Mashable: Latest 24 News Updates - including “Coming Soon: Sign Into Multiple Google Accounts in the Same Browser” |  |
- Coming Soon: Sign Into Multiple Google Accounts in the Same Browser
- Old Spice: The Archetype Of a Successful Social Media Campaign
- iTunes Connect Mobile App Now Available for iPhone
- Chatroulette Adds New Local and Channel Features
- Paul the Octopus Gets His Own (Unofficial) iPhone App
- The Mashable Summer Tour Stops in San Francisco: Live Interviews [VIDEO]
- Apple to Address iPhone 4 Reception Issues on Friday?
- 10 Tools for Distributed Developer Teams
- Droid X Hits Verizon Stores on Thursday
- Evernote Trunk: An App Store for Productivity Addicts
- Sports Illustrated Swaps Steinbrenner for LeBron on iPad Edition Cover
- Common Netiquette Questions: Answered
- How Rdio Makes Your Music Mix Social [INVITES]
- Google Begins Phasing Out YouTube Accounts
- Viral “Double Rainbow” Video Inspires Legions of Spin-offs
- Musicians Can Help Each Other Get Famous with New Site
- Bill Gates Invests in Cleaner Car Technology
- 5 Tips for Managing Your Company’s Brand on the Web
- Disney Is Twitter’s First @Earlybird Sponsor
- Old Spice Guy Makes Twitter Fan’s Marriage Proposal [VIDEO]
- The Russian Spy Scandal Reaches Microsoft
- How Real-Time Data is Changing Business Optimization
- Apple Acquires Mapping Company Poly9 [REPORT]
- Improv Everywhere Brings “Star Wars” to NYC Subway Car [VIDEO]
- Send Destinations via Google Maps to Ford and GM Vehicles
| Coming Soon: Sign Into Multiple Google Accounts in the Same Browser Posted: 15 Jul 2010 04:27 AM PDT      If you use several Google accounts on a daily basis, you probably want to be logged into all of them at the same time, but to achieve that, you have to use several different browsers. Now, according to Google Operating System, Google is testing a feature that will let users be logged into multiple Google accounts in the same web browser. Personally, I have at least four different Gmail accounts opened at all times, and this feature is very high on my wish list. Judging from the screenshot below, Google services that are currently supported are Gmail, Reader, Sites, Calendar, Code and Docs. There is also one limitation: if you turn on multiple sign-in, you cannot use Gmail’s offline mode.  Reviews: Gmail, Google More About: gmail, Google, online identity For more Tech coverage:
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| Old Spice: The Archetype Of a Successful Social Media Campaign Posted: 15 Jul 2010 03:07 AM PDT   I’m setting the example, and it’s going to be puzzled over and studied and followed, from now on. – John Doe, “Seven.” Although they had quite a different purpose from the homicidal “John Doe” character from David Fincher’s thriller “Seven,” this is probably what the folks from advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy, the one behind Old Spice’s latest marketing campaign, must be thinking right now. The social media onslaught, in which the Old Spice guy – as actor Isaiah Mustafa, which starred in most of Old Spice’s recent commercials, has come to be known on the Internet – has ended today. In his final tweet and video, Mustafa says that “like all great things this too must end.” And then he catches a giant fish that falls from nowhere. In this amazingly well run campaign, the team behind it managed to engage half of the Internet, and provoke almost unequivocally positive results from social media sites such as Reddit and Twitter. Hell, even the comments on YouTube were overwhelmingly positive – and that never happens. The Old Spice Twitter account accumulated tens of thousands of new followers; the YouTube videos amassed hundreds of thousands of views. Old Spice did it by doing everything perfectly. The Old Spice guy recorded his video responses in rapid succession, an amazing feat in itself which cannot be truly appreciated if you’ve never been in front of a camera. His answers were a perfect mix of coolness and the stuff internet memes are made of. The actual brand – Old Spice – was never shoved into viewers’ throats. Most importantly, all of it was incredibly fun to watch. The team behind the campaign took great care to engage celebrities, influencers, common folks and popular social media sites in equal amount. And it knew exactly how to talk to them. In his penultimate video, the Old Spice guy talks directly to his daughter, explaining that until recently, he was just a struggling actor no one has ever heard of. When was the last time a marketing campaign spoke directly to you in such a frank way, making you laugh and cry at the same time? Wieden + Kennedy have set the standards all marketing experts will worship and follow in the years to come. This is the future of marketing. I’m on a horse. Reviews: Internet, Twitter, YouTube, reddit.com More About: MARKETING, old spice, social media, wieden & kennedy For more Social Media coverage:
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| iTunes Connect Mobile App Now Available for iPhone Posted: 15 Jul 2010 01:04 AM PDT   If you’re a digital content distributor, you’ve probably heard of iTunes Connect: it’s a set of tools that helps you manage your content in the App Store. Now, you can do it from your iPhone with the iTunes Connect Mobile (iTC Mobile) app. It lets you review your sales and related trends and view your aggregated unit sales information by product line, as well as market and individual product. The app features graphs and allows you to see data through select periods of time. You can install the iTunes Mobile Connect app for free from here. More About: apple, iphone, itunes, iTunes Connect For more Apple coverage:
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| Chatroulette Adds New Local and Channel Features Posted: 15 Jul 2010 12:24 AM PDT   Chatroulette is finally adding some new features to its ultra-simple video chat format. Two new theme-specific areas are now on offer: Localroulette automatically routes users to specific location-based channels according to IP address, and Channelroulette lets users set up their own channels based around chosen themes. As seen by the list below, the most popular tier of custom user channels still has everything to do with sex — indicating that the main usage of the site still hasn’t strayed too far from its roots as a place for perverts. Conversely though, the ability to set up custom channels could be a promising solution to that perceived problem, giving users the ability to cordon off video chatrooms for theoretically less salicious purposes.  Likewise, location-based channels taps into a trend that’s all the rage these days as sites like Foursquare, Gowalla and others duke it out for the title of most popular checkin service. Depending on the scope of the region sizes, which are sure to be tweaked over time, Localroulette could perhaps come closer to cultivating some of the spirit that old bulletin-board systems were infused with back in the earlier days of the Internet. For now, users are routed to a location automatically, but we could imagine a future where visitors could location hop and get video chat experiences from around the world. Hints at a potential business model start showing up with these changes as well. We could imagine this structure easily accommodating a type of freemium service where companies and groups could opt to pay for branded channels. It seems like a reasonable expansion to the overall service without overcomplicating the uber-simplicity of Chatroulette’s videoconferencing model. What do you think of Chatroulette’s new features? [via NewTeeVee] Reviews: Foursquare, Gowalla, Internet More About: channelroulette, chat, chatroulette, localroulette, location, video chat, web For more Social Media coverage:
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| Paul the Octopus Gets His Own (Unofficial) iPhone App Posted: 14 Jul 2010 08:12 PM PDT   You know that German octopus who successfully predicted all those World Cup games? He’s back in the form of an iOS app that makes predictions about anything you want it to, not just football. The uTouchLabs-developed app is called “Ask the Octopus” [iTunes link] and it’s available in the App Store for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (though it doesn’t have a special iPad version). It’s pretty basic. When you start it up, you see an animated octopus, and you’re asked to enter in two things to compare (Soup or salad? Paper or plastic? Jacob or Edward? We’re sure you can think of better things to compare). After you’ve picked the options, the octopus drifts to the sea floor and selects a box, just like Paul. It’s random, of course — we don’t believe this octopus has secret predictive powers, but like a Magic 8-Ball, it’s fun to play with. You wouldn’t call the real Paul’s selections random, though. Surely, he had some reasons for them, but who knows what they were. Whatever his animal methodology, he at least got incredibly lucky, accurately predicting the winners of seven German World Cup matches, then picking Spain as the winner over the Netherlands in the final. What do you think? Was he legit or did he just really like the colors yellow and red?  Reviews: App Store, iPhone More About: apple, apple app store, iOS, iOS 4, ipad, iphone, iPod Touch, paul the octopus, sports, uTouchLabs, world cup, world cup 2010 For more Entertainment coverage:
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| The Mashable Summer Tour Stops in San Francisco: Live Interviews [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Jul 2010 07:10 PM PDT The Mashable team is hosting our U.S. Summer Tour stop in San Francisco tonight with networking, open bar, and awesome prizes. In case you couldn’t make it, you can still participate in the event on our live stream. We’ll be joined by Rachel Sklar, who will be interviewing attendees on our Watchitoo live stream. We encourage you to participate in the live steam and suggest questions for Rachel to ask in her interviews with the local social and tech community. Feel free to also submit the questions in the comments below or on Twitter using #summermash. We also want you to help facilitate some of the discussion on Watchitoo by joining us on-camera to help ask attendees questions and answer some social media trivia. If you're interested in being brought on-camera, the details are outlined below. You'll also have a chance to win tickets to attend the events through the contest. We’re also hosting a TechKaraoke Afterparty, so if you weren’t able to snag tickets for the event, we hope you can join us after. TechKaraoke AfterpartyPlease join Mashable and Yahoo! for the official SummerMash San Francisco TechKaraoke afterparty at The Parlor feat. KJ Roger Niner. Yahoo! will be giving out cool prizes for the Best Singer, Best Duet, and Best Group! People will be allowed to vote via Twitter by using the hashtag #YahooRocks. When: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 — 10:30pm-2:00am Mashable Watchitoo Summer Tour ContestContest Submission Criteria: Upload a 14-second YouTube video explaining why you should be brought on live to chat with hosts/attendees at the Mashable 2010 Summer Tour.
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Thanks to our Local Sponsors:   Bing helps you find the information you need faster, and with fewer clicks, so you can make better decisions. It's different than a typical search engine—it's your “decision engine.”  Mopho is simply the best way to capture and share mobile photos. More than a check-in, Mopho tags your photos with a location or event and shares them with your friends. Mopho saves you time and effortlessly gives your photos more context, allowing you to capture and better reflect all of your experiences. Start sharing more with your photos — Download Mopho today from the iTunes app store and see more on the Web at http://mopho.to.  Discover the tools of engagement at SES San Francisco, Aug. 16-20. No longer just lecturing your customers, learn to listen and converse in a more social world. Our experts will show you how integrating search, social media, and video, in even basic ways will transform both your sites visibility and profitability. Packed with sessions on PPC management, information architecture, social media, local search, mobile application development, video optimization, and other advanced topics, we have created an educational and networking environment designed for both beginners and veterans in digital marketing. Register by July 30th and SAVE up to $554. Enter MBL15. Sessions Include: Social & the Marketing Mix, Search, PR & the Social Butterfly, The Business Value of Social Media, Local Search Ranking Factors Thanks to our TechKaraoke Sponsor:  A Special Thanks to Our Tour Sponsors Join Gotelo.com and choose where you want to be found, anytime, in one easy step. It's fast, free, and launching this summer. Gotelo simplifies the way you connect with people you know and businesses you like by directing you to their most current web page.  The Intel® Atom™ Developer Program provides software developers with everything you need to easily develop and sell applications for Intel® Atom™ processor-based products starting with netbooks, and eventually supporting tablets, smartphones, consumer electronics and more. Program features include: Powerful tools—including an SDK, easy deployment and validation, Revenue and marketing opportunities, Developer Catalog to buy and sell application components, Application Labs in addition to a vibrant online community for support.  Weber Shandwick is a leading global public relations agency with offices in 76 countries around the world. The firm's success is built on its deep commitment to client service, our people, creativity, collaboration and harnessing the power of Advocates – engaging stakeholders in new and creative ways to build brands and reputation. Weber Shandwick provides strategy and execution across practices such as consumer marketing, healthcare, technology, public affairs, financial services, corporate and crisis management. Its specialized services include digital/social media, advocacy advertising, market research, and corporate responsibility. In 2010, Weber Shandwick was named Global Agency of the Year by The Holmes Report for the second year in a row; an ‘Agency of the Decade’ by Advertising Age, Large PR Agency of the Year by Bulldog Reporter, and Top Corporate Responsibility Advisory Firm by CR Magazine. The firm has also won numerous ‘best place to work’ awards around the world. A Special Thanks to Our Multi-Streaming Partner Watchitoo is an embeddable, live multi-streaming platform that allows 10+ participants to communicate via a web-cam in real time, while collaborating around a custom designed rich media playlist. A passive audience of thousands can view the show online. Any viewer can be added into a show via a virtual green room, where a moderator can adjust their microphone, have a private one-on-one chat, and vet their overall suitability to participate. Streams can be inserted, removed, re-arranged and re-sized in real time. Watchitoo has a rich feature set that includes Twitter and Facebook integration, chat, questioning, recording, screen-sharing and white-boarding. Thanks to Our Official Ticketing Partner Eventbrite is the world's largest self-service online ticketing site. Eventbrite makes it easy for anyone to sell-out an event. Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Foursquare, Internet, Mashable, Twitter, Yahoo!, YouTube More About: Events, Live Stream, mashable, summer tour, summermash
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| Apple to Address iPhone 4 Reception Issues on Friday? Posted: 14 Jul 2010 06:34 PM PDT   According to an email from Apple, the first beta of the iPhone’s iOS 4.1 mobile operating system is now available from the iPhone Dev Center along with the 4.1 SDK. Combine that with news that Apple is holding a special press conference this Friday regarding the iPhone 4 and we just might be looking at that expected software fix for the now infamous reception issues plaguing the device. Even if the two tidbits happen to be unrelated, the rollout of iOS 4 beta indicates a software update to the iPhone’s operating system must be fairly close to public release. With the reception issues deemed serious enough for Consumer Reports to withhold their recommendation, as well as reaching mainstream awareness to the point of making David Letterman’s Top Ten slot last night, it’s hard to imagine the announced fix would be put off for terribly long. We’ll know more after the hastily-called press event on Friday, but for now there’s good reason for left-handed iPhone 4 owners to keep the dream alive. More About: iOS 4, iphone, iphone 4, iphone 4 antenna issues, trending For more Mobile coverage:
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| 10 Tools for Distributed Developer Teams Posted: 14 Jul 2010 05:32 PM PDT
This freedom is great, and it also presents some challenges — challenges for managers who need to ship a product and challenges for developers who need to squash bugs, track versions and communicate with the rest of their team. Fortunately, there’s a whole subsection of development tools created and tailored just for distributed teams, whether that distribution means a far-flung group around the globe or a few local devs who occasionally work from home. Every developer and every manager will have his or her preferred tools for working with a distributed team. We’ve rounded up 10 that came to us highly recommended, and we hope you’ll let us know what you think of them — good experiences and bad — in the comments. And be sure to enlighten us if we skipped your favorite resource, too. 1. GitHubWhat It Does: GitHub is a web-based hosting service for projects that use the Git revision control system. It has social networking features such as feeds, followers and the network graph to display how developers work on their versions of a repository. GitHub also operates a pastebin-style site, wikis for the individual repositories and web pages that can be edited through a git repository. (Fun fact: The above image was taken at GitHub’s San Francisco offices and pictures developer Kyle Neath.) What It Costs: GitHub is free for open source projects, including unlimited public repositories and unlimited public collaborators. If you’d rather keep your code to yourself, plans range from $7 per month (for five private repositories from a solo developer) to $22 per month (for 20 repositories and up to 10 collaborators). Who Recommends It: Cyborg anthropologist Amber Case, and the friendly devs at WordPress and Zappos Demo: 2. JiraWhat It Does: This issue-tracking product from Atlassian is used for bug tracking, issue tracking and project management. The name is short for “Gojira,” the Japanese name for Godzilla. The software features a clean interface with customizable workflows, OpenSocial dashboards and a pluggable integration framework. You should also check out the query language JQL, which was introduced in Jira 4 and has been enhanced for version 4.1, released just this week. What It Costs: You can get a 30-day trial free of charge. After that, Jira ranges from $10 for a starter license for a 10-person team to $1,000 per month for more robust licenses. Jira is also free for open source projects and organizations that are non-profit, non-government, non-academic, non-commercial, non-political and secular. Who Recommends It: Developers at Etsy and Zappos Demo: 3. SubversionWhat It Does: Apache Subversion is an open source, centralized version control system used to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. It’s widely used by the open source community — for example, in projects such as Ruby, Django and SourceForge — and it’s also making inroads into the corporate sector and large-scale enterprise, as well. Subversion was accepted into Apache Incubator last fall and became a top-level Apache Software Foundation project in February 2010. What It Costs: Subversion is open source and uses the Apache license. Who Recommends It: Amber Case and a whole boatload of solo and web app devs. Google Code also provides Subversion hosting for their open source projects. 4. SquadWhat It Does: Squad is a web-based collaborative code editor that lets you open, edit and share code in real time. For noob devs, this tools is a great way to get feedback and real-time help with your work. And if you run a highly skilled team of hackers, Squad is great for code reviews, training and pair programming. It also includes a side-by-side chat program for better collaboration. What It Costs: You can get a free, ad-supported version of Squad for a solo developer, or you can pay $9 per month for a solo account or $39 per month for a team account. Who Recommends It: The Sproutbox guys (some of whom made Squad) and developer/author Douglas Karr 5. ConfluenceWhat It Does: Confluence is a web-based corporate wiki written in Java and mainly used in corporate environments. It was created “to build an application that was built to the requirements of an enterprise knowledge management system, without losing the essential, powerful simplicity of the wiki in the process.” Confluence integrates nicely with Atlassian’s other software and project management tools, including Jira, FishEye and Crucible. What It Costs: You can get a 30-day trial free of charge, and Confluence is also free for open source projects. Paid licenses range from a $10 fee to a $2,000 monthly subscription. Who Recommends It: The hard-working devs of Etsy, Springpad, and HubSpot, and technology journalist and wiki geek Steven Walling Demo: 6. TracWhat It Does: Trac is a web-based, open source bug-tracking and project management tool that integrates well with Subversion and other version control software. Trac allows wiki markup to link references between bugs, tasks and files. A timeline shows all tasks in order, and a roadmap lists any upcoming milestones. Until about five years ago, Trac was available under the GNU General Public License; it is now available under a modified BSD license. What It Costs: Trac is open source software. Who Recommends It: A slew of entrepreneurial nerds, including Cullen Wilson, Vidar Andersen and Aaron Parecki 7. oDeskWhat It Does: oDesk is a series of tools targeted at businesses that intend to hire and manage remote workers. It’s particularly suited to teams who hire freelancers, contractors and consultants who need to log their hours and whose work must be tracked or audited, as progress and actual time worked can be verified via periodic screenshots. NDAs, taxes, insurance and invoicing are all built into the oDesk system, as well. What It Costs: Cost will vary depending on the type and amount of work done. Who Recommends It: A couple Mashable staffers who’ve used oDesk in the past Demo: 8. BraintrustWhat It Does: Braintrust is a web-based, social collaboration tool. Instead of focusing on tasks, to-do lists and milestones, Braintrust organizes and centralizes the most important conversations within your team. It also allows teams to share documents and files and participate in real-time discussions. What It Costs: Braintrust is free for smaller teams with smaller storage needs (up to five people and 1GB of data); for larger projects, you can purchase monthly subscriptions that range from $29 to $199, depending on your needs and usage. every plan allows for a free 30-day trial. Who Recommends It: Several open source projects Demo: 9. AssemblaWhat It Does: Assembla is a collaborative project management service for open source and commercial software. It includes Subversion, Git and Mercurial code repositories, ticketing functionality, bug-tracking tools and collaboration features for distributed teams. Assembla also has a suite of project management tools for sharing projects with customers, contractors and any others who might need to access or view projects with varying levels of permissions. What It Costs: Pricing for Assembla ranges from $4 per user per space to $249 per month for enterprises, with several options in between. Open source and community projects can use Assembla free of charge. Who Recommends It: Canada Wide Media’s digital media team, Todd Brooks of the Code Foundry and developer Warren Benedetto Demo: 10. BasecampWhat It Does: Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool developed by 37signals. It features to-do lists, tasks, milestones, wikis, file sharing and messaging. This software is particularly adept at integrating with other tools, including mobile applications, reporting tools, invoicing software, time trackers and software development tools. The Ruby on Rails framework was extracted from the Basecamp project. What It Costs: A 30-day free trial is available, and Basecamp pricing ranges from $24 per month for small groups (15 projects with 5 GB of storage) to $149 per month for unlimited projects and 75 GB of storage. All paid plans are for unlimited users. There is also a free plan which can be utilized by one user for one project, without the file-sharing feature. Who Recommends It: Your friendly neighborhood tech bloggers at Mashable, as well as developer Phil Michaelson Series supported by Rackspace  Rackspace is the better way to do hosting. No more worrying about web hosting uptime. No more spending your time, energy and resources trying to stay on top of things like patching, updating, monitoring, backing up data and the like. Learn why. Reviews: Basecamp, Mashable, WordPress, springpad More About: Assembla, basecamp, braintrust, bug tracking, code review, confluence, distributed teams, github, jira, odesk, squad, subversion, trac, web development series For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Droid X Hits Verizon Stores on Thursday Posted: 14 Jul 2010 04:38 PM PDT   The next member of the Droid family, the Droid X, will be hitting Verizon Wireless stores on Thursday. The Droid X is Motorola’s latest Google Android device, featuring a 4.3-inch screen, 8-megapixel camera, HDMI out put and more (check out our hands-on look at the Droid X video and photo capabilities). The Droid X looks like it will be shipping with Android 2.1, but both Android 2.2 — or Froyo as it is affectionately called — and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 will be available via an over-the-air update later this summer. The original Droid was a huge hit for Verizon and has been the most successful Android device to-date. Since its release last November, many high-end Android-based smartphones have hit the market, including the Nexus One, HTC Incredible, HTC EVO 4G and the Dell Streak. The Droid X will be available for $199 after a $100 mail-in-rebate and a new, two-year contract. Reviews: Adobe Flash Player, Android More About: android, droid, droid x, Motorola, verizon wireless For more Mobile coverage:
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| Evernote Trunk: An App Store for Productivity Addicts Posted: 14 Jul 2010 03:28 PM PDT   Today note-taking application and service Evernote rolled out the latest addition of its platform, Evernote Trunk. Think of it as an app store for Evernote users. Evernote Trunk features nearly 100 add-ons for the Evernote service, including mobile and desktop apps and plugins, all built to support the underlying service. It’s clear that with Evernote Trunk, the company wants to turn the service into a larger platform for developers and end users.  The real point of Evernote Trunk, however, is to draw attention to the many other apps that can connect with the service. For instance, Canon and Lexmark both have scanners that can integrate directly with Evernote, and an increasing number of mobile apps support sending links or clippings to the service. You can access Evernote Trunk via the web or from within the desktop application. In addition to apps and plugins, Evernote also has some special Notebooks created by some of its partners with content that users can import directly into their accounts. Cool Hunting and Make: Projects both have notebooks available for users that provide access to special clippings and information, for instance. The Notebook feature is actually pretty cool and we would like the see the ability to syndicate or create group-curated notebooks built into Evernote’s core product. What do you think of Evernote Trunk?  Reviews: Android, Evernote, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Windows More About: evernote, evernote trunk, productivity, software, web apps For more Tech coverage:
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| Sports Illustrated Swaps Steinbrenner for LeBron on iPad Edition Cover Posted: 14 Jul 2010 02:18 PM PDT   When news of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s death was revealed on Tuesday morning, it was too late for Sports Illustrated to change the cover photo of its print edition, featuring basketball star Lebron James and two of his new teammates. It was not, however, too late to alter the cover of the iPad edition of this week’s issue. “We all sort of looked at [each] other, and said, ‘you know, this is an opportunity to do this,’ and why wouldn’t we?” Editor Terry McDonnel told AllThingsD. The cover was accompanied by an article by Tom Verducci, which iPad readers can access alongside the original LeBron cover story. Verducci’s piece will be made freely available on SI.com later this week so that print subscribers and purchasers — as well as anyone else who wants to read the story, for that matter — can read it before the next issue. The cover change has interesting implications for the future of publishing on the iPad. Publishers have historically endeavored to replicate the print versions of their magazines as closely as possible on the device, utilizing the platform only to toss in a few digital extras, like video and interactive graphics. iPad apps are not treated like news or magazines sites, where content is refreshed multiple times per day — although Sports Illustrated’s app does have a SI.com story feed embedded. iPad publishing won’t change too much, however, at least for the present. McDonnel says that the magazine does not plan to make a habit out of replacing or adding content to the app in the future, although the brand may do another cover swap if the occasion presents itself. What do you think of the cover swap? Should magazines try to offer their readers more current or extra content on the iPad, or provide the same experience as print? The Two Covers  More About: george steinbrenner, ipad, ipad app, Sports illustrated For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Common Netiquette Questions: Answered Posted: 14 Jul 2010 01:49 PM PDT   The ground rules for online courtesy gelled sometime in the late ’90s: Don’t swear on public forums. Zip large files before sending. AVOID WRITING IN CAPS, AS IT IS RUDE TO CYBERSHOUT. Today, as we spend more and more hours interacting online (Americans devoted twice as many minutes to social networking and blog-reading in 2009 vs. 2008, according to a Nielsen survey), there are more opportunities than ever for awkwardness, unintentional insult, rejection, creepiness and misunderstanding. So this week, Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger Andrea Bartz and I are taking a break from broad-swath advice spewage and instead playing Emily Post to our friends’ and fans’ real-life netiquette conundrums. Check out the column at CNN.com >>[img credit: Muffet] More About: cnn, facebook, netiquette, social media, Stuff Hipsters Hate For more Social Media coverage:
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| How Rdio Makes Your Music Mix Social [INVITES] Posted: 14 Jul 2010 01:24 PM PDT   Rdio is a private beta music service available in the U.S. that hails from the founders of Skype. Its focus is to turn the music listening experience into something more social, where social discovery determines what you play next and to this end, Rdio is unquestionably successful. For this listener in particular, Rdio proves that friends really do have a more varied, (arguably better) taste in music than computer algorithms. Music discovery is where the magic happens, and it’s the defining characteristic that will set apart the service from the likes of Pandora and Spotify. Still, Rdio is very young — merely a babe when it comes to online streaming music — and it comes with a monthly subscription price tag that may make it unappealing to a generation of users who have come to expect that music is free. Rdio is, however, a viable streaming web, desktop and mobile music service that very well could follow in the successful footsteps of Skype. Let’s explore why. The Rdio Overview The name Rdio — pronounced “r-dee-o” — is a combination of the words radio and audio, which suggests an always-on music listening experience that the service delivers that with an attractive website and a companion desktop and mobile experience. CEO Drew Larner said that Rdio is meant to help music listeners “discover music through people instead of algorithms,” which he believes, “is how people want to experience music.” New users can test Rdio out free of charge during an initial trial period (read on to get an invite), but extended listening will cost $4.99 p/month for web and $9.99 p/month for both web and mobile. We’ve got 500 invites for those that are looking to test it out for themselves. The Social and Mobile Music Mix Rdio’s formula takes the music that you, your network and all site members are listening to and highlights songs and artists in heavy rotation on your dashboard. The approach instantly puts a splash of color and flavor into the music discovery experience, although it is heavily dependent on your on-site relationships. You’ll want to follow friends to spruce up the heavy rotation dashboard, as well as start diving into music so you can round out your music profile. The online listening experience is primarily driven by your music queue. You can self-select individual tracks to add to your queue or go for the just-press-play easiness that the artist radio options afford. The latter option is less about social discovery, but it’s a fast and simple way to just start listening. Simply select an artist, click “artist radio” and Rdio will create a playlist of 25 artist songs (or related songs depending on your preference). Lerner made it clear that Rdio is focused on the mobile experience, hence the higher price point. He believes that technology is finally at a point where users can have a great experience streaming music via their mobile phones. Rdio is built to take advantage of smartphone advancements in recent years. Rdio is available for iPhone/iPod Touch, Andriod and BlackBerry, but Lerner does admit that the BlackBerry app is by far the most advanced. The ultimate goal is to create a seamless mobile music listening experience. They’re not there yet, but Rdio is still evolving its mobile apps and UI.  Can Rdio Succeed With Subscription Fees?After over a week of continuous Rdio usage, I opted to take the plunge into full subscription territory. After all, having instant access to Rdio’s extensive library and personal playlists via mobile phone is an attractive offer that’s almost too good to give up. Rdio seems to push you towards upgrading to a subscription plan. My conversion into a paying user is a feat for the service; I also have access to Spotify and often go on Pandora music binges. Rdio won me be over with the appeal of access to on-demand music wherever I am, but more so with the overall promise of social music discovery. Still, in a world where streaming music is often served up free of charge, simply because of the fees Rdio likely won’t convert a good number of new users. Many of us already pay around $10 p/month for Netflix and now Hulu Plus, so another $10 for music is a hard sell to say the least. Rdio Invites Whether you want to pay-to-play is a choice you’ll have to make for yourself. Grab one of Mashable’s 500 invites to try out the beta offering for yourself, and take to the comments to share your thoughts. More music resources from Mashable:
[img credit: Beverly & Pack, K.G.Photos] Reviews: Pandora, Skype, Spotify More About: music, music discovery, pandora, rdio, spotify For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Google Begins Phasing Out YouTube Accounts Posted: 14 Jul 2010 12:55 PM PDT   Existing YouTube users are now required to associate their YouTube accounts with Google’s cross-site account system. New users are already required to do so, but Google is trying once and for all to phase out the pre-Google account system that’s left over from the days before The search giant purchased the video sharing site. The company announced the policy change in a recent blog post. Knowing that not all of the old YouTube users have Google accounts, Software Engineer Brett Hobbs was careful to explain the benefits and knock out any misperceptions those users might have. Most notably, he clarified that YouTube usernames won’t change, they’ll just be tied to Google accounts behind the scenes. He wrote that it will make things much easier for the YouTube team because sorting between the two account systems is a big pain, and that Google accounts have better security, so it ought to be a win for everybody. You don’t need to be a Gmail user to have a Google account; you can sign up with any e-mail address. Wary of a privacy backlash, Google has made it clear that your YouTube activity won’t start automatically publishing in your Buzz feed once your accounts are linked. You’ll have to opt in to that feature. The mandatory transition will be gradual, but if you want to jump ahead you can link your accounts right away. Based on what Google has said so far, we don’t see why anyone should be bothered by this change, but if you can think of a reason to be concerned, be sure and share it the comments. Reviews: Gmail, Google, YouTube More About: account, gmail, Google, google accounts, video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Viral “Double Rainbow” Video Inspires Legions of Spin-offs Posted: 14 Jul 2010 12:11 PM PDT   It’s Wednesday — oh-so-oh-so far from our weekly YouTube roundup — but there have just been too many “Double Rainbow Guy” remixes to pass up. Therefore, oh ladies and gentleman of the daily grind, I present you with this humble (yet rad) offering of YouTube gold… from the end of the rainbow. Last week we met Paul Vasquez, a.k.a. YouTube user Hungrybear9562, and our hearts stirred, roused from the dark doldrums that only a long stretch of viral video-less weeks can inspire (Seriously, what was the last awesome meme? I can’t even remember…) Vasquez posted a video to YouTube back in January in which he freaked out over a couple of rainbows, and after Jimmy Kimmel tweeted the vid over the holiday weekend, the melodious meme was born. And with it came remixes, mashups and more. Seriously, I haven’t seen people this videographically inspired since that whole Chatroulette thing. Here’s a few of our favorites. Now, if you would excuse me, the rain is just dissipating here in NYC, and I’m hoping to see some ‘bows of my own. The OriginalThe Meaning Of Rainbows – Trailer (Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow)DOUBLE RAINBOW SONG!!Drunkhungrybear Double KFC Drive-Thru 7-6-10Auto-Tune The Rainbow – YosemiteBear RainbowDouble Rainbow Connection RemixReviews: YouTube More About: humor, pop culture, viral video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Musicians Can Help Each Other Get Famous with New Site Posted: 14 Jul 2010 11:33 AM PDT   This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Quick Pitch: Headliner is a real-time social media recommendation exchange for artists and bands. Genius Idea: It’s tough for an upstart band to make it big, and since all you young musicians are in roughly the same boat, so why not work together? Headliner.fm makes that happen by helping bands promote one another on their Twitter, Facebook and MySpace profiles. When you sign your band up at Headliner.fm, you’re given a number of “Band Bucks” proportionate to your social media presence — the more followers you have on Twitter, for example, the more Band Bucks you’ll get. You can use those Band Bucks to request that other bands give you a quick shout-out on their social media accounts. Each time you give another band a shout-out (you can do three per day) you’re given more Band Bucks. This video explains the basic concept. Bands have to accept promotion requests from other bands, so you can control what kinds of shout-outs are hitting your feeds. Once you accept, Headliner.fm automatically handles the scheduling and the posting — just in case you might forget to do it yourself. You can also get band bucks for inviting other artists to join the site. Headliner.fm offers analytics tools so you can track how much of an impact your promotions are making. Be smart about the bands you do promotions with by targeting audiences you think would also be interested in your music. For example, it’s probably a safe assumption that Diddy’s feeds aren’t the optimal place to promote your old-fashioned Bluegrass band. Speaking of Diddy, there are a few big artists on the site, including Travie McCoy and The Hives. Most of the thousands of members are smaller groups, though. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Jan_Kowalski Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Reviews: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: bands, bizspark, headliner-fm, music, openID, social media, spark-of-genius, twitter For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Bill Gates Invests in Cleaner Car Technology Posted: 14 Jul 2010 10:26 AM PDT   Companies and individuals around the world are looking for better modes of transportation to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels, and Bill Gates is joining that group in a fascinating way: He’s investing in a company that wants to completely rethink, reinvent and redesign the internal combustion engine as we know it. The cars we drive today hold some of the same essential components as a Model T Ford from 100 years ago; in fact, the core technology of the internal combustion engine is largely a product of the 1800s. EcoMotors, the company Gates is investing in, is a Detroit-based startup that’s trying to change how our engines operate. But instead of simply changing the kinds of fuel we use, it wants to completely change our cars’ propulsion systems. The engine the company is trying to build will have less mass, will cost less to make, will be more fuel-efficient and will generate lower emissions. Its first commercial product is the turbo-diesel version of the innovative opposed-piston, opposed-cylinder (opoc) engine, which uses half the parts and is half the size of a traditional automobile engine. Gates gave the company $23.5 million for its Series B because he thinks the opoc engine could be a big hit in developing areas. "The opoc engine can be an important step in providing affordable, low-emission transportation for the developing world," he said in a release. "EcoMotors has developed a promising technology that could help reduce levels of greenhouse gas emissions in a low-cost, globally relevant way,” he added. Also joining Gates in this round is Khosla Ventures, whose greentech investments are being advised by Tony Blair. For those of you concerned with power, the opoc engines generate about one hp per pound of engine weight. In other words, a 300-pound engine is a 300hp engine — and it packs a high fuel economy, too. The investments will allow EcoMotors to finish engineering and testing the opoc engine. We could see prototype vehicles as soon as the end of this year and vehicles containing this technology in production in three years’ time. What do you think: Is Gates onto something exciting here? Would this be a quick, sustainable way to help drivers use less fuel? More About: auto, bill gates, car, clean tech, ecomotors, engine, green tech For more Tech coverage:
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| 5 Tips for Managing Your Company’s Brand on the Web Posted: 14 Jul 2010 10:06 AM PDT   This series is supported by IGLOO, a leader in helping organizations improve business processes, increase employee productivity and enhance stakeholder engagement inside and outside the organization using social technologies.
Here we’ll give you an inside look at the strategies of avant garde industry leaders who’ve spent years figuring out how to move beyond social media hype and implement practical management practices into their daily work routines. Brad Nelson, Jeremy Thum, Joel Price, Joel Frey and Bowen Payson are all marketers behind big brand names. They’ve done the dirty work. Their lessons and words of wisdom range from finding ways to unify digital assets to knowing your niche, and each tip should be heeded by those looking to follow in their footsteps. 1. Let Someone Else Say It Starbucks is at the forefront of mastering the social web. The company is one of the most popular brands on Facebook, is adept at social media to drive foot traffic to stores, is a beta tester for Twitter’s Promoted Tweets platform and was the first big brand to offer a nationwide Foursquare special. Product Manager Brad Nelson is often the genius behind the company’s online and social media initiatives, he’s also the primary person behind the brand’s very popular Twitter account. Much of his day-to-day responsibilities involve online brand management, and as such he’s learned that sometimes the best way to say something on the social web is to, “have someone else say it.” Nelson advises other brands to take the same course of action. “If you can find a tweet, photo or blog post that says what you’re trying to say then use that instead of writing it yourself. It does a couple of great things. Your readers will see it as an external validator, so they’ll be more likely to respond than they would if it was a billboard on the side of the road. It also makes the original author happy. Everyone wants to see their content get exposure.” In fact, Nelson says that he tries to “find things to retweet every day.” Recently the coffee retailer started a Treat Receipt promotion; customers that purchase coffee during the day can return after 2 p.m. for a $2 grande cold beverage. Of course, Twitter is proving to be a great medium to promote the campaign, and Nelson is employing his own strategy by retweeting tweets like this one from @jaredbtaylor: “This whole go to @Starbucks before 2 pm and get a $2 grande drink after 2 thing is pretty sweet.” 2. Unify Digital Properties Any online or social media brand manager has more than a single audience to worry about. There’s the company website, corporate blog, Twitter account, Facebook Page, YouTube channel, Foursquare presence and so on and so forth. Staying competitive in today’s social media landscape means setting up shop where your fans are. While the go-where-the-people-are strategy is an effective way to reach more brand fans, it’s also the quickest way to dilute the brand as a whole. That’s why as the Director of Interactive Marketing for the Chicago Bulls, Jeremy Thum says that the company is now focused on unification and tying together each of the disparate online identities. The Chicago Bulls Interactive Marketing Department has been busy redesigning Bulls.com, launching the made-for-web BullsTV and working on social-media driven live fan chat sessions during this past season’s regular and post season games. The team has so many online initiatives that unification — providing “a consistent fan experience” — has become a must when tackling online brand management. Part of the unification process has been to build BullsConnect — a custom commenting platform with Facebook integration — to create a singular login and commenting experience across their online properties. In the future, they’ll be incentivizing fan activity with a Chicago Bulls points-based loyalty system to draw attention to this unification initiative. Moving forward the team will also work to bring a “Lite” version of BullsTV to their Facebook Page, as well as use it to spruce up their “dormant YouTube channel.” When it comes to the bigger picture, unification is just one part of the process. Thum says that, “during the last 12 months, we have been focusing on building or re-building our fundamental digital marketing components, unifying them and creating unique opportunities to engage with fans on our web presence.” 3. Leave Your Ego Behind Social media is very much an ego-driven space. The most successful social media platforms use ego and game mechanics to drive engagement, and both people and brands are often measured in fans and followers. Success is often attributed to retweets, likes, shares and various other influence metrics. With so much of what happens on these sites fueled by this type of behavior, brands need to be careful when it comes to the employees they trust to represent them online. Social media staffers need to leave their egos behind, says Joel Frey, Travelocity’s senior public relations manager. Frey is one of the sophisticated minds at Travelocity helping the company engage in social media travel chatter with creative initiatives on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Chatroulette. The company’s day-to-day online brand management strategy is fairly straightforward and involves an aggressive use of popular Twitter and social media application, TweetDeck. Frey and team are quick to chime in and involve customer service reps when anyone voices a problem or concern. But, Frey cautions against team members acting too rash or letting their ego get the best of them. He also warns against taking a sarcastic tone when speaking with customers online. Both tips seem obvious but are fast-forgotten when reacting with “gut instinct” in the real-time world of social media. Frey’s policy is to, “treat my interactions with customers on social media as I would with any media interview: I get to the point, I tell the truth and I recognize that a customer's time is valuable and that it's important to help them get their issue resolved as fast as possible.” To avoid any hint of attitude in your tone, Frey also recommends having, “someone proofread your work before you post, especially if there's any risk that the content might be deemed offensive.” And as an alternative strategy, Frey has no qualms about sending out Roaming Gnome statues. It’s a “once in a while” gesture the company employs to make a random, “I wish I had a Roaming Gnome of my own” Twitterer’s or Facebook user’s day. 4. Know Your Niche Like Starbucks, Virgin America is one of a select group of brands testing Twitter’s Promoted Tweets advertising platform. Shortly after the platform first launched in March, the company made a bold decision to announce its expansion to Toronto, Canada entirely through Twitter, using Promoted Tweets to help spread the word. Clearly, Virgin America felt confident enough in their online brand management skills to pinpoint Twitter as the right medium for their big announcement. Online Marketing Manager Bowen Payson attributes this confidence to the company’s ability to understand their online customer base well enough to reach them in the right ways. Payson advises other companies to keep it simple and find just the right niche. “There is often the temptation to over-complicate, so keeping things fresh and brand-forward is important, but you also have to keep it clear and targeted to the customers you want.” Payson dates Virgin America’s niche-focused strategy back to their Boston launch in 2009. Instead of going for a large, broad media push, the airline opted to stay small and focused with their media plan. “We worked with the likes of Gothamist (Bostonist, SFist, and LAist), going.com, Flavorpill, Boston Phoenix, and Curbed to reach an audience of influencers … It was so successful that we applied this same approach for the Fort Lauderdale and Toronto launches while adapting to those unique markets.” At the end of the day, Payson says the key to success is “understanding how guests respond differently in niche marketing efforts than other broader efforts. So it is not only about smarter targeting and ad placement, but also about brand and demographic alignment.” 5. Don’t Wallow or Gloat Social media is exploding in the world of sports. Athletes and teams are savvy to social mediums that inspire fan-reaction, and fans are finding that their voices are amplified with the help of Twitter, Facebook and their online friends. Sports fans are an enthusiastic bunch to say the least, and this enthusiasm tends to swell when a team or player is either doing remarkably well or dreadfully underperforming. No one knows this more than the social media manager for a professional sports team. As the San Diego Chargers’ Manager of Internet Services, Joel Price regularly faces emotional outbursts of both love and hate from Chargers fans. “In sports, you win, you’re beloved. You lose, you can’t do anything right,” says Price. Price admits that often times the social media team is tasked with trying to bear the weight of a win or loss and “carry everything on their shoulders,” an overwhelming endeavor to say the least. To counteract that pressure, Price advises others to, “Realize you’re the conduit to the organization or company. Some issues can’t be resolved by you, accept it.” In his own work, Price finds it “delusional” to use social media as way to try and convince fans of success following a tough loss. Price and team hope to inspire Chargers fans to take the “get ‘em next week” attitude by leading through example. “Emotions run very high in the sports business and nasty things will be said. You might not be able to change everything that people would like, but by at least paying attention, you'll gain respect for the brand you manage.” The same strategy should be applied to moments of greatness according to Price. “When you win those big games don’t gloat. Leave that for the fans.” Series supported by IGLOO  This series is supported by IGLOO, a leader in helping organizations improve business processes, increase employee productivity and enhance stakeholder engagement inside and outside the organization using social technologies. IGLOO is a social software company that builds online communities for business. Uniting content management, collaboration and knowledge sharing tools, within one secure social networking platform, IGLOO enables organizations to overcome the barriers to communication and collaboration that emerge because of size. Whether the obstacles are organizational or geographic, a more open and connected business improves employee productivity (Workplace Communities) and helps to foster better relationships with customers, partners and suppliers (Marketplace Communities). Learn more about how IGLOO is socializing the workplace and helping organizations build successful online communities through the IGLOO Social Media Playbook. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, CostinT, VCTStyle [img credits: [AndreA], Chicago Bulls, Travelocity, San Diego Chargers] Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, TweetDeck, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphoto, sports More About: brand management series, chargers, chicago bulls, facebook, foursquare, foursquare mayor special, MARKETING, san diego chargers, social media, sponsored tweets, sports, starbucks, travelocity, twitter, virgin america, youtube For more Business coverage:
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| Disney Is Twitter’s First @Earlybird Sponsor Posted: 14 Jul 2010 09:47 AM PDT   Twitter has just launched its first @earlybird exclusive offer with Walt Disney Studios. The promotion is in conjunction with today’s release of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. U.S. @earlybird or @DisneyPictures followers can get a special 2-for-1 deal on tickets for a limited time. A free movie ticket ($12 value, at least at my local cineplex) is a pretty sweet deal and it’s also a great test case for Twitter’s new @earlybird program.  Twitter clearly wants to promote itself, as Facebook has, as an avenue that advertisers and brands can use to build momentum and brand recognition through coupons and promotions. This first @earlybird concept isn’t dissimilar to what some of Twitter’s Promoted Tweets partners, like Virgin America, are already doing. While brands and advertisers frequently do their own promotions via Twitter, the advantage of using @earlybird is that the follower base may not only be larger in some cases (although we will note, as of right now @DisneyPictures has a larger following base than @earlybird), but the type of follower may be more broad and varied. Simply put, advertisers may have the ability to target users who wouldn’t generally follow their individual brand. What do you think of @earlybird and its first promotion? Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: disney, earlybird, Film, films, MARKETING, Movies, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Old Spice Guy Makes Twitter Fan’s Marriage Proposal [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Jul 2010 09:40 AM PDT   The Old Spice guy just took his YouTube campaign to a whole new level by proposing to a woman on behalf of one of his Twitter followers. The fan tweeted within hours that she’d agreed to marry him. Yesterday, Old Spice started posting YouTube videos featuring the shirtless man from the popular TV commercials delivering personalized messages to fans on Twitter, Facebook and other websites. Regular fans got video responses, but the Old Spice guy also smartly targeted social media-savvy celebrities and bloggers to get the word out and achieve viral status. A fan named Johannes S. Beals tweeted, “Can U Ask my girlfriend to marry me? Her name is Angela A. Hutt-Chamberlin” to Old Spice. The following video popped up on YouTube within an hour, and Old Spice tweeted it at Beals. She Said Yes!Just a few hours later, Beals tweeted at Old Spice: “SHE SAID YES!!!!” Many users congratulated him, but a few questioned whether or not it was legit. To prove it, he uploaded this picture of his new fiancée wearing her diamond ring. Congratulations to the bride and groom to be!  The Long Tradition of Twitter ProposalsWhile the Old Spice guy is new on the scene, Twitter-based proposals aren’t new at all. When we compiled a list of the top 10 geekiest marriage proposals, we dedicated a section to Twitter proposals, highlighting @garazi’s proposal to @stefsull (probably the first) as well as tech blogger Grant Robertson’s proposal to our very own Christina Warren. Do you like the idea of a marriage proposal via social media, or do you prefer more traditional methods and settings? Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube More About: brand, love, MARKETING, marriage, marriage proposal, old spice, old spice guy, proposal, trending, twitter, video, viral videos, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| The Russian Spy Scandal Reaches Microsoft Posted: 14 Jul 2010 09:09 AM PDT   Federal agents have detained yet another alleged Russian spy in the government’s investigation of a spy ring that has reached entrepreneurial and tech circles from coast to coast. The alleged 12th spy, Alexey Karetnikov, was an employee of Microsoft at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. According to the Washington Post, he was deported to Russia on Tuesday after a judge ordered his removal on Monday. Law enforcement officials say that he was “in the early stages” of his spy work, but had yet to obtain any useful information. According to Karetnikov’s Facebook Page, he was on Microsoft’s SDET (Software Design Engineer in Test) team, which helps test the code that runs Microsoft’s products. The Russian spy ring, also known as the Illegals Program, has been captivating American audiences and mainstream media ever since 10 alleged agents were arrested by U.S. authorities last month. They worked off fake identities, had regular jobs (many in tech) and some even had families. One alleged spy, Tracey Foley, worked for online real-estate company Redfin, while another, Anna Chapman, was in New York City’s entrepreneurial scene and ran an apartment rentals website. According to the Post, there are unlikely to be any additional spies in the case. The first 10 have all been returned to Russia in a rare prisoners swap, while an 11th spy remains at large.  Reviews: test More About: espionage, Illegals Program, microsoft, russia, Russian Spies For more Tech coverage:
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| How Real-Time Data is Changing Business Optimization Posted: 14 Jul 2010 08:56 AM PDT   Jeremy Richardson heads up Business Development at Mixpanel, Inc. a real-time analytics service that helps companies understand how users behave with web applications. For a while, a big limitation of online optimization tools was their lack of real-time reporting. Google Analytics, the most popular analytics service out there, can easily take a full day before displaying your data. This was acceptable back when the web was static, but as websites become more and more dynamic, the rate at which we analyze and iterate based on our collected data has dramatically increased. There are many industries where optimizing in real-time can have a large impact on overall business performance. Unfortunately, not all companies are aware of the potential value in tracking information in real-time. Let's take a look at a few areas where real-time data processing is already making a big impact. Content Websites One area where we are seeing real-time analytics improve content companies is in article headlines. For most of us, an article headline is all we use to decide whether or not to read on, so having a good one is definitely important. The Huffington Post is ahead of the game here. They use analytics to run A/B split tests on their important articles – in real-time. The Huffington Post initially shows 2 headlines for the same story, after 5 minutes of testing they discard the less popular one. Aside from A/B testing article headlines, real-time analytics can play a large role in organizing and prioritizing entire stories as they break. If publishers know the popularity of an article based on the number of reads, comments, tweets, or Facebook "Likes" in real-time, then they can make informed decisions about how to optimize their pages with the best content. As media companies continue to concentrate more of their business online, real-time data analysis will likely play a large role in shaping how key decisions are made in every aspect of the company. Game CompaniesSocial gaming is a huge industry that can, and does, benefit from analyzing their data in real-time. It's a very cut-throat business: Whenever a new strategy is successful, it's immediately copied by everyone else. Analytics are necessary to keep an edge on the competition. Specifically, real-time analytics are important because social games often have a short lifetime, and the makers want to get as much value out of a single customer as possible. If they can't iterate on a game for a whole day, and the average user only plays for 7 days, then that's a large opportunity that is lost due to a lack of data. A large gaming company that I've spoken with sees well over 30 million MAU's and they analyze and make changes to their games every hour, every day. Real-time analytics gives them the ability to maximize their iteration and get the most out of each game they make. It’s a large part of why they're so successful. Live StreamingIn live streaming, a flash crowd is when a large group of people shows up and then disappears in a relatively short time span. Imagine how many people tuned in when Landon Donovan scored that epic goal to advance USA in the World Cup, for example. The amount of data here would have been huge if every network packet from every user was captured, and was likely too much information for most companies to capture, record and analyze in any timely and useful way. The huge amount of crowd behaviors would need to be observed in real-time. An engineer at live streaming company Veetle told me they often need to reserve and allocate additional resources when a crowd is larger than they expect. For simple cases, like the season finale of Mad Men, there are simple allocation heuristics they use that automatically make up for a larger than expected audience. However, for extreme cases smart allocation is a difficult problem. With something like the Donovan goal, they would have had to have a person observing the flux of people streaming the game, and manually decide what resources to properly allocate – something they would only be able to do with real-time analytics. Instant Gratification Makes us Happier Having data available in real-time simply makes you happier: The ability to set up and start tracking immediately gives you the peace of mind in knowing that everything is working smoothly. And, if something does end up being wrong, no time will have been wasted waiting and hoping that the data will eventually show up in a report somewhere. The joy that real-time brings to customers is evident: Analytics company Woopra flat out asked their customers why real-time mattered. The responses Woopra received focused on the niche information that real-time data provided them. For example, one user wrote: “Just had a potential new customer on the phone, Woopra instantly shows me the 38 pages on our website they read before calling.” Another user found real-time data helped better filter the content he was producing, while for others the benefit was in identifying trends. “Real-time stats are great to understand upcoming trends. Helps to track user interest during different hours etc,” said one user in response. [Full Disclosure: Woopra is a competitor to the author's company.] Your Business in Real-TimeBeing able to analyze your data in real-time has the potential to add a lot of value to your business, whether you run a hugely popular website like The Huffington Post or a small business. However, taking advantage of real-time analytics requires commitment – you have to be ready to act on the data as fast as you receive it. It's possible to automate some of the work, but you usually need a human decision maker. This can be difficult to get correct but it can make your advantage even bigger once you succeed. More Business Resources from Mashable
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, slobo Reviews: Facebook, Google Analytics, iStockphoto More About: business, business optimization, data, flash crowds, Huffington Post, landon donovan, live streaming, social gaming, woopra For more Business coverage:
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| Apple Acquires Mapping Company Poly9 [REPORT] Posted: 14 Jul 2010 08:28 AM PDT  According to French-language newspaper Le Soleil, Apple has acquired Poly9, an online mapping company based in Quebec. The translated article reports that since the acquisition, the majority of Poly9 employees have moved from Quebec to Apple’s offices in California. As Apple Insider notes, the Poly9 website is down, although parts of the Poly9 Globe site are still accessible. While the product is now listed as “discontinued,” you can see it in action from some its partners like Skype and ConduitLive. Second Mapping Acquisition for AppleIf this report is true (we are awaiting confirmation from Apple) this is the second location-based acquisition that Apple has made in the past 12 months. Last July, Apple acquired Placebase, although like the Poly9 deal, the move was quiet. As recently surfaced patent submissions have made clear, Apple is definitely exploring the mobile location space. The online mapping space has become largely dominated by Google, whose mapping applications in the browser and on mobile devices are being used more and more every day. What Apple’s plans are for Poly9 or its IP is unclear, although we wouldn’t bet against it having a strong mobile focus. iEarth anyone? Reviews: Google, Google Earth, Skype More About: apple, geolocation, Google Maps, online maps, poly9 For more Apple coverage:
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| Improv Everywhere Brings “Star Wars” to NYC Subway Car [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Jul 2010 07:03 AM PDT Those intrepid folks at Improv Everywhere are at it again — this time they invaded a New York City subway car, treating passengers to a reenactment of the first Princess Leia/Darth Vader scene from Star Wars. We’ve seen comedy troop Improv Everywhere undertaking a ton of missions in the past — from the No-Pants Subway Ride to staging a scene from Ghostbusters in the New York Public Library — but we’ve never seen such a big reaction from onlookers. In the Ghostbusters vid it was immediately obvious who was a native New Yorker and who was a tourist –even sans walking lane — judging by who had the biggest reaction to the goings-on. This time, however, everyone on the train seem pleased and delighted, a heady task on a NYC subway car during the summer (a.k.a. roughly the eighth ring of hell). “The white walls and sliding doors on the train reminded us of the rebel ship from the movie, and we thought it would be fun to see how people would react to a surprise appearance by the iconic characters,” the troop says of the mission, which tapped folks from College Humor to help act out the scene. The whole thing took four goes, and the video above is the result. You can check out their website for more behind-the-scenes action. Hey, um, Improv Everywhere… Next time, can you invade the L train? The only entertainment I get in the a.m. is a rousing game of “Dodge That Dude’s Elbow,” and “Stay Out of the Armpit.” Sigh. More About: Film, humor, trending, viral video For more Web Video coverage:
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| Send Destinations via Google Maps to Ford and GM Vehicles Posted: 14 Jul 2010 06:50 AM PDT   Google’s “Send-To-Car” feature lets users send destinations from Google Maps directly to their vehicles. This feature previously worked with BMW and Audi vehicles, and now Google has extended its partner base for the program to Ford and GM. Owners of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles enabled with Ford’s SYNC system, as well as Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Pontiac, Saab or Saturn vehicles via GM’s OnStar navigation, can now take advantage of the “Send-to-Car” function. To try it out, type in a destination into Google Maps search, click “Send,” choose “Car” and then type in your car’s details. You can then access the destination through your car’s navigation system. It may sound like extra work to seasoned in-car navigators, but once you get used to it, it probably beats fiddling with the navigation system in the car. Check out a video preview of the feature coupled with GM’s OnStar below. [img credit: Ford] Reviews: Google Maps, gmc More About: ford, GM, Google, Google Maps, Send-to-Car For more Tech coverage:
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From open souce projects to the enterprise, more and more developers are working on distributed teams. Now that we don’t all have to be in the same room to fiddle around with punch cards, the era of online connectivity is allowing for unprecedented freedom in how, where and when we work.
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