before that time, the only way to consume music was to see in performed live by someone else, or to play it yourself. With not everyone being talented in this capacity, the world of live performance was where the music really lived. As the record industry matured and American consumerism grew up alongside it, the propensity to maintain large music collections flourished. Now, perhaps the pendulum is swinging back in the other direction. If you can listen to or own virtually any piece of recorded music anytime you want, maybe the thrill and value of ownership is diminished. And paradoxically, perhaps this will return the original form of consuming music to greater prominence. I'll have to ask my trombone-playing former Virgin employee friend in ten years or so.

Daniel Turman

Our little Norwegian-based company, Opera, is at it again with a bold claim that it will "reinvent the web" with its new Opera Unite service.
 
Some of the features available to Mac, PC, or Linux/Unix users:

• File sharing -- securely share files direct from your computer
• Web server -- turns your home computer into a web server via Opera Unite URL
• Media player -- direct link to your music collection from any web browser
• Photo sharing -- shares your image library over the web without requiring a photo service
• Lounge -- self-contained chat service running on your computer
• Fridge -- a place where friends and family can post notes

All sounds good on paper. But we have some skeptics here:

"These Swiss army knife apps that attempt to do everything for everyone tend to fall short in the end. The convenience of having all that functionality in one place often comes at the expense of the robust functionality we expect from dedicated apps.

Take the photo-sharing feature. Sounds nice, but are you really going to use go for that over Flickr or Picasa? Especially if it means fragmenting your library? Will the media player have the codec support I have in my dedicated media player?

Looks nice on paper, but I'm not buying shares just yet."
- Dan Neumann
 
"I'm wondering how this would compare to Google Wave. Google Wave is claiming to 'reinvent email', but it sounds like they are trying to do a lot of the same stuff by making it more collaborative, real-time, and enable sharing."
- Marta Strickland
 
"Opera's promo video and new list of features are uninspired, in my opinion. One could replace Opera with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Xbox, and probably countless other platforms, and no one would notice the difference. This is a failure in branding and product strategy.
 
As for this vs. Google Wave, the Wave team has truly examined the experience from the user's perspective, and uniquely rebuilt communication online, while Opera Unite seems to be just adding on functionality that certainly isn't revolutionary. That is, the elements of Wave aren't new, but most people don't use things like Wikis and Twitter... Wave is positioned to take over because of its simplicity and intuitive structure.
 
And btw... 'Fridge?' Dumb."
-Craig Ritchie

 
These are all valid points and they've left us wondering three questions:
1.  Will people really make the leap from their "trusted" current browser?
2.  How long before other browsers copy these services?
3.  And last but not least, the privacy issue. Will people be fearful of sharing their stuff?
 
Opera has been around for over a decade and had features like tabbed browsing and a search bar at the top of the browser before Firefox did and is looked to as an innovator on the web browser front by companies like Mozilla. So the thought about other browsers copying Opera's services is absolutely correct.
 
Opera claims their mobile and computer-based browsers are very secure - even safer with user data than Firefox and any product they develop tends to include the same encryption and security. Even if people trust that, it may not get past the legal barriers. The file sharing aspects of this product may be frowned upon by the U.S. legal system, as they will likely fall into the same category of services like Grokster and Napster. However, with a much larger following for Opera outside of the US, and being Norway-based, we don't really think they're concerned about that.
 
Do you think the new Opera will do as they promise and "reinvent the web?"
 
Tyler King
Sarah Jo Sautter

Until recently, the buzz about Twitter had been almost entirely focused either on its explosive growth or on challenges to its cool cred (how many instances of "Twitter" can be found paired alongside "jumped the shark" in online posts? About 43,500 according to Google). Then, #IranElection happened.

Now, the conversation has turned from Ashton Kutcher to how social media may supplant traditional communication channels in times of crisis or dissent. While foreign news coverage is being severely curtailed and reporters are being kicked out of Iran, satellite coverage cut off, and state news is... well... being run by the state, at least a few tech-savvy citizens on the ground are finding ways to break through government-mandated blackout via Twitter and other social media services.

With its unique capability to post user reports via SMS, the Web or other applications, protesters are embracing Twitter as a tool to pass along eyewitness reports ("police are acting party on protesters side"), assist others ("Help protect the bloggers in Iran: change your settings so that your location is TEHRAN & your time zone is GMT +3.30"), and organize ("demonstration Wednesday at 4:00 pm from Enghelab Sq. to Azadi Sq.").

Expats and others supporting the protesters are in turn forwarding their tweets and posting their photos and videos on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and other social media aggregators for the world to see. The Iranian government has responded by attempting to shut off access to social media properties, although many are getting through via proxies set up by others outside of Iran to access the blocked sites. Others like our very own State Department are quietly helping as well, requesting that Twitter delay scheduled maintenance earlier in the week to avoid disrupting communications in Iran.

Whether this will make the difference for Iranians hoping for democratic legitimacy or greater freedoms remains to be seen. While protesters are so far successfully transmitting their message to the world, the world may have a difficult time interpreting what it all means. The sheer number of posts (#iranelection is the top trending Twitter topic) are mostly unverifiable without an independent press. Anonymous or third party posters make it almost impossible to know who to trust. And the messages that are getting out are deeply local and personal rather than analytical or contextual in nature. All of this makes it easy for the world to get caught up in the rush of events, but makes it difficult to assess actual impact.

Can Twitter fuel a revolution?

For more analysis and information on how the post-election protests are being waged via social media, check out the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/5446

Bridget McKinley

There are a plethora of social media monitoring tools out there now. As they jostle and tousle with each other tantalizing potential clients with colorful charts, demos and trial accounts, I'm still left wondering where this technology will wind up. Will it go the way of the search engines and eventually wind up with just a few mega players? (OK, really one.)

I first started looking at social monitoring tools back in November of 2007. Since then there have been huge advances in the capabilities included in these platforms and some level of convergence in the capabilities in the top players.

Next week I will be representing Organic on an OMMA Social panel called "Choosing a Social Monitoring Tool: How to Find the Right Fit." At Organic we are are continually reviewing tools, and currently using Sysomos. In the review of numerous tools, I've created my dream list for a social monitoring tool:

1. Easy self-service set up of topics and queries.
2. Efficient filtering of topics.
3. Delivery of results in real-time.
4. Sentiment analysis.
5. Trending Data.
6. Comparison to competitive information.
7. Identification of conversation "themes" around a topic.
8. Identification of Influencers or "influential posts."
9. Demographic Information.
10. Respond to and track engagement.

But what exactly does that top 10 dream list mean?

This video by Google illustrates several issues that have been plaguing product and brand managers, UxDs (user-experience designers) and IAs (information architects) and most obviously, the general public. Google asks "What is a browser," only to find that less than 8% of those polled have an understanding of the term. (It is, by the way, "a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web" - Wikipedia; e.g. Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft's Internet Explorer (The big blue 'E'))

For Branders
For those of us concerned with brand definition, the example is clear: Google checks to see if people understand how Chrome is better even have a basic understanding of the term "browser," and find that the confusion has hardly cleared up over the past 15 years, since graphical browser use became widespread in the mid-'90s. Back then, users thought they "used Yahoo!" to surf the information superhighway, and as we see here, they still believe the same.

For Google Chrome achieve any penetration in this market, the big G needs to focus on not only defining and demonstrating Chrome's unique value, but also educating the public on the very basic concepts of "browsing," and "applications." This is no small task, as Firefox has long been fighting this battle and making slow gains against the IE giant, mostly through word-of-mouth from passionate advocates, again illustrated in the Google video. (I, personally, have done this on many occasions, wiping IE from friends' and families' hard drives in a Firefox coup.)

For IAers
For those of us concerned with interface design, the interviews illustrate the need for simplicity. This video may make you consider an edit or two if your web site copy includes the call-to-action "Download to your browser," or similar industry-insider phrases. On a more macro level, the interviews highlight the importance of maintaining a holistic view of the web experience.

If your users don't really understand what a browser is, do they know when they are on your web site, or is your vanity URL confusing this; perhaps they're on an "unofficial" site created by a passionate fan?

If your users don't really understand what a browser is, do they think they have to come through Google or Yahoo! to reach your site? Do you show up (positively) there?

If your users don't really understand what a browser is, are they savvy enough to find their way through your site; are they stymied by nomenclature that is cloaked in your brand's jargon or Internet industry jargon?

I don't care what a browser is.

Ultimately, this video illustrates the fact that people don't really care how they get what they want online, just that they get it. The best thing your brand, product or digital experience can do is make it easy and understandable for your customers.

So for product and brand managers; UxDs and IAs, the questions become, does your market know what your brand promises? Do they know what your product does? Do they know what that button does or where that link goes?

Or, does your market make assumptions about your product, lumping it in with a lesser offering, mistaking it for your competition, or for a completely different idea?

If so, you have a lot of work to do. Maybe it's time to hit the pavement and get some real insight from real customers.

Craig Ritchie

Now the big, big news story this week was the developments surrounding the #IranElection, at its peak bringing in more than 220,000 Tweets Per Hour. But the new and profound impact of the tool Twitter is much too large for this article, which is why Bridget was kind enough to have written something specifically about it.

Old Rivals, New Rivals: What Happened This Week?
While Microsoft and Google have been battling it out for a while... who could woo Yahoo!, who would own the world of online documents (Google Docs or Office Live). But, now the battle has a new twist called Bing. While they will likely not overtake Google any time soon, Bing's traffic and buzz keeps growing. For a Microsoft launch, it is refreshingly positive, and that has Google shaking.

Next... it seems as though the Facebook saga has closed a chapter, and opened a new one. As MySpace slashes much of its staff (signaling the end?), Facebook readies a rival to Twitter Search. Facebook continues to grow, not just getting bigger, but reaching out to an older demographic. Over 1 Billion chat messages are sent per day, and over the weekend close to 6 million people registered custom usernames.

Oh yeah... and then there was something about a new phone coming out this week :)

Marta Strickland

When new CEO Carol Bartz took the reign at Yahoo she promised to shake things up a bit and she held true to her promise. For the past several month, Yahoo has improved their UI and discontinued less popular services like the 'briefcase". Last week they launched access to "applications" right from your Yahoo inbox. I love the direction they are going. I have been using Yahoo Mail for as long as I can think and must admit I never got used to the Gmail interface. I might be a bit old fashioned that way.
 
Y! Mail also launched the "Connections Bar" a few weeks ago, but it seems to be removed from the interface now. I believe it is an attempt to integrate popular social networking features into your mailbox. The only issue is that you have to invite people to become connections and then it just seems like a filter for your inbox. Hopefully they have some more ideas to make this feature more valuable.
 
I like that they are making an effort to improve their services. I did, however, notice that Yahoo has a tendency to launch buggy services. Maybe they put more emphasis on speed to market and less on quality. I did just get a serious browser error when I tried to active my Flickr account in the application below. Generally I am a firm believer in high quality, because to me, first impressions can make or break a deal. Plus some folks may never go back and try it a second time if it hasn't worked the first time. Well...I cut the folks at Yahoo some slack because I like my Y! Mail.

How do you feel about companies being too quick to launch something that still has a few kinks?

Sonja Scharrer

Caterina Fake, who previously cofounded the photo-sharing site Flickr has cofounded a new search engine named Hunch, which launched Monday 6/15/09.

What differentiates Hunch from other search engines is that rather than focusing on delivering an answer to specific questions (Where can I get Chinese takeout, 10018) Hunch seeks to deliver recommendations to less defined questions (What should I make for dinner tonight?).

Hunch starts off by asking you a few multiple choice questions to develop your profile. You can create an account and save your profile, or the Hunch site can keep track of your answers via cookies (of course you'll need to answer the questions again if you use another computer). If you create an account, you have the opportunity to "Teach Hunch About You" by answering even more questions. This information is used to help Hunch make recommendations that are relevant to you and your preferences. Once Hunch makes its recommendations, you can let the engine know if the recommendations were good or not. This data is also saved and used to adjust future recommendations. Hunch uses all this information to group people based on their answers. The next time you ask a question. It will try to give you recommendations based on the group's answers.

Besides the profile questions, when you start your search you have to answer a series of survey question on the topic you are searching. "Do you like spicy food?", "Are you a vegetarian?", etc. These are used to determine your final recommendations. Hunch recommended I make Jambalaya, which I thought was a great recommendation (even though I decided I didn't want to cook at all last night).

While the site offers an interesting approach to search, it will take many users who will have to literally answer hundreds of questions, for the engine's algorithms to be robust enough to actually offer relevant answers - I stopped just after answering my 200th question, and there was no indication of how many more questions there were. Though it might be cool to get recommendations based on what other people - with similar profiles - have answered... is it worth the hours you'll spend creating a profile when you can chat with a friend?

Hunch has also declared it won't share this data, but if the site takes off, it would be interesting to see what other uses this data might be applicable to. Information like this could make targeted ads VERY targeted...

Madi Benjamin

As the shimmering waters of Facebook, Twitter and other social spheres are opened, many marketers are diving in the shallow end head first and hoping that the API waterwings their social media guru has supplied will keep them afloat.

I blogged about a few of these examples here, listing some brands gasping for air as their Twitter API "strategy" gets pulled from their lungs, and others just treading water.

Enter Prototype-Experience.com, a console game site (the Mitch Buchanan of this metaphor), where users link the Prototype trailer with their social graph and assets via Facebook Connect.

Users are bombarded by a seamless mashup of Prototype's character, "Alex's" monologue, brooding and hunting for purpose, deftly injected with their own Facebook biography, photos and friends. It should be noted, too, that some of the user's friends, relatives and sons and daughters faces are "erased" using face recognition and a creepy scratching animation.

The effect was experienced by several Organics, spurring much conversation:

Dean McRobie states, "I did NOT enjoying watching the experience scribble tentacles across my 7 year old daughters face," but asks, "What happens when this kind of social presence mashup gets applied to something like BigStage. Real time, 3d models of you, superimposed on movies, commercials, tv shows? Will your social graph end up staring in things you watch? Will marketers what to have your best friend sell you stuff? Is a digital version of you, created in someone else's social media space really you? In 2 years, will we be able to tell?"

Tomas Roldan gushed, "I found this use of social media integration to be the first truly engaging online digital experience I have had in years... The cleverly simulated horror of seeing my loved ones and my personal information embedded in a sci-fi horror action-game ad was very well done."

Chad Stoller reminded us of Dr. Awesome on the iPhone, personalizing gameplay with address book data, "These types of elements always tend to work to enhance the experience and prolong game play."

Madi Benjamin wondered if the "real game does the same thing or am I just this "Alex" character and all this funky personalization is lost? Seems like a waste to hook you in like that and then not to follow-up on that promise... Part of the intrigue for me would have been where and when someone or something I recognize would pop up."

The bottom line? The execution of the API hook fits the story of the game, and the "jarring" experience of seeing one's personal info embedded in the trailer along with friends' faces being ripped from photos hits the target market.

This is one exceptional experience that uses the Facebook API effectively and authentically. Users expect nothing less, after all, they're swimming laps in the deep end of social media -- marketers are the ones in the shallow end.

Craig Ritchie

Have you heard of Layer Tennis? In short it's two creatives going head to head in battle of skills. The match involves both combatants swapping a single file back & forth in realtime with 15 minutes to complete their "volley". After each volley, commentary is provided by an independent 3rd party. Winners are determined by voting via Twitter by including the #LYT hastah + the contestant of choice.

Friday's match featured Shaun Inman vs. Aaron Scamihorn, and was won by Shaun Inman with his final "volley": Sheep Not Found aka Layer 10. If you're interested the semi-finals are scheduled to kick off tomorrow, June 26th, and the finals will be on July 10th.

Very fun to follow along. Also - as an FYI, Layer Tennis is sponsored by Adobe Creative Suite 4.

Patrick Dunphy

This week was the week of social media rumors. When the King of Pop died, Twitter's usefulness shined as links to the latest news stories were shared. So much conversation was going on that it consumed 30% of the tweets that hour. However, with the good information came the bad. All the sudden the twitter feed was filled with fake stories about the demise of other celebrities.

Other misinformation was propagated this week as journalists (despite being transparent) failed to understand the exact motivations and implications of Facebook adding public content sharing. In the end, it looks like a lot less is changing than some had feared and others had hoped. Users can choice to make certain updates available to the wide wide public, but that will not be the default choice.

More rumors... What is Twitter's plan for monetization? Is it shopping recommendations (@EV says no no no) or added services for corporate accounts? And what is the deal with this upcoming Facebook Movie? Michael Cera as Mark Zuckerberg? Let's hope that one stays a rumor.

Marta Strickland

Ford is responding to the recent Cash for Clunkers legislation with a mini-site that provides information on the program. More importantly, they have a selector that will help you determine whether your current vehicle qualifies as a clunker. If it does qualify they display the Ford vehicles that will achieve MPG gains to get the $4500 and $3500 payouts.

http://www.letfordrecycleyourride.com/

Beautiful? No, probably not. Useful? Absolutely. Within minutes (or less) I knew if my car qualified and what Ford vehicles I should consider to qualify for the for clunker payout. For this program, that is the critical info consumers need.

Richard Liechty

Tapping into the herd through social media has been a goal for investors for some time.  Collective Intellect (founded in 2005 for this sole purpose) and Dow Jones Insights are listening platforms that specialize in this area.  Late last year Stocktwits became the first Twitter based service based on investment discussion and has been driving change in the way that many day traders discuss and evaluate stocks.   But if there was any question about social media having a measurable impact on trading, that has been quashed with the latest announcement that StreamBase Systems is integrating Twitter with its Complex Event Processing (CEP) platform for money managers and traders.

"Users of StreamBase's Twitter adapter can combine Twitter with market data and build data management applications, says StreamBase CTO Richard Tibbetts. In particular, Twitter can be used as a crowd sourcing tool to help gauge people's sentiment towards a particular event or stock. "It's really useful for sentiment analysis, which traders can then use to help them make trading decisions," he adds. Nasir Zubairi, former product manager for algorithmic trading and FX E-commerce, RBS, points out that as Twitter continues to gain sweeping adoption across the globe, it will increasingly become a key medium to convey information to the financial world too."

Now the question becomes: What impact will this have on stock values? 

Will more information make the markets more efficient? The lightening speed of information transfer on Twitter will allow traders to price in news more quickly.  Case in point, both Michael Jackson's passing and civil unrest in Iran were all over Twitter before there was any news coverage that would appear in a trader's feed from Bloomberg or Reuters. 

Or will misinformation and group think lead to more volatility?  If traders act on the earliest rumors the impact on market value of stocks becomes self reinforcing and may amplify the natural tendency of the market to bubble and bust.

Regardless of the answer, it is guaranteed that day traders not plugged into social media will be at a disadvantage.

Thanks to Fang-Lu Lin for the link.

Russ Hopkinson