Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Facebook’s Open Graph and Like Button are Going Mobile” |  |
- Facebook’s Open Graph and Like Button are Going Mobile
- What Apple Must Do to Stop the Bleeding
- Opera Mini 5.1 For Android Sheds Beta Tag
- How You Can Do Good with Small Actions: Try Bolder
- TechKaraokeSF Afterparty Keeps the #SummerMash Party Going
- Google Fiber Is One Step Closer to Reality
- Intel Gains Almost $11B in “Best Quarter Ever”
- eBay Hit With $3.8 Billion Lawsuit
- Google Adds Picnik Magic to Picasa Web Albums
- Weber On The Grill Makes the iPad Sizzle
- Twitter Search Results Now Show People Too
- Kmart Posts Online Customers’ Video Game Reviews in Retail Stores
- Calvin Klein Jeans Replaces Racy Billboards with QR Codes
- 5 Ways Social Media Helps Promote Good Health
- Facebook Hits New Traffic Record
- The World Cup Was Huge on Twitter [CHART]
- Facebook Shares Equal Free Software Licenses in New iPad App Promotion
- The Old Spice Guy Now Making Custom Videos for Fans via Social Media
- Creative Commons Licensing Now Available for Vimeo Videos
- Consolidate Comments from Twitter, Facebook, Digg and More
- HOW TO: Optimize Your Mobile Site Across Multiple Platforms
- Woman Gives USB Wedding Ring to Her Geeky Fiancé [PIC]
- Foursquare Mayors Get 25% Off at Ann Taylor [Exclusive]
- HOW TO: Use Game Mechanics to Power Your Business
- Creators of LOL Cats and FAIL Blog Launch Reality Humor Video Site
- Involver Simplifies Social Media Management for Brands with AMP
- Get Last-Minute Tickets For #SummerMash San Francisco
- The Battle of the Cheetos Continues [SPONSORED]
- Reddit Goes Freemium Out of Necessity
- Man Sues Facebook for 84% of Ownership
| Facebook’s Open Graph and Like Button are Going Mobile Posted: 14 Jul 2010 04:04 AM PDT      Facebook’s Open Graph, the platform that extends and spreads Facebook’s social network throughout the web, is going mobile, according to Facebook’s head of mobile products, Eric Tseng. At the MobileBeat 2010 conference in San Francisco, Tseng said that Facebook “really sees mobile as the future," and that we can expect to see Facebook’s “Like” buttons in mobile applications soon. Tseng used geolocation as an example to illustrate the power of the mobile Open Graph. If you were to walk near a coffee shop and get a location-aware notification that there’s a happy hour going on there, you’ll probably be even more inclined to visit it if the notification comes bundled with recommendations from your Facebook friends. He also had some interesting ideas about mobile app discovery, which he thinks will become more social. Without going into the details, Tseng said that "Inevitably, app stores will become more social. As we get more apps, that's going to be great. But the average user isn't going to go through thousands of apps on their phone." As far as Facebook’s mobile user base goes, Tseng puts the number at 150 million users, adding that mobile users have fueled Facebook’s immense recent growth. More About: facebook, Mobile 2.0, Open Graph, social media, social networking For more Social Media coverage:
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| What Apple Must Do to Stop the Bleeding Posted: 14 Jul 2010 03:43 AM PDT   It’d be an understatement to say that this has been a terrible week for Apple, and we haven’t even reached the halfway point. On Monday, Consumer Reports dealt a devastating blow to the iPhone 4 when it declined to recommend the device to consumers due to the antenna reception problem. Consumer Reports concluded from its tests that cell reception is indeed lost if you cover up the small gap between the two metal bands on the bottom right corner of the phone. The media quickly picked up the story. Tuesday wasn’t any better for the tech giant. Consumer Reports slammed Apple for not providing a fix to customers at no extra cost. Some have even suggested that a recall was imminent — an endeavor that would cost the company $1.5 billion. All of this news resulted in a sharp dive in Apple’s stock price, although it has since made a partial recovery. There are even class action lawsuits waiting in the wings. Apple has a nightmare on its hands, and no software fix will make the problem go away. The issue has taken on a life of its own. The situation isn’t impossible for Apple to recover from, though. However, the company needs to take action, and it needs to do it quick. Here are what my top five priorities would be if I were in Steve Jobs’ shoes: 1. Acknowledge That the Antenna Problem Is RealWhile you can’t call the data conclusive, you can say that the data overwhelmingly points to one conclusion: the iPhone has an antenna problem. The iPhone antenna issue has been replicated in countless YouTube videos and by multiple media organizations, including us. Apple’s internal documents show that they know the issue is real. This is almost certainly a hardware issue, and it’s time that Apple stopped being coy and just admit that the phone does have an issue with its reception. The current string of denials and half-truths won’t have any legs as the pressure mounts and the lawyers come knocking. The best thing the company can do is issue an open letter on the antenna issue, ideally from Steve Jobs himself. The key to making this go away is transparency. 2. Go Into the Technical DetailsOnce Apple acknowledges the problem, it needs to give up details, such as the science behind the antenna issue, why the company didn’t catch it during testing, and different potential fixes. Don’t spare the public the complicated and scientific issues behind the iPhone’s design and how different grips affect reception — anything less won’t appease a critical public. 3. Roll Out the Software UpdateApple has promised a software update earlier this month to “fix” the formula used to calculate signal bar strength display, which the company pointed to as the root of the iPhone antenna problem. While we believe that the software fix was meant to be a decoy to the real hardware issue, the company has already committed to the software update, and it should roll it out as promised. Don’t keep trying to point to software as the problem, though: most people are aware that it’s not a software bug causing the antenna issue and treating it as such is just demeaning and condescending to iPhone users everywhere. 4. Make the Bumpers FreeOut of all of my suggestions, this one is the key. Those iPhone bumpers may cost $29.00 in the Apple Store, but in reality the rubber and plastic mold only costs a fraction of that price (possibly around $1 per bumper). Providing that accessory to customers for free solves the antenna issue, as bare skin has to touch the iPhone 4’s metal casing in order to drop signal. It’s not an ideal fix, but it’s far better than the other option: a recall. 5. No Matter What, Don’t Issue an iPhone 4 Recall
Let’s play out the scenario. Apple performs a recall of its devices. Millions of people are annoyed as they either have to give up their device or keep a clearly defective one. Apple, already at peak production capacity, would take weeks — if not months — to replace the phones. Estimates place the cost of a recall in the billions. Here’s the truth: The iPhone 4 antenna issue isn’t a hazardous one. It isn’t exploding in people’s hands, it isn’t cutting anyone’s palms randomly, and it isn’t suddenly bursting into flames. Those are critical issues that would require a recall. The antenna issue, while important and a problem that Apple should have found and addressed before the product’s launch last month, doesn’t rise to that level. Recalls are meant only as a last resort. Do you think Ford is going to recall all of its cars for a faulty radio? Apple, while it may be feeling the pressure, can’t cave to it. There is a balance here. It has to be truthful with what’s actually wrong with the iPhone antenna and what is not. It has to keep its emotions in check as it discusses the antenna independent of the iPhone 4’s many other amazing features. And finally, the company, the company has to give customers something to solve the issue. Free bumpers seem like the appropriate middle ground. A recall is over-the-top extreme and hurts rather than helps consumers in the end. More About: antenna, apple, iphone, iphone 4, Opinion For more Apple coverage:
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| Opera Mini 5.1 For Android Sheds Beta Tag Posted: 14 Jul 2010 01:01 AM PDT   Early in March, Opera released its Opera Mini mobile browser, version 5.0 beta, for Android phones. The app has now been polished enough to reach version 5.1 and drop the beta tag it’s been carrying for so long. The new version doesn’t bring too many major improvements, except overall better stability and improved page layout on those high-end Android phones with huge screens we’ve been seeing lately. For a list of improvements in version 5.0 beta, see here. You can download Opera Mini 5.1 for Android from the Android market, or over at m.opera.com. Reviews: Android, Opera Mini More About: android, Mobile 2.0, opera mini For more Mobile coverage:
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| How You Can Do Good with Small Actions: Try Bolder Posted: 13 Jul 2010 10:02 PM 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: Bolder makes social responsibility tangible and fun for both businesses and people. Genius Idea: At Mashable, we’re always excited about web products that affect social change and social good. A new site we’ve found that attempts to do this is Bolder. Bolder works with business and brands to inspire actions that benefit society. The business creates a challenge for people to do something good. For example, the challenge could be to go shopping with a reusable bag or buy something from a local business rather than a national chain retailer. Individuals then login to the site — Facebook Connect is the simplest way to do so — and record their actions to complete the challenge. The business that created the challenge gives a reward to the users who complete it, which can help create additional sales for that business. Users can also vote for one another’s actions to decide who made the boldest statement. If everything goes as planned, everybody wins: The brand, the user, and hopefully, society as a whole.
Microactions for the greater good are a concept that we’ve explored before in some detail. Companies like SocialVibe, for example, specialize in helping citizens and brands collaborate to achieve social good while stimulating the brand’s PR and marketing goals at the same time. Bolder posts one challenge each week. Past challenges include Whole Foods of Palo Alto asking users to eat a piece of fruit for a reward of Fuji apples, or a San Francisco yogurt shop challenging users to get a friend to join in on a workout session in exchange for a buy-one-get-one-free yogurt special. Because the site doesn’t have concurrent challenges or challenges sorted by interest or location, it doesn’t seem suited to a mass market just yet. However, we’re sure Bolder’s founders are working on something, well, bolder as they grow to scale. Does this site seem like a fun way to help the community around you or contribute to the causes you care about? What kinds of challenges would you want to see on Bolder? Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines)." Reviews: PHP More About: bolder, social good, spark-of-genius, startup For more Tech coverage:
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| TechKaraokeSF Afterparty Keeps the #SummerMash Party Going Posted: 13 Jul 2010 08:32 PM PDT   The San Francisco Summer Tour event may be sold out, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on all the fun. We’re inviting everyone to TechKaraoke, the official afterparty for the Mashable Summer Tour event. Our favorite Karaoke Jockey, Roger Niner, will keep the mic rockin’ with singers all night long at The Parlor. And thanks to Yahoo!, we have prizes for the Best Singer, Best Duet, and Best Group! You can cast your votes tomorrow night using the hashtag #YahooRocks. Yahoo! is also providing Yahootinis so get there early to grab a tasty libation. When: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 — 9:30pm-2:00am Thanks to our TechKaraoke Sponsor:
Reviews: Internet, Yahoo! More About: Events, mashable, San Francisco-San Jose, summer tour, summermash
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| Google Fiber Is One Step Closer to Reality Posted: 13 Jul 2010 07:37 PM PDT   Google has launched a new website to centralize its efforts to build an ultra high-speed fiber optic Internet network, better known as Google Fiber. Earlier this year, Google announced its plan to build a high-speed network, delivering connection speeds 100 times faster than typical U.S. connections. The announcement produced a frenzy of interest: 600+ communities applied to become ground zero for Google’s experimental high-speed network. Topeka, Kansas even changed its name to Google, Kansas in order to win the contract. The search giant is once again moving forward with its fiber network plans. It announced the launch of Google Fiber for Communities, a simple and straightforward homepage for the project, complete with videos, an FAQ, suggestions for how to take action, and a full list of the communities that have requested more information on Google Fiber. It’s another step towards the eventual announcement of the first community to gain Google’s high-speed network, expected later this year. Google Doesn’t Want to Be an ISPAs we’ve stated before, we don’t believe that Google plans to enter the ISP business: it’s messy, filled with regulatory potholes, and a completely different business than Google’s core competency of web applications This is all about the Google Revenue Equation, where revenue is equivalent to time on the web and number of pageviews. The logic is simple: the more time users spend on the web, the more likely they are to view, click, and interact with Google’s billions of Internet ads. That’s why Google’s added a section for taking action to bring faster Internet to other communities: it wants people to pressure ISPs and the government to improve the quality of their connection, thus generating more revenue for Google. The company can take what it learns in the Google Fiber experiment and share it with other ISPs, making their networks faster in the process. Google intends for its high-speed Internet experiment to become a win-win situation for everyone. We’re certainly not going to complain about having faster Internet. Reviews: Google, Internet More About: Google, google fiber, Google ISP, internet For more Tech coverage:
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| Intel Gains Almost $11B in “Best Quarter Ever” Posted: 13 Jul 2010 07:05 PM PDT   Intel’s earnings this quarter — with revenues of $10.8 billion and net income of $2.9 billion — are the best the company has ever reported in its 42-year history, according to a release posted today on Intel Corporation’s website. Apparently, Intel’s most powerful microprocessors are selling like hotcakes, global recession be damned. “The PC and server segments are healthy and the demand for leading-edge technology will continue to increase for the foreseeable future,” said CEO Paul Otellini. Year-over-year, revenue was up 34% and net income a staggering 175% as compared to Q2 2009. One of the highlights of the company’s quarterly report was the Intel Atom microprocessor and chipset revenue of $413 million, a 16% increase sequentially. In Q2, the company spent $3.25 billion on research and development (R&D) and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The company saw a net gain from equity investments of $204 million, around $25 million more than expected. Intel’s finance team forecasts a Q3 revenue of $11.6 billion. While all this is great news for Intel, it shouldn’t be looked upon as a signal of an industry-wide recovery — particularly for those web and social startups so dear to Mashable’s heart. What we can infer is that the gadget sector is seeing a boom; mobile devices and laptops in particular have had a terrific year of launches and the resultant hype cycles, and many consumers are refreshing their hardware arsenals right now. Notably, the refreshed MacBook Pro features Intel Core i5 and i7 processors; the new entry-level MacBook also has Intel's 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU. And of course, non-Apple, Intel-chipped products that didn’t necessarily make headlines also did their part in boosting Intel’s bottom line. Do you think Intel can keep up this financial momentum? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Reviews: Mashable More About: business, finance, intel, quarterly report, Revenue For more Business coverage:
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| eBay Hit With $3.8 Billion Lawsuit Posted: 13 Jul 2010 06:28 PM PDT
The XPRT patents connected to the lawsuit include U.S. patents 7483856, 7567937, 7627528, 7610244, 7599881 and 7512563. You can read the whole saga in the formal complaint, which is available in a massive PDF file. According to the press release and complaint, PayPal, Shopping.com, Bill Me Later and StubHub are under fire as well. They’re all owned by eBay. We’ll keep you posted if this lawsuit finds some wings. More About: bill me later, ebay, ecommerce, lawsuit, patent, paypal, shopping.com, StubHub, xprt, xprt ventures For more Tech coverage:
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| Google Adds Picnik Magic to Picasa Web Albums Posted: 13 Jul 2010 05:52 PM PDT   For some time now, Flickr users have been able to use Picnik to edit photos in-stream without leaving the app. Now that Picnik is a Google property, Picasa users will have roughly the same advantage. As of today, Picasa Web Albums users will be able to use Picnik’s editing tools without ever leaving their accounts. Google acquired Picnik back in March. While Picnik’s free web app lacks the fuller features of tools like Aviary’s Phoenix, its simplicity makes it an appropriate complement for online photo-sharing sites. On Picnik’s web app, users can crop and resize photos and adjust brightness, saturation, contrast and other attributes free of charge. The Picasa implementation will also let you add stickers, apply special effects and use advanced tools. Edited photos can be saved as new images in your Picasa Web Album, or they can be used to replace the original image. Here’s an example of what the app will look like and what you can do with it: 
Although Flickr is a Yahoo property, Flickr users are currently still able to use Picnik to edit images from within the Flickr app “in Picnik mode,” as well. It’s unclear whether users will lose this functionality, but such seems unlikely at this time. What do you think of the Picnik/Picasa integration so far? Reviews: Flickr, Google, Picasa, picnik More About: flickr, photo sharing, picasa, picnik For more Tech coverage:
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| Weber On The Grill Makes the iPad Sizzle Posted: 13 Jul 2010 05:12 PM PDT   Weber has just released an iPad version of its popular On the Grill [iTunes link] app, a useful collection of recipes, rubs, sauces and grilling tips. The iPhone app was one of my surprise favorites last summer and the iPad app is just as good. In addition to having some great photos of various dishes in categories ranging from beef, poultry and seafood, the app also has a great shopping list feature so you can take your iPad with you while you stock up on supplies. The app also has collection of general grilling and meat tips, plus some videos from the Weber staff. This is great for people like me who are much better at watching people cook rather than cooking myself. Check out this gallery we created to see the app in action: Weber Main Screen Weber Deserts Main Screen Portrait Grilling Timer Main Menu Portrait Grill Tips Grill Tips Hot Dog Lobster Lobster Shopping List Shopping List Shopping List Grilling Guides Grill Accessories Video What are some of your favorite food-oriented apps for the iPad? Let us know! More About: Food, food apps, ipad apps, weber on the grill For more Mobile coverage:
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| Twitter Search Results Now Show People Too Posted: 13 Jul 2010 04:27 PM PDT   Twitter has just made it a lot easier to find other users with the integration of people within search results. Twitter has had people search for years now — it’s a useful tool to find friend or brands that you might want to follow. However, it’s relatively obscure, as it has never been part of Twitter’s main search feature. Many users have been noticing a new feature when they search for people on Twitter.com, though. Now when you perform a search that involves prominent people or brands (e.g. John Mayer or Mashable), the top three name results will appear, complete with the option to view other name results. It isn’t perfect, though: when I performed a vanity search for my name, the second result was a fake account — while relevant, it’s definitely not me. The “Verified” checkmark eliminates confusion on some searches, however. The feature was built by Twitter engineer Adrien Cahen and designed by Twitter Interaction Designer Nancy Broden. We have to say, we think they did a good job: it’s a simple, seamless and long-overdue integration of people search and Twitter search. Our major gripe is that it’s still not available on search.twitter.com yet. Hopefully that will change very soon. Reviews: Mashable, Twitter More About: people search, twitter, Twitter Search For more Social Media coverage:
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| Kmart Posts Online Customers’ Video Game Reviews in Retail Stores Posted: 13 Jul 2010 03:47 PM PDT   The real world is imitating the virtual world: Kmart is printing off video game reviews written by users from MyKmart.com and posting them in its brick-and-mortar retail stores around the country. Pictured here, the featured reviews are quick snippets that are placed right beneath the games on store shelves. They’re selected by Kmart staff, who’ve published a blog post outlining their criteria for potential contributors. The reviews are unpaid since they’re just republished user ratings a la Amazon. User-submitted reviews and ratings are a big part of the online shopping experience, but that’s not generally true of the old-fashioned retail stores. When you walk into Best Buy, Walmart or (until now) Kmart, you’d better already know something about the video games or other products you’re looking to buy, because you won’t find any guidance there except from the salespeople — who are, after all, trying to sell the products. Rockstar Games’ open-world Western Red Dead Redemption was the subject of one example of an in-store review pulled from the web: “You’ll hunt and search for treasure in a world teeming with danger. One of the best games of 2010. For more game reviews, check out KmartGamer.com.” That lacks the substance of a review to us as much as it sounds like promotional copy, even though Red Dead Redemption actually is a critically acclaimed and popular game. Brick-and-mortar stores may be less inclined to dissuade customers from buying any particular product in their limited selections, so we’re expecting most of these reviews to be glowing endorsements. Still, we could be proven wrong, and it’s a neat idea even if we’re not. Reviews: Amazon.com More About: blogging, games, gaming, kmart, MARKETING, mykmart, retail, reviews, social media, video games For more Business coverage:
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| Calvin Klein Jeans Replaces Racy Billboards with QR Codes Posted: 13 Jul 2010 03:27 PM PDT   This past weekend, Calvin Klein Jeans replaced three of its billboards — two in downtown New York and one on Sunset Boulevard in LA — not with another racy montage of scantily clad models, but with a bright red QR code under the words “Get It Uncensored.” Passersby can use their smartphones to snap a picture, which will pull up an exclusive, 40-second commercial featuring models Lara Stone, “A.J.,” Sid Ellisdon, Grayson Vaughan and Eric Anderson. After the spot plays, viewers can then share the code with their Facebook and Twitter networks. The billboard marks the official premiere of Calvin Klein Jeans’s Fall 2010 advertising campaign. Previous campaigns have debuted on more traditional venues, the company explained, such as broadcast and dedicated online sites. QR codes are increasingly appearing in advertisements as a way to increase engagement with consumers. Although already common in Japan (where they were originally invented), they do not appear in many advertisements — much less take up an entire billboard. Most U.S. citizens still do not own smartphones, and even those that do don’t necessarily know what a QR code is or have the necessary scanning software to read it. The billboards are clearly a test run for Calvin Klein Jeans, given that they will be up for only a little more than a week. If the videos get enough views, however, we can expect similar billboards in the future — both from Calvin Klein Jeans and from other brands. It’s often difficult to measure engagement with billboards, and QR codes help advertisers better measure their impact. What do you think of the billboard? Have you ever scanned a QR code in an advertisement? Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: advertising, Billboard, calvin klein, MARKETING, QR Codes For more Tech coverage:
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| 5 Ways Social Media Helps Promote Good Health Posted: 13 Jul 2010 03:10 PM PDT   Alexander B. Howard (@digiphile) is the Government 2.0 Washington Correspondent for O'Reilly Media, where he reports on technology, open government and online civics. He will share open source technology news at the OSCON convention in Portland, Oregon, on July 19-23. This March, a report on chronic disease and the Internet by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation showed that people fighting such illnesses are using social media to find information and connect with others who suffer similar ailments. While the research showed that people who have chronic illness are less likely, on average, to have Internet access, once they’re online they are more likely to blog about chronic disease and participate in online discussions or other forums. According to the report, “Living with chronic disease is also associated, once someone is online, with a greater likelihood to access user-generated health content such as blog posts, hospital reviews, doctor reviews, and podcasts. These resources allow an internet user to dive deeply into a health topic, using the internet as a communications tool, not simply an information vending machine.” Finding the right balance between individual privacy rights and community benefit will, however, require online services to thread regulatory needles and provide clear guidance to users about how their information will be used. Below are five examples of online services, platforms or projects that are working to strike that balance, providing a means for patients and citizens to share their experiences. 1. Online Communities and Connections Online forums where people voluntarily share data about symptoms, environmental conditions, sources of infection, mechanics of injury or other variables continue to grow, and there are now dozens of other social media health websites to explore. As Claire Cain Miller wrote in the New York Times earlier this year, online social networks bridge gaps for the chronically ill. And as Stephanie Clifford wrote last year, online communities like Eons or MyWayVillage can provide a reason to “keep going” for elderly patients that are isolated by geography. The same characteristics that make social media a meaningful way for distributed populations to communicate, extend social media’s utility to those searching for a community of people with similar health conditions. The poster child for this trend is PatientsLikeMe, which now has over 65,000 members. While patients turning to social media worries some doctors, their value to certain populations is substantial. As Clay Shirky observed recently in the Wall Street Journal: “PatientsLikeMe has assembled a larger group of sufferers of Lou Gehrig’s disease than any pharmaceutical agency in history, by appealing to the shared sense of seeking medical progress.” Similarly targeted websites, like social networks oriented towards diabetes patients, have also become increasingly popular. Sharing information about personal health does carry inevitable privacy considerations for those whose conditions might expose them to discrimination in the workplace or a community. Hospitals, clinics and other entities that hold such medical data, for instance, operate under tough privacy restrictions. These restrictions govern the use and storage of data as mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Thomas Goetz wrote eloquently about these tradeoffs in a 2008 New York Times Magazine feature article about PatientsLikeMe, including the business model behind the site. In aggregate, the potential benefits provided to fellow patients through analysis of such data may well outweigh those privacy risks, especially for those who suffer from diseases or conditions that traditional medical research has not paid great attention to. For instance, this spring Emily Singer reported in Technology Review that PatientsLikeMe had predicted a drug outcome – before the medical journal Lancet Neurology published a study showing the same result. 2. Twitter, Telemedicine and Hello HealthAs reported last year in the New York Times, medicine in the age of Twitter now incorporates social media that goes beyond stethoscopes and sterile waiting rooms. While some doctors won’t even answer patient emails, others have taken to social media with gusto, such as Dr. @PaulineChen, the surgeon who authored the article. Dr. Christian Sinclair, a physician from Kansas City Hospice, is another example. Dr. Sinclair tweets as @ctsinclair and blogs about palliative care on his blog. A major challenge for Dr Chen and other physicians lies in the void of formal training for social media. Dr. Daniel Sands (@DrDannySands), a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Mass. co-authored the first set of guidelines published on using e-mail in patient care in 1997. In a profoundly public medium, doctor-patient confidentiality isn’t in the prescription pad nor locked in the inbox. New practices that combine health information technology and social media are springing up that rely on the discretion of the physicians. Hello Health, a paperless practice based in Brooklyn, New York uses telemedicine, email, IM, video chats and Twitter to communicate with patients after an initial visit. Dr. @SeanKhozin and Dr. @JayParkinson, who practice at Hello Health, tweet frequently. Dr. Parkinson’s talk on the future of medicine from this spring’s Gov 2.0 Expo is embedded below: 3. Socializing Community Health Data This spring, the United States Department of Health and Human Services took a step towards making community health information as useful as weather data. When used to power health apps, the release of community health data could unlock business value similar to what happened with GPS data a generation ago. Community health data is being mashed up by Google, integrated into Bing, and visualized by Palantir. It will also be the focus of an upcoming “Health 2.0 Developer Challenge,” featuring a series of code-a-thons and team competitions. It’s further spawned “Community Clash,” a Web-based game that engages players to compare healthcare statistics for different cities around the country. Community Clash includes a social media component that pulls in a “Health Twiver” based upon healthcare-related keywords from the geographic regions compared, adding a real-time window into the communities in question. 4. Healthcare Wikis While Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook may be grabbing most of the social media headlines of the moment, relatively old forms of social media like wikis continue to play a major role in online healthcare communities. As Jenna Wortham reported in the New York Times last year, Medpedia is a collaborative encyclopedia for health care that combines information from medical professional with forums for engagement with consumers. Medpedia was created in association with Harvard Medical School, the Stanford School of Medicine, The University of Michigan Medical School, the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and more than a hundred other health organizations around the world. Launched in February 2009, the platform now has thousands of medical professionals contributing to its pages and has added many new features, including sections for clinical trials, answers, news alerts and analysis. In late June 2010, Medpedia launched RareSpace, “an online knowledge sharing platform designed in partnership with the R.A.R.E. Project and the Children's Rare Disease Network to advance research and share information about the rare childhood diseases that affect 22.5 million American families.” 5. Open Source and Connecting Healthcare Communities Long before Friendster, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace connected hundreds of millions of people, listservs allowed distributed online communities to collaborate on open source projects like the code for the Apache Web server software. Brian Behlendorf, one of the primary developers of Apache, started an electronic mailing list in the mid-90s to coordinate the work of the other programmers. More than a decade later, Behlendorf is now involved in another ambitious project: Developing and expanding an open source software gateway that allows healthcare practitioners to exchange health-related information called CONNECT. In 2010, those working on the project can use more than an electronic mailing list to collaborate; they also have access to a blog, developer forums, a wiki to submit code and an issue tracking dashboard for bugs. More health resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, peepo Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Foursquare, Friendster, Google, IRL Connect, Internet, MySpace, Twitter, blog, iStockphoto More About: forums, health, open source, social media, wiki For more Social Media coverage:
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| Facebook Hits New Traffic Record Posted: 13 Jul 2010 02:32 PM PDT   With its most recent privacy backlash seemingly behind it, Facebook surged ahead to a new traffic record in the U.S. during the month of June. According to comScore, the social network pulled in more than 141 million unique visitors in the U.S. during the month, beating its previous record (set in May) by better than 11 million. Year-over-year, Facebook's traffic has nearly doubled, from 77 million unique U.S. visitors in June 2009. As a result, as you can see in the chart above, Facebook has blown past its social networking competition –- most notably MySpace and Twitter, both of which have shown little growth in the past year according to comScore. Twitter, however, is quick to point out that it is still seeing record traffic in terms of tweet volume, a result of users accessing the site through third-party clients and mobile devices instead of its website. In any event, Facebook's continued growth puts it within striking distance of Google for title of most visited web property in the U.S.; the search giant had a total of 179 million unique visitors across its sites in the month of May. Is there any end in sight to Facebook’s growth? At the moment, a recent survey suggesting teens are starting to suffer “Facebook fatigue” is about the only bearish news to report about the social network, but there is that pesky movie about the company’s controversial beginnings that hits theaters in October. Reviews: Facebook, Google, MySpace, Twitter More About: ComScore, facebook, Google, myspace, social networking, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| The World Cup Was Huge on Twitter [CHART] Posted: 13 Jul 2010 02:14 PM PDT   For continuous World Cup coverage, check out Mashable’s 2010 World Cup Hub. Only now that the World Cup has ended can we truly look back and appreciate how massive the event was. The World Cup created a lot of jaw-dropping numbers and even set a few records on the Internet this go around, from the astounding 3,282 tweets per second sent following Japan’s 3-1 victory over Denmark a few weeks ago, to the absolutely ridiculous 25 million hours of video streamed by Univision and ESPN over the web. Perhaps the most astonishing feat was that this year’s World Cup set not one, but three separate net usage records according to Akamai. The most mind-blowing of these was the record 20.7 million visitors per minute recorded on Akamai-served news sites (including many of the biggest) on June 24, when Slovakia knocked out Italy at the same time that the longest match in tennis history was going on. Add in the NBA finals, the US Open (golf), all of the Lebron James hoopla and it was clearly an amazing month for sports, the web and the social media worlds people turn to for information and discussion. Still, it was the World Cup that shined above all. Below, find our final top Twitter trends lists for the 2010 World Cup, which was graciously compiled by Liz Pullen of What The Trend. Most-Tweeted World Cup TeamsClearly, their run to to finals helped the Netherlands secure the overall top spot as the most trended team during the World Cup, but their epic match with Brazil also helped — many of their mentions came during that game. Portugal, meanwhile, was propelled to the #2 position on the back of their superstar forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who also tops the player list (see below) by a wide margin.
England (#11) just missed making the chart, and host country South Africa finished in 15th place. Most-Tweeted World Cup PlayersBecause this list takes into account all players throughout the entire tournament (rather than just those who played last week), superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is once again returned to his rightful spot atop the list. Ronaldo, however, wasn’t the only football player to find himself in the Twitter limelight during the 2010 World Cup; of the 736 players on competing World Cup teams, 21% landed in the trending topics list at least once, including athletes from 29 of the 32 teams competing (only Algeria, Honduras and North Korea did not have a player reach the trending list). “This is definitely a sign of the global reach of Twitter,” said researcher Liz Pullen, who couldn’t recall ever seeing such a high percentage of players reaching the trending topics list for any other major sports. Yet, if all World Cup countries were tweeting, Brazil was perhaps tweeting loudest (or at least most equitably): 14 of their 23 players hit the trending topics list at some point during the tournament, although they had just one make the final top 10.
Need more social media World Cup coverage? Of course you do! Head on over to Mashable’s World Cup headquarters to find links to all our previous news and resources. More World Cup resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Jezperklauzen Reviews: Internet, Mashable, Twitter, World Cup, iStockphoto More About: data, social media, sports, trends, twitter, twitter trends, world cup, world cup 2010, world cup twitter trends For more Social Media coverage:
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| Facebook Shares Equal Free Software Licenses in New iPad App Promotion Posted: 13 Jul 2010 12:35 PM PDT   Today Tapbots, makers of iPhone utility apps Pastebot and Convertbot, have released their latest application, Calcbot for the iPhone and iPad. The $0.99 app [iTunes link] is great looking, highly functional and works beautifully on both the iPad and the iPhone. It has also been fully optimized for the iPhone 4. To help promote the app, Tapbots has teamed up with the MacHeist guys and their company tap tap tap to try to make the release a little more viral. What’s the viral marketing plan? Free software. Simply share the news about Calcbot with your friends on Facebook and you’ll get a full license for Socialite from Realmac Software for free. Socialite is a really solid social media client for Mac OS X that lets you manage Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Digg and RSS feeds all from one app.  This is an interesting way to promote a new mobile app release and we’re curious to see how Calcbot performs. Incidentally, Calcbot is a solid application in its own right. In addition to having support for basic and scientific functions, the app also stores your calculations on a sort of virtual receipt tape feature. That means you can access your past calculations, including all the steps involved in getting to that figure, and you can either access them instantly in the calculator (to add on expressions) or copy or e-mail the string. Calcbot also uses a live expression view so that you can see the history of your calculation quickly and easily. This is handy if you frequently start a calculation and then forget where you are. The iPad doesn’t include a calculator app and the built-in app on the iPhone is completely usable, but not nearly as spiffy. While Calcbot isn’t going to be as advanced as, say, PCalc, it’s also less expensive. What do you think of the app and its launch promotion? Reviews: Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Socialite, Twitter, iPhone More About: calcbot, calculator, ipad apps, iphone apps, mac apps, mac software, macheist, Socialite For more Apple coverage:
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| The Old Spice Guy Now Making Custom Videos for Fans via Social Media Posted: 13 Jul 2010 12:11 PM PDT   How do you get bloggers, fans and random Internet folks to make your campaign go viral? Namecheck them in a personalized monologue delivered by a shirtless man, of course! That’s right, everyone’s favorite topless dude, Old Spice Guy Isaiah Mustafa, has been tweeting just-for-you-vids to a bevy of Internet folk all day. The Old Spice Guy is undoubtedly one of the most beloved commercial characters in recent memory — he’s like The Most Interesting Man in the World, but young and apparently unable to stay fully clothed. He burst on the scene back in February and his videos quickly went viral on YouTube. Well now he’s apparently taking awesomeness to a new level — or the ad execs behind his campaign are, rather. He seems to have heralded the deluge of vids with a tweet:  He then proceeded to send out vids via Twitter to bloggers who have written about him in the past, YouTube commenters, random folks asking random questions on Yahoo Answers, and various and sundry people who have tweeted at him today. He’s working pretty fast, too. After posting a call for questions on Reddit four hours ago, he responded to a cadre of questions rather rapidly. (In other news, his abs must be ti-red.) This campaign really is a perfect storm of viralty — not only does it target specific bloggers (who are then more likely to cover the whole thing), it also reaches out to less prominent individuals who can be made more aware of Old Spice. Moreover, they become personally invested in the brand because they have actually become a part of the world it has created. We’re not sure if this marathon of videos will lead to more Old Spice products sold — but it definitely creates a brand identity that people will be interested and excited to engage with. We’re embedding the Old Spice guy’s personal message to Perez Hilton below — Hilton wrote about a new spot at the end of June. (FYI, we also tweeted at the shirtless wonder, so we’ll update you if he deigns to make us a vid.) NB: Commenter Liz Pullen also points out that “Old Spice” is a Promoted Trending Topic today. Very clever… Reviews: Twitter, YouTube, reddit.com More About: humor, MARKETING, pop culture, trending, viral video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Creative Commons Licensing Now Available for Vimeo Videos Posted: 13 Jul 2010 11:42 AM PDT   You can now opt in to a Creative Commons license for videos you upload to hosting service Vimeo, giving you more precise control over where and how others can use your work. Vimeo announced its support for Creative Commons in a blog post today, saying that it’s doing this to make it easier for people to borrow, build upon and redistribute Vimeo videos without contacting their creators. Each time you upload a video, you’re given a choice between the six major Creative Commons licenses: Attribution, Attribution Share Alike, Attribution No Derivatives, Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike, Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives. Descriptions of each are provided in Vimeo’s FAQ and at the Creative Commons website. You can also choose one when modifying an existing video. Vimeo rep Dalas Verdugo was careful to note that these licenses don’t have any impact on the old rules for embedding users’ videos, and Marketing Director Deborah Szajngarten told CNET that you’ll soon be able to search Vimeo by license just like you can at Creative Commons’s own site. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco that aims to make it easier to share and adapt creative works on the Internet. Traditional copyright laws still work counter to the culture and customs of the web in some cases, so these custom licenses have become quite popular. Sites that use them include Wikipedia, Flickr and blip.tv. Google Co-founder Sergey Brin donated half a million dollars to the organization last year. Vimeo is an underdog compared to YouTube in the online video game, but the site’s operators have nevertheless done a pretty good job of catching up with new trends and technologies, and have even led the pack in some cases. They’ve implemented user video analytics, 1080p HD uploads, HTML5 streaming for devices like the iPad and Facebook Connect.  Reviews: Flickr, Internet, Vimeo, Wikipedia, YouTube More About: creative commons, license, video, Vimeo For more Web Video coverage:
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| Consolidate Comments from Twitter, Facebook, Digg and More Posted: 13 Jul 2010 11:19 AM PDT   Real-time comment and reaction platform Echo has just released a new feature for its Echo Pro customers: A real-time recent comments widget. The widget, which can be integrated into practically any website with a few lines of Javascript code, pulls in comments and reactions to posts from across the web. That means, in addition to seeing a real-time sampling of recent comments on a site, it also pumps in data from Twitter, Digg and other social networks. Furthermore, the types of comments that are filtered in can also be customized. If you want to bring in comments on the site, but not reactions on Digg or RT’s on Twitter, you can do that as well.  Comments are displayed with a user’s name and avatar, as well as the first few lines from their comment. The source of the comment is also displayed in-line. Real-time interactivity is something that more and more publishers are embracing. Echo’s solution is focused on capturing content from all over the web and making it accessible on publishers’ sites. As we’ve seen with the success of Facebook’s “Like” buttons, the ability for users to easily find and share what they like with others, and to see what others are saying is increasing pageviews. With the right customization and page placement, we could see publishers getting increased traffic on recently discussed stories because of the real-time widget. Ultimately, this is just one more step at unifying the social web. The first step in that process has been to create identities that can be used across sites. The next step is to make reactions and comments visible across discussion platforms. What do you think of the aggregation of real-time comments across social networks? [img credit: djfoobarmatt] Reviews: Digg, Facebook, Twitter More About: comments, echo, Facebook Like, real-time comments, semantic web For more Social Media coverage:
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| HOW TO: Optimize Your Mobile Site Across Multiple Platforms Posted: 13 Jul 2010 10:35 AM PDT   This series is supported by Webtrends Mobile Analytics, which lets you monitor the adoption and usage of your mobile apps and mobile sites. To keep up with Webtrends Mobile, add their blog to your RSS reader.
We’ve covered some of the ways to streamline the process of creating your mobile-optimized site in the past. Today, we want to take a look at some specific tips and tricks for testing and adding compatibility for different types of devices. 1. Narrow Your FocusIt’s natural to want to make your site look absolutely perfect on every possible device that could access your mobile site. However, this just isn’t practical for the vast majority of developers and designers. Instead of trying to support every platform out there, set out some goals for your site and your potential customers. For instance, if you know that most of your users are going to be using an iPhone, focus on making an iPhone-enhanced version of your site first. Conversely, if you get a lot of traffic from parts of the world like Asia, the Middle East and South America, you may want to focus your primary efforts on Symbian. It’s also important to remember that at this point, the vast majority of the next generation of mobile devices use the WebKit rendering engine for their web browsers. Nokia uses WebKit for its S40 and S60 built-in browsers, Apple uses it for Mobile Safari, Palm for webOS, Google for Android and the upcoming BlackBerry 6 will have a WebKit-based browser, too. Just because they all use WebKit doesn’t mean that all devices will render content the same way, but it does give you a good baseline of what sort of browser engines should be tested and focused on. 2. Use an Emulator to Check Your WorkIf you don’t have access to every major device type that you want to check, you can still get a good idea of how content will look on other devices by using mobile emulators.  Here are a few of our favorite tools:
3. Use Multiple Stylesheets for Device SupportIncluding a mobile-specific stylesheet on your main site with certain parameters that add or subtract features, based on what device is being used, can be an elegant and effective way to serve content across multiple devices. Dominique Hazael-Massieux wrote a great article for A List Apart last year that covers some of the basics and also links to some of the most common parameters for handheld support. Dave Shea included his own solution back in 2008 that is still pretty usable for lots of devices. More recently, Chris Coyier at CSS-Tricks discussed how to add in screen size and browser support via CSS or jQuery, and he includes his own downloadable examples. Dave Calhoun has some excellent suggestions in his series on mobile web development. 4. Change Your User Agent in Firefox or SafariIf you want to get on-the-fly feedback of how your site will look while testing in your web browser, just change your user agent. Each device carries a user agent string that can be used to tell web browsers what type of device it is. Safari and Firefox both offer easy ways of changing your user agent so that you can get a glimpse at how content will look on other browsers. In Firefox, download Chris Pederick’s User Agent Switcher. To add more mobile browsers to the plugin, see this comment. Once the plugin is installed, you can just select a new user agent from the menu, as illustrated below.  In Safari, just enable Developer Mode (Preferences, Advanced, check the “Show Develop” box) and select your user agent from the Develop menu, as illustrated below.  5. Use Your CMSIf you use a content management system like WordPress or Drupal for your site, your best bet might be to use a mobile plugin. WordPress, for example, has the popular WPtouch plugin. There are free and paid versions of the plugin and it works with a variety of devices and you can even specify which devices you want to use the mobile stylesheet and which devices you want to load the full page.  Meanwhile, Drupal also has lots of mobile plugins, including the aptly named, Mobile Plugin. Check with the communities behind your CMS to see what other options might be available. Your TipsHow do you cross test for mobile browsers? Let us know! Series supported by Webtrends Mobile Analytics  This series is supported by Webtrends Mobile Analytics, which lets you monitor the adoption and usage of your mobile apps and mobile sites. It provides near limitless customization in terms of the data gathered and depth of analysis across iPhone, Android and Blackberry. And the data resides side-by-side with your website analytics. To keep up with Webtrends Mobile, add their blog to your RSS reader. Reviews: Android, Drupal, Firefox, Google, Opera, Safari, Windows Vista, WordPress, blog More About: android, CMS, content management system, drupal, emulator, Firefox, iOS, iphone, Mobile Sites and Apps Series, mobile web, mobile web design, safari, stylesheets, Symbian, user agent, user agent switcher, Wordpress For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Woman Gives USB Wedding Ring to Her Geeky Fiancé [PIC] Posted: 13 Jul 2010 10:00 AM PDT   The wife-to-be of a Microsoft game developer bought the love of her life a custom-made USB wedding ring to celebrate his geeky tendencies, even though she doesn’t share them. The gold ring isn’t actually a functional USB drive, but its design is reminiscent of one. The interior is engraved with the words, “For a lifetime of memories,” an allusion to the USB’s storage capabilities. Aww! According to Kotaku, the groom is Microsoft Game Studios Software Development Engineer Ray Arifianto; it’s hard to imagine a geekier job than that. Arifianto is reportedly thrilled with the ring. Some folks might not think of marriage traditions as the best venue for celebrating geekiness, but it’s not at all unprecedented. One couple sent out an 8-bit video game that functioned as an interactive wedding invitation. Then there’s the iPhone wedding cake, the ultimate example of Apple fanaticism. And don’t forget the groom who changed his Facebook relationship status at the altar. For more examples of heartwarming geekery, take a look at our collection of the top 10 geekiest marriage proposals. Do you have your own geeky love story? Be sure and share it in the comments. More About: geek, love, marriage, memory ring, microsoft, microsoft game studios, ring, usb, wedding, wedding ring For more Tech coverage:
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| Foursquare Mayors Get 25% Off at Ann Taylor [Exclusive] Posted: 13 Jul 2010 09:34 AM PDT   Women’s clothing retailer Ann Taylor has just launched its first Foursquare promotion. Shoppers who check in to one of the company’s eight New York City stores will receive 15% off their full-price purchase upon their fifth checkin and Mayors will receive 25% off their purchases of non-sale apparel and accessories. The campaign is still in a trial phase. If successful, Ann Taylor plans to extend the promotion to its 279 stores nationwide. Special discounts for Foursquare users is nothing revolutionary at this point, even among fashion and beauty retailers. Jimmy Choo, Sephora, Diesel and Cynthia Rowley have already run campaigns, and Oscar de la Renta is offering a free iPad clutch to the Mayor of its flagship store on July 17. Nevertheless, we were impressed by the size of the offer and the fact that Ann Taylor intends to offer the discount indefinitely, rather than for a short timeframe. At the very least, the company has come a long way with social media since the conclusion of its blogger-related investigation by the FTC earlier this year. LOFT, another brand owned by the same holding company, also made headlines when its marketing team responded to Facebook Fans’ requests to see photos of “real women” wearing LOFT clothing — rather than models — by modeling the clothes themselves. Since then, a number of fashion brands have followed suit by using staff to exhibit company clothes on their Facebook Pages. What do you think of the promotion? Will you be furiously checking in to Ann Taylor for your 15% or 25% discount? Reviews: Foursquare More About: ann taylor, foursquare For more Social Media coverage:
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| HOW TO: Use Game Mechanics to Power Your Business Posted: 13 Jul 2010 09:11 AM PDT   Shane Snow is a regular contributor to Mashable and tweets at @shanesnow. This post was co-authored by Phin Barnes, a principal at First Round Capital, SneakerheadVC and creator of the Xbox game, Yourself!Fitness. He has also served as a consultant to MTV games. Before Foursquare managed to storm social media, GPS friend finders and city guides did in fact exist. But, Foursquare quickly became a star, engaging hundreds of thousands of users in just a few months and turning them into evangelists for its product. It did this by taking the existing geo-social concept and turning it into a game. Video game-esque elements like “badges” and “mayorships” hook you long enough so that you discover the true utility of the app, and stick with it long-term. Common game elements like points, badges, leaderboards, and levels are proven (and increasingly popular) ways to engage customers and encourage profit-driving consumer behavior. Foursquare is a great example of why these work. However, many proponents of this type of "funware" in product development and marketing miss the larger point: "How" you incorporate game mechanics is just as important as "Why" you should. A leaderboard alone does not make for a worthwhile or engaging game. Trip Hawkins, founder of game companies Electronic Arts and Digital Chocolate, says that compelling games need to be "simple, hot, and deep." They should be easy to pick up, instantly engaging, and offer you somewhere to go once you are engaged. Creating these kinds of games takes work. Legions of online businesses are following this trend right now as they attempt to integrate game mechanics into their products. Investors used to hear customer acquisition plans that included, “and we’re going to make it social” or “and we’re going to make it viral.” But lately, these pitches have changed to include, “and we’re going to use game mechanics” to address customer acquisition and engagement. Many of the "games" being built in this flurry, however, are certainly not going to be fun. Many will distract the user from the core value proposition of the application or service. At worst, copycat "game mechanics" will quickly become annoying and trite — destroying value for users and creators alike. “One of the greatest risks is being unoriginal,” says Gabe Zichermann, author of the 2010 book Game-Based Marketing. In the short term, he says, adding soon-to-be-cliche elements like badges is OK, because any amount of additional enjoyment is good for a product. “But a good design takes into consideration the long-term scalability. If you think you can end with badges, that’s where you’re [expletive].” Poor or late planning gives rise to boring (too easy) or frustrating (too hard) games. Since the goal of game mechanics is to keep customers coming back and doing what you want them to do, you want to stay far away from those two zones.  So how can you use game mechanics the right way and supercharge your business? We’ve distilled the process down to four steps. 1. Start With Your Vision and Work BackwardsEffective games cannot be bolted onto a service after the fact. They must be integrated into the product from the start. To work, they need to be designed with your vision in mind, or they’ll be largely meaningless. The first thing you need to do is define your end goal. What is it you want to accomplish? What’s the big vision? Here’s a cheesy example:  2. Make a List of Required User ActionsNow that you have defined the vision, you need to figure out what specific user actions will be required to realize it. What behavior patterns would they need to adopt in order to sustain your business model? Think in verbs, not nouns. What do you need people to do?  Once you have this list, rank the items from most critical to least and also score them from most plausible/natural to least. Now you know where to focus your game-based psychology experiment. 3. Motivate the Most Important BehaviorsGames can be used to drive almost any user behavior. As Marc Metis, President of Digital Chocolate puts it, “Games have the potential to tap into the full range of human emotions and motivate a wide range of behaviors.” That’s the beauty and value proposition of game mechanics. Take the specific behaviors you’ve defined and plan some games that will make people do what you want. No matter what type of game you are designing, a few key principles will help:
 These layers can exist in both tasks and in time. If you can create a sense of shared past, present, and future, your user experience will be more “sticky,” with customers/players investing time and coming back for more to deepen their history with your product.  4. Evaluate and AdaptAs with any lean startup process, you’ll only succeed if you’re willing to evaluate and adapt both the game mechanic layer and the behaviors that are critical to motivate. Both will change as you learn about your consumer, and as they learn how to play your game. “Running a social game is a bit like being a head of a country’s Central Bank, so you are always adjusting,” says Metis. “You really have to pay attention to the finest details of user experience and merchandising.” Re-rank and reevaluate often. Take honest looks at what users do and why. Remember, make it fun for them, not for you. Zichermann reminds us most entrepreneurs think their users’ primary motivation is to achieve. But, he says, most people — especially on the web — just want to socialize. “They’re not in it to win it, they just want to make friends.” Make sure you understand your audience, and design your mechanics accordingly. The Promise of Game MechanicsUltimately, game mechanics are not about simply having fun. They’re about helping users discover the utility in your product. Like Wile E. Coyote from the old cartoons, you want to get your users to run through the air without noticing the ground’s not there, until they reach the other side. Games can help get them to cross that ugly gap of “Why should I learn about and adopt this product?” And once they’ve crossed, you’ll have them, because they’ll feel the utility of your service and understand why your product is great. To finish with our initial example, Foursquare’s game mechanics alone aren’t that fun. But they’re fun enough to get you to stick with the service while you figure out how useful it can really be. That’s how Foursquare nailed it. Right now, too many companies are building a bridge to nowhere with their games simply because games are trendy. Design an experience that will delight your users and use game mechanics to show them something useful that will add value and make their lives better. More Social Business Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Lobsterclaws Reviews: Foursquare, iStockphoto, video More About: business, foursquare, game mechanics, games, gaming, location, small business, social media For more Business coverage:
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| Creators of LOL Cats and FAIL Blog Launch Reality Humor Video Site Posted: 13 Jul 2010 08:16 AM PDT   Hey there, cubicle commandos, if you’re itching for yet another diversion to break up the doldrums of your summer workday, you’re in luck. The Cheezburger Network (you know, the guys who brought you LOL Cats and FAIL Blog) launched a new video site today, entitled Bag of Misfits. Although it’s web-only, Bag of Misfits harkens back to the old days of reality sketch comedy, a la Tom Green and Jackass. In fact, Tom Green is even involved in the project. According to Cheezburger Network Founder Ben Huh, Bag of Misfits came about when the company decided to start expanding its video outlet. (At the end of last month, FAIL Blog became the first comedy channel on YouTube to rack up more than one billion video views, and Huh wants to continue growing that momentum.) At first, he tried creating original content — which basically amounted to filming stuff blowing up in slow motion. Still, it was pretty difficult for the small staff to pull off such a venture. Instead, Huh says, they decided to play to their strengths: finding people who make awesome content and helping them produce and promote it. Luckily, Canadian comedian Paul Telner and his company, Let It Out Entertainment, asked Huh to team up with the Cheezburger Network. Telner and Co. provide the talent for the Network’s 53rd property, and Huh et. al are the starmakers. “Their core competency in terms of content is reality humor,” says Huh of Telner. “Not a lot of people are doing that on the Internet, and this is a great medium between creating content that people find almost intimidating to create on their own. Anybody can grab a camera and go out and do reality comedy. It’s low-production cost, very approachable, and it really fits our ethos of trying to get the community involved.” Check out a taste of the show below: As it continues to grow, Huh’s Cheezburger Network is becoming more and more of a legit entertainment hub (even though he once told us that book sales are far more lucrative than online ad sales). “It’s kind of fascinating, we have people coming in from television onto the Internet because it’s a more creative space,” he says. “Ironically, we’re kind of playing the role of the TV network — we’ll create the show around you guys and promote it and produce it, but you guys are the talent.” “We would love to be the Saturday Night Live of reality humor,” he adds. “Where people who want to be stars will submit their content and hopefully we’ll discover new talent.” This approach to web entertainment comes at a time when we’re at a kind of crossroads when it comes to the legitimacy of online content. While more and more people are watching videos on YouTube, Hulu, Vevo and the like — and while innovations like Google TV and YouTube Leanback perhaps augur a time when webseries and viral vids could be integrated into our living rooms — the golden ticket for many an online star is, well, traditional media forms. Sh*t My Dad Says has a TV deal. People of Walmart has a book deal. And even YouTube/webseries sensation “Fred” (oh, he of the most annoying videos ever) will be appearing in a Nickelodeon movie. It’s still all about bringing the web into more traditional forms of media. Yet there are a lot of people out there soldiering forward in the web-only world. Huh himself greatly respects College Humor’s stable of original content (the site also recently entered into a deal with the beverage brand, SoBe), and The Onion plans to launch premium content offerings this summer. The web isn’t there yet when it comes to being an all-out destination for lucrative content, but people like Huh are hoping that that’s the direction we’re heading. “This isn’t a TV show, and we wanted to make sure that people understood that we wanted to be different, we wanted to be a bigger creative outlet for people,” he says. “It’s OK if it doesn’t conform to the normal standards of what people like on TV, because we want to find our own audience and our own voice.” Check out a few more Bag of Misfits vids below and let us know what you think: Should SNL be shaking in its boots? Bag of Misfits EpisodesReviews: Hulu, Internet, YouTube More About: celebrities, Film, humor, pop culture, television, viral video, web video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Involver Simplifies Social Media Management for Brands with AMP Posted: 13 Jul 2010 07:57 AM PDT   Social marketing platform Involver has just launched its Audience Management Platform (AMP), a social media dashboard for users, brands and agencies to manage, monitor and schedule their appearances on Facebook, Twitter and the broader social web. Last year, Involver launched its Facebook Page management system and since then, the company has been building and rolling out other types of apps for its clients, including the Get Satisfaction Facebook app. With AMP, all of Involver’s tools can be accessed from one dashboard, and agencies or larger brands also have the advantage of being able to manage many sites all from a single interface. Built to ScaleWhile Involver serves customers of all sizes, it is also in use by some really big brands and players. For instance, Facebook uses Involver to help power many of its own initiatives. For the recent FIFA World Cup, Facebook used Involver to create the leaderboard for its Facebook Sports page.  Fazal emphasized to me that what separates Involver from some of its competitors is that it has the ability to scale. This is really important not just for individual brands, but also for marketers or agencies that might manage dozens or even hundreds of clients. AMP is built off of Amazon Web Services and EC2, which has shown itself to be a pretty robust and reliable platform over the years. The advantage of being cloud-based means that now that the core product is out, AMP users can receive iterative updates and enhancements at a much faster pace. Focus on Actionable MetricsLots of different services that can manage multiple social media platforms also cross into the metrics, analytics and monitoring space. AMP does this too, but what we find interesting is that their approach to monitoring comes from an area focused on actionable items.  That is to say, rather than gathering data and presenting it without context, the data is gathered and presented in a way that is directly related to actionable items. So you can see much more quickly the true ROI of one campaign versus another, or immediately respond to a string of comments on Twitter or Facebook. In a sense, AMP brings in some CRM functionality, but from a brand management perspective. Manage All Apps in One PlaceFor existing Involver users, the best part of AMP is probably the ability to manage all of your apps from one dashboard. That makes it easy to create or modify an app, and to immediately access results or data related to that app.  Having everything in an integrated platform is something that Involver has been working towards doing for a long time and now all the pieces are finally in place. Social Media Management Going ForwardOver the last eight or nine months, we’ve seen a lot of uptake in more enterprise level tools at social media management. This is because social media is becoming a more legitimate and, in many cases, important part of brand awareness campaigns. Seeing higher level tools like AMP, as well as systems from companies like SocialTALK, Vitrue and Objective Marketer can help push the entire industry forward. For smaller businesses and brands, the advantage of these higher level tools is that it can streamline the process, making more advanced management and integration more accessible at all levels. We’re left wondering, however, why Facebook doesn’t try to enter this space themselves. Do you use a social media management tool or platform? What features do you find more useful, and what features still need to be included? Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: amp, facebook, involver, MARKETING, social media management, social media tools, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Get Last-Minute Tickets For #SummerMash San Francisco Posted: 13 Jul 2010 07:35 AM PDT   On Wednesday, the Mashable team is hosting an event for our U.S. Summer Tour stop in San Francisco. After an exciting event in Seattle, we’re thrilled to come to San Francisco for networking, an open bar and some awesome prizes from our sponsors — including iPads, netbooks and more. Because tickets are going so quickly for the event, we’ve added 100 more. Mashable’s CEO Pete Cashmore, COO Adam Hirsch, Co-Editor Ben Parr, West Coast Events Director Karen Hartline, East Coast Events Director Brett Petersel, Tech Reporter Jolie O'Dell, Community Manager Vadim Lavrusik and Social Media Reporter Jenn Van Grove will be at the event, and we’re excited to meet with you! We’re also excited to be joined by Rachel Sklar, who will be interviewing attendees on our Watchitoo live stream. We hope you will join us in person or participate in the live steam with Rachel Sklar, and suggest questions for her to ask in interviews with the San Francisco community. We also encourage 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. We had several participants for our first stop on the tour, including Brian Flaccus, who submitted this great video for the contest. If you're interested, the details are outlined below. You'll also have a chance to win tickets to attend the events through the contest. Summer Tour San FranciscoGrand Hyatt San Francisco 345 Stockton St San Francisco, CA 94108 Wednesday, July 14 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. Socialize
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. SummerMash TweetsWashington, D.C. | New York City | Chicago 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, Mashable U.S. summer tour, San Francisco-San Jose, summermash For more Social Media coverage:
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| The Battle of the Cheetos Continues [SPONSORED] Posted: 13 Jul 2010 07:30 AM PDT Weeks into the fray, The Battle of the Cheetos carries on, with Mashable a full-fledged combat zone up for the taking. So choose your alliance – Puffs or Crunchy – create your army and fight for domination of the entire world wide web. The future of the internet depends upon it.   (This post is brought to you by Cheetos. For more information on sponsored posts read here.) Reviews: Mashable For more Battles coverage:
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| Reddit Goes Freemium Out of Necessity Posted: 13 Jul 2010 06:38 AM PDT   Social media site Reddit recently asked its readers to help it out financially, as it was running out of staff and means to keep the site running. An odd request, given that Reddit is owned by a billion-dollar corporation, Conde Nast, but its owner has a fixed budget for the site — and that budget is simply not enough, Reddit’s admins claimed. The plea was a huge success, claims Reddit in a blog post today, with about 6,000 Reddit members donating. However, the effort to “save” Reddit changed its business model in an unexpected and interesting way. At first, users who donated were only promised a badge on their user accounts. Now, Reddit writes the “gold” status that donors received will give them additional benefits, which effectively means that Reddit has turned freemium. From the blog post:
This goes on to show that a very dedicated community can sometimes shape not only your service — which has been the case with social media sites such as Digg and Reddit alike — but also your business plan. On the other hand, it also shows that being owned by a huge corporation does not always equal financial freedom. We look forward to seeing how this new freemium financing model works out for Reddit. Reviews: Digg For more Social Media coverage:
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| Man Sues Facebook for 84% of Ownership Posted: 13 Jul 2010 05:44 AM PDT   Could 84% of Facebook soon fall into the hands of a web designer (later wood pellet distributor) called Paul Ceglia? It’s unlikely, but to prevent it, Facebook will have to disprove Ceglia’s claims in court. According to the lawsuit (embedded below), filed in the Supreme Court in New York’s Allegany County last month, Paul Ceglia signed a contract with Facebook in April 2003 to design and develop thefacebook.com (Facebook’s original name). Ceglia claims that, according to the contract, he was to be given a $1,000 fee and a 50% stake in Facebook for services rendered, with a further 1% stake for each day until the site was finished, which was on February 4, 2004. Add it all up, and Ceglia claims he should be the owner of 84% of Facebook. The terms of the contract are weird, and the timing (more than six years after the contract was signed) of the lawsuit is suspicious at best, but the story gets even weirder from there, as Ceglia was sued last year for failing to deliver wood pellets to customers, with damages to the tune of $200,000. We don’t see Ceglia winning this, but it already caused some problems for Facebook; the court has issued a temporary restraining order, barring founder Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook from transferring any assets. Facebook asked for the case to be transferred to a federal court, and is trying to have it annulled. [via Guardian] [img credit: KLH49, iStockphoto] Reviews: Facebook, iStockphoto For more Social Media coverage:
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Some have suggested that Apple should recall the iPhone 4. That isn’t a simple affair. In fact, most users would be more annoyed and upset than pleased with the Cuptertino-based company.
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