What Do Social Media Marketers Know About Tech? SURVEY RESULTS http://bit.ly/96gD4g
First, we'd like to thank all 596 survey respondents and the many Open Thread commenters who gave such interesting and valuable feedback in our recent post "Should Social Media Experts Be Required to Know Their Tech?"
Over the past couple days, we've been able to put together a decent picture and identify some knowledge gaps and points of confusion for many would-be social media experts. But first, let's address why some of the RWW staff - and many of our readers, some of whom must hire social media experts - feel it's important for even the most marketing-oriented of consultants to have a rudimentary understanding of the workings of the Web, including its ecosystem of companies and applications.
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Konqueror is a popular browser among Linux users. The browser Mozilla hasn't been supported since 2006, having been replaced by Firefox and, to a lesser extent SeaMonkey, both products of the Mozilla Foundation.
The Web does a lot more and a lot less than the average bear would think.
For the most part, we humans have a hard time admitting that we're "average bears," though. Before you earn the moniker of "guru" or "expert" or even "professional/consultant," you need to be far above average in your knowledge of the Web, not just how to get a few thousand Twitter followers or how to increase sales by X percent through Facebook promotions. Those things can come down to common sense or secondhand advice from true pioneers in social media.
Generally speaking, a social media expert will have been around the block long enough to know a CMS from a CPU, to know a bit about servers and DDoS attacks, to know what kinds of operating systems and browsers and even hardware the tech elite prefer to use (or debate over). And the good ones will remain humble enough to keep learning and will always admit there's more to know. Some of the wisest social media advisors I've know will ask to not be called experts, in fact, for how can any one person truly be an expert on something as vast as the Internet?
Flip Side of the Coin: Imagine someone telling you he was a broadcast media expert. That includes television - national, local, cable, satellite, you name it - and all kinds of AM/FM and satellite radio. It might also include pre-show advertisements in movie theaters. That also includes media spend, account management and metrics for all kinds of ads, from branding to direct response. Essentially, the person is claiming to be a one-man ad agency - an impossible claim at best and a fraudulent one at worst.
How to Fill the Knowledge Gap: Start listening to people who disagree with you. Search the farthest corners of the Web for new people and new ideas. Stop hanging out in echo chambers and start telling yourself every day, "I know that I know nothing." That phrase seems to have done Socrates some good; chances are it could help you, too.
Haskell is a rare and complicated programming language. .NET sounds more familiar, but it's a framework, not a language.
In almost every social media project that doesn't involve something as simple as setting up a Twitter account, you'll have to work with and rely on the expertise of developers.
You might not want to learn a programming language yourself - it can take a lot of time, which is a precious commodity. But if you don't know the basics of what programming languages can and cannot do, as well as what languages your developer colleagues use, you'll end up frustrated and inefficient. And the aforementioned developer colleagues might feel disrespected as well; being asked to deliver fantastical products or results from someone with no understanding of your work isn't a fun experience.
Flip Side of the Coin: Imagine a CTO telling you, an interactive marketer, to run a direct mail campaign and get 500,000 new registrations. It could be done, perhaps, but it's not efficient or a good way to use your skills. Even if he told you he wanted 500,000 new signups, is that a realistic goal? Is it based on current adoption trends? Does this guy have any idea what he's asking for?
How to Fill the Knowledge Gap: Read up on the basics of programming languages; spend a few hours here and there on Wikipedia and O'Reilly books. Then, ask questions of developers you trust. Don't be afraid to "sounds dumb" or be inquisitive.
It may seem to be the ad-free fluffy bunny of the social networking world, but Twitter turned a profit through search deals in 2009.
On occasion, we social media folks make intuitive choices that turn out to be dead wrong. While there's a lot to be said for making bold choices for your users and clients, there's much more value in making solid choices based on observed trends, analyzed data and tested outcomes. In fact, it's plain irresponsible to make recommendations to clients based on feelings rather than facts.
Always challenge yourself to make sure your opinions and advice line up with facts, not the other way around. As a wise man once wrote, "You don't use science to prove that you're right, you use science to become right."
Flip Side of the Coin: Rather than looking at marketing budgets or user traffic, your CEO tells you to spend $1 million on an AdWords campaign because "Google and advertising are where's the money's at online, right?" It seems like a ridiculous gamble with no logical reason of rhyme.
How to Fill the Knowledge Gap: Test everything you might suggest. Test it over a reasonable period of time, making sure to take peak times into account, and get a reasonable data sample. Learn about A/B and multivariate testing, website analytics, SEO and all the dirty details of traffic and user responses. Most of all, never, ever assume.
Friends and family (and fools) will always be the first to invest in any startup.
Especially if you're communicating with or about startups, you need to understand a little bit about venture capital, if for no other reason than to understand an app or company's place in the market. VCs can sometimes be good barometers of a startup's health or the likelyhood of future success.
Likewise, with regard to our survey question about profitable social media apps and companies, knowing about various stages of development can help you know when to suggest key partnerships. Collaboration between two entities can give a boost to both.
As a strategist, a consultant or any kind of expert, you need to be able to spot a sure bet just as quickly as a sinking ship. And in the startup-filled world of social media, few are better at this all-important task than those with an understanding of tech investment.
Flip Side of the Coin: Your CEO informs you that the company is about to start a marketing campaign on a website that, through your social and industry connections, you know is about to go out of business. In fact, every website of its kind if flailing; you're surprised he wasn't aware of the situation.
How to Fill the Knowledge Gap: Read ReadWriteStart, of course! We recommend (and frequently interview and comment on) various brilliant VCs, angels and experienced entrepreneurs on this channel.
We hope you've found this information entertaining and informative. The remaining questions on the poll were, by and large, answered correctly. There still seems to be some confusion on the definition of the word "hacker," but I'm convinced that one will simply take more soapboxing on my part.
What words of advice do you have to share with your less technical colleagues in social media? How can we all improve our game online while making the Internet a better, smarter place? Let us know in the comments.
Discuss
A new Consumer Reports survey has put Apple comfortably ahead of Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell and other computer manufacturers for after sales care, with consistently strong performance in phone support, online support and general problem-solving ability. The results lend further weight to Apple’s all-encompassing hardware and software experience, reducing the amount of bounce between companies that PC notebook owners are often faced with.
The survey looked at over 7,000 laptop and desktop owners and their experience of customer support services over a twelve-month period. Lenovo and Toshiba took the number two and three spots, while Acer/Gateway/eMachines languished in a disappointing last place with owners reporting mediocre phone support and a poor track record for actually seeing their machines fixed.
Apple’s computing strength is its degree of control over both the hardware and core software its users experience. As well as defining the MacBook and Mac laptop and desktop ranges themselves, they couple that with OS X and various suites of self-developed software for which Windows users often have to look to various vendors to satisfy. While some have criticized 
the Apple ecosystem for reducing user-choice and permitting ongoing “premium” pricing, there’s a lot to be said for owners experiencing issues having them solved on the first call to tech support, rather than being bounced between hardware and software providers.
With the imminent arrival of the iPad, it seems likely that Apple’s new tablet will fall somewhere in-between the company’s Mac range and their iPhone smartphone. The latter, while still a carefully controlled, in-house platform, does force users to deal with AT&T (or other regional carriers) when it comes to cellular connectivity. The iPad, while certain models will have integrated 3G data, adds in an extra degree of separation with carriers themselves, however; 3G service is managed on a contract-free, per-month basis, and can be set up – and canceled – on the iPad itself. Owners should only ever have to deal with Apple’s Genius Bars if their tablet develops issues.
We’re interested to hear your own technical support experiences, not only with Apple but also with the other brands mentioned in Consumer Reports’ survey. Let us know in the comments, which vendors are scoring strong – and which are falling short – when it comes aftercare.
[via ConsumerReports.org]
Relevant Entries on SlashGear
(cross posted from FM blog )
I’m very excited to announce the theme and line-up for our fifth CM Summit, to be held in New York June 7-8 (it's the kickoff conference to New York's annual Internet Week).
We’ve got a lot to talk about this year - our theme is “Marketing in Real Time.”
2009 was the year the web went real time. Twitter grew five fold and became a major online player, tens of millions of us learned how to live out loud in public. Facebook responded by changing its approach to user data, making its more than 400 million user profiles publicly searchable. And Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo began integrating Facebook and Twitter’s real time signals into their search offerings, creating an ever-circulating ecosystem of conversation across the web.
2009 was also the year the web went mobile and local. The “broadband of mobile” – 3G – became ubiquitous. As Apple’s iPhone consolidated its grip on the smart phone market, Google and its partners introduced the open-platform Android, Palm introduced its Pre and Pixi, Verizon its map, and AT&T responded in force, kicking off what is sure to be a multi-year, multi-party marketing war. “There’s an app for that” became a cultural catchphrase, and even Intel prepared to become a player in the new app economy, driven by the rise of a new class of devices, including netbooks. By year’s end, Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker had predicted that the mobile web will far exceed the current web in scope and opportunity.
Mobile, local, real time, social – in its second decade, the web has matured and taken a central position in our culture, one that no longer relegates the Internet to role of “other.” The web is now a part of every aspect of our lives, and as marketers, we must integrate this fact into our strategy and our execution. That means rethinking what we’ve grown accustomed to calling “traditional media” and imagining new ways to blend offline and online. It means developing the skills and practices of a publisher, and taking a platform-based approach to connecting with customers. And it means rethinking some of our “best practices” – including measurement, research, and the agency-client relationship.
So what can we learn from the past year as we enter a decade where the real time web will become ubiquitous? What worked, what failed, and why? What platforms have emerged as steady new partners? What startups are lurking in Silicon Valley’s wings, poised to once again change the game and offer new channels of communication with our customers?
At the CM Summit you’ll hear cross-platform case studies from senior marketers at brands like Starbucks, AT&T, Adobe, Paramount, and many more. You’ll meet the leaders of platform companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Bing, and Yahoo. And as always, you’ll discover the next wave of disruptors – companies like Foursquare, Boxee, and AdMob.
Here is the initial 2010 speaker lineup - expect more announcements in the coming weeks. Register now (while the early bird price is still in effect!), and I look forward to seeing you in New York!
Omar Hamoui – Founder & CEO AdMob
Ann Lewnes – SVP of Corporate Marketing and Communications Adobe
Chris Schembri – VP Media Services AT&T
Henry Blodget – EIC The Business Insider
Avner Ronen – CEO boxee
Ken Wirt – VP, Consumer Marketing Cisco
Deanna Brown – President and COO Federated Media
Dennis Crowley – Co-founder foursquare
Rob Norman – CEO Group M North America
Bradley Horowitz – VP, Product Marketing Google
Susan Wojcicki – VP, Product Management Google
Dennis Woodside – VP, Americas Operations Google
Arianna Huffington – Co-founder & Editor-in-chief Huffington Post
Joel Lunenfeld – CEO Moxie Interactive
Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. – Chairman The New York Times Company
Amy Powell – SVP, Interactive Marketing Paramount Pictures
Bob Lord – CEO Razorfish
Chris Bruzzo – VP- Brand, Content& Online Starbucks Coffee Company
Dick Costolo – COO Twitter
Hilary Schneider – Executive Vice President Yahoo
The CM Summit thanks its sponsors:
Premier: Adobe Diamond: American Express Platinum: Blend Interactive, Intel Gold: Dell, HP, Verizon Media Partners: IAB, Internet Week NY
App Stores have been around for a while, but mostly for cell phones, and very few business applications. Google is making a big move into online enterprise applications with the Google Apps Marketplace already stocked with over 50 real business applications. Google Apps boasts 25 million users at more than 2 million companies, and growing very fast. Startups and small software companies love the App Store concept because it allows them to focus on building great applications while the App Marketplace takes care of sales, marketing, billing, and accounting. Google is building a vibrant ecosystem around Google Apps, enabling companies to innovate, and helping them sell directly to business customers.
The Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps customers to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps. More than 50 companies are now selling applications across a range of businesses, including:
Once installed to a company's domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications. With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity. Administrators can manage the applications from the familiar Google Apps control panel, and employees can open them from within Google Apps. With OpenID integration, Google Apps users can access the other applications without signing in separately to each. The Google Apps Marketplace eliminates the worry about software updates, keeping track of different passwords and manual syncing and sharing of data, thereby increasing business productivity and lessening frustrations for users and IT administrators alike. That's the power of the cloud.
More than just a store – There are lots of “solutions marketplace” style web sites that list lots of different applications. But, they are basically just links to another web site where you can purchase the software, download, install, provision, and handle integration on your own. Why not make it easy? Why not have one place to purchase applications that are already integrated, use Single Sign On (SSO), and launch-able from within your email app? That is the idea behind Google Apps Marketplace.
Developers, Developers, Developers – Building a vibrant ecosystem on a business platform is all about developers. Giving developers an easy way to sell their products to millions of customers is a big plus. Making it easy to integrate, providing rich APIs, and developer support are essential. This is my new job at Google. The Google Apps Developers Team at Google is here to help developers from any size company build great new applications. Email me if you have an application for the Google Apps Marketplace, or if you need help getting started.
Subscribe - To get an automatic feed of all future posts subscribe here, or to receive them via email go here and enter your email address in the box in the right column. You can also Follow me on Twitter @DonDodge .
It has become painfully clear that smartphones are where the growth is in the handset market. Evidence of this is seemingly everywhere:
But do these signs mean there is room in the smartphone market for new vendors? Recent news out of Palm and Garmin indicate the smartphone playground isn't necessarily the profit panacea one would expect. Specifically, Palm said it now expects full-year revenue to be "well below" its previous estimate of between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion, while Garmin said it has so far been "disappointed" with sales of its nuvifone products. Those stumbles could give Dell, Acer, LG and other hopefuls pause as they ramp up their own smartphone efforts.
"Instead of, 'If you build it, they will come,' it's turned into, 'If you build it, will they come?" noted IDC's smartphone analyst Ramon Llamas.
However, both Garmin and Palm faced challenges unique to them, Llamas said. Palm's marketing efforts so far have targeted the "Valentine's Day" crowd instead of more traditional smartphone early adopters (meaning, young men), Llamas explained, while Garmin suffered from a scarcity of promotion and an ecosystem that relied too heavily on interest in mapping and directions.
CCS Insight analyst John Jackson largely agreed. "We knew that Palm would launch the Pre into the teeth of new flagship products (or revs of products in Apple's case) from Apple, RIM, HTC and others," he said. "The same is true for Garmin, compounded by the issue of Google (and now Nokia) basically undermining the navigation proposition with freeware. Without a portfolio, a limited number of stock-keeping units (one in Garmin's case and basically two in Palm's case) are that much more likely to get lost in the mix. Apple is the exception, but that success story is well known at this point."
However, Garmin and Palm's troubles don't necessarily foreshadow across-the-board failures by others hoping to break into a smartphone market dominated by Nokia, Research In Motion, HTC and Apple. Llamas said emerging vendors must foster an ecosystem and promote their devices as on-the-cusp innovations rather than also-rans--tough goals, but doable. The availability of Android, Symbian and Windows can give manufacturers a step up.
"In a sense, the 'smartphone' market is just the new phone market," contended Jackson. "It's huge, but that hardly means you can stroll on in and make money. The traditional mobile phone market has always been tough sledding for new entrants. The availability of Android and other open/open source software platforms doesn't fundamentally change this. Vendors need scale and a degree of differentiation if they are to have any shot at achieving decent margins over time."
That said, though, I think it's clear that the newest batch of smartphone aspirants--which stretches from Dell, Acer and LG to Aava Mobile, Else Mobile, modu, Anydata, General Mobile, ZTE, Saygus and a host of others--face a steep road in their bid to separate themselves from the likes of BlackBerry and iPhone. After all, failed efforts like the Sendo X, the Sierra Wireless Voq and the Neonode N2 show just how difficult it is out there. --Mike
Google has officially announced Google Apps Marketplace – hoping to build an ecosystem that allows businesses that use its paid-for Google Apps services to find and purchase a wide range of cloud software tools developed by specialists.
One of the key reasons behind Microsoft's success over the years has been its flourishing ecosystem, and with Apple's App Store revolutionising both the mobile phone market third-party software market places, it makes sense for Google to attempt to bring the two concepts closer.
"We've found that when businesses begin to experience the benefits of cloud computing, they want more," explains Google.
Wider variety
"We're often asked when we'll offer a wider variety of business applications — from accounting and project management to travel planning and human resources management. But we certainly can't and won't do it all, and there are hundreds of business applications for which we have no particular expertise.
"In recent years, many talented software providers have embraced the cloud and delivered a diverse set of features capable of powering almost any business.
"But too often, customers who adopt applications from multiple vendors end up with a fractured experience, where each particular application exists in its own silo. Users are often forced to create and remember multiple passwords, cut and paste data between applications, and jump between multiple interfaces just to complete a simple task.
"Today, we're making it easier for these users and software providers to do business in the cloud with a new online store for integrated business applications.
"The Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps customers to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps."
50 for starters
The marketplace has launched with 50 companies' wares, ranging from Intuit Online Payroll to project management software JIRA Studio.
"Once installed to a company's domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications," adds Google.
"The Google Apps Marketplace eliminates the worry about software updates, keeping track of different passwords and manual syncing and sharing of data, thereby increasing business productivity and lessening frustrations for users and IT administrators alike. That's the power of the cloud."
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Investors are pumping more and more money into web services that are heavily reliant on Facebook. So how big is the economy around the world's most popular social network?
An email came through to me last night that, in many respects, is the stock-and-trade of the startup world: a team of entrepreneurs company has received some funding.
In this case, the site in question is the Paris-based Smartdate, and its received $2.2m from investors to try and build its idea of using Facebook data as the basis of a matchmaking service.
So far, so normal. We've heard a great deal of this over the years; venture capitalists and investment funds putting money into companies that are building web services.
But there's something else going on here. From the swathes of press releases and funding announcements I trawl through each day, it feels to me like we're hearing much more recently about sites specifically and publicly built using Facebook as a platform. In many cases, they are almost entirely reliant on Facebook to provide their link to users.
Now, in part, that's no surprise: building up an ecosystem around Facebook is something that the company has tried very hard to do with F8 and Facebook Connect - and it's a smart move, because they know that when lots of people are invested in your success, you are less vulnerable to competitors.
But if so many people are pumping into companies that are almost entirely reliant on the world's largest social networking site, exactly how big is the economy around Facebook?
Let's see if we can work it out.
We know from a number of reports and internal estimates that Facebook itself is due to post somewhere upwards of $1bn in revenue for 2010, but I'm more interested in what the other companies are doing.
What levels of investment are going? How many companies rely on Facebook to keep themselves going? The conservative estimate must stretch into several billions of dollars worth of business at least.
After all, the headline sites who make the most from this business are worth hundreds of millions - and some are even looking to launch on the stock market. Even if they don't entirely base their business on Facebook (in many cases, they are available on - or partner with - other social networks too) the spread of users suggests that they're heavily invested in it.
• Back in November, Electronic Arts bought social gaming site Playfish, in a deal we are now told was worth around $275m.
• Meanwhile Zynga, another developer of popular games (like ) has already taken more than $200m of venture capital.
• Other companies making applications include Slide (also closely linked with MySpace but funded to the tune of $78m); Mindjolt (recently bought by MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, funding not public); and of course FriendFeed (bought by Facebook for around $50m).
• On top of that, there's a huge number of companies like the aforementioned Smartdate, Plancast ($800,000); and a whole bunch of companies pushed forward by Facebook's own $10m fbFund.
That's just the start.
What other companies do you know that are reliant on Facebook? How big do you think the Facebook economy really is? Stick any information you know in the comments - once we've got an idea how big this is, we can start thinking about whether it's a viable ecosystem, a bubble or a house of cards.
Towards the end of Google’s developer event launching its new Apps Marketplace, Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard offered some perspective on how the marketplace fits into Google’s broader strategy for business apps. For one thing, it means the company can build fewer apps.
Girouard said his team is often asked when they’re going to roll out additional apps — something for customer relationship management, for example, or expense reports or project management. In many cases, he said, the answer is “probably never.” Google’s expertise is in consumer apps, not business apps, so it’s mostly interested in offering taking consumer products and repackaging them for businesses, rather than starting from scratch with an enterprise apps. Most recently, you can see that pattern with Google Buzz, which was launched as a social sharing product, but which Googlers tell me is going to be if anything more useful for communication and collaboration within a company.
“We would rather offer a platform to others,” Girouard said. “This is really the beginning of that.”
He added that opening a marketplace and using third parties to build out its product ecosystem also means Google can put more energy into improving its existing apps like Gmail and Docs.
Companies: Google
People: Dave Girouard
(Cross Posted to the FM Blog, where Signal will have a permanent home soon)
Mobile. It's on everyone's lips, but no one knows what the hell to do about it. At least, that's what I hear from every single marketer I talk to, and I've made it a point to talk to a lot of you in the past few months.
It's a source of significant frustration: Everyone's saying mobile is the next thing, but no one has a solution for how to market in the space in a way that delivers the four pillars of brand marketing: Scale, Safety, Quality, and Engagement.
Sure, you can now buy banners across ad networks in mobile, and lord knows that ability has paid off handsomely for AdMob and Quattro (acquired by Google and Apple, respectively, for very large multiples of very small revenues), but honestly, we all know that's not an endgame. More like an opening gambit in a chess match where nearly everyone feels like they're playing checkers. (Except Steve Jobs, natch. He's got it ALL figured out).
OK, forgive me the snark, but if Apple has this figured out and the rest of us are consigned to tithe at the church of iPad/iPhone, we're well and truly screwed.
Ditto for the strategy of "I'll get me a cool app", which feels about as innovative as "Get me a viral video" did back in 2007. I'm not saying having a good app isn't part of a great mobile strategy (I love what Oakley has done for surfers, for example), but one good app don't a solution make.
Earlier in the Signal, I wrote about MOLRS, my entirely non-viral and made-up acronym for Mobile Local Realtime Social. My point was this: Mobile is not a singular use case. Mobile is related to an ecosystem of local (where I am), realtime (what I'm doing right now), and social (who I'm with, who I want to tell about what I'm doing, etc.).
I sense the answer to a truly quality, scaled marketing solution in the "mobile" environment has to do with understanding this broader framework. It's a complicated landscape with way too many middlemen at the moment. But my Spidey senses are tingling, and something's about to happen, I can feel it. If only I knew what it was....
Meanwhile, here are some links to chew on, much of it MOLRS related. It's better than eating your phone. (image credit )
Internet Services: Mobile Advertising: The Hype, The Hope, And The Financial Reality (Weisel - pdf download) This is a research report sent to me by Thomas Weisel's Jordan Rohan. I'll probably get in trouble for posting it. Maybe.
Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses (NYT) Analytics so businesses can figure out what they want to do with Foursquare. Smart.
Just In Time For The Location Wars, Twitter Turns On Geolocation On Its Website (TechCrunch) As I said earlier, expect Twitter and Facebook to play for the Checkin signal in the Database of Intentions.
Facebook Will Allow Users to Share Location (NYT) Hey, wait, on the SAME DAY! Seems *everyone's* MOLRS are coming in at once...
US online ad spend set to overtake print (Guardian) Well of course it is. About time.
Bingo! Microsoft's Search Numbers Keep Going Up (Paid Content) Bing gains, Yahoo! loses.
10 neglected interactive marketing best practices (iMedia)
Get a Mobile Strategy or You're Fired! http://bit.ly/9mwhAs by @JohnBattelle
- Tac AndersonTwitter to Save Us From Ourselves & Phishing; More Is Needed to Make Innovation Safe & Viable http://bit.ly/9vjP0Z
It never ceases to amaze me how many high-tech industry elites get ensnared in every Twitter phishing attack. (See our November story 7 High-Tech Twitter Users Who Fell for Phishing Scams) This evening Twitter announced that a new program will intercept links sent out by Direct Message and through email, checking to make sure they are safe. Phishing prevention is no small matter.
Twitter's is a good move but a lot more is needed all over the web. If we want a transactional developer ecosystem of distributed identity and portable user data, there are both user education and technical changes that need to be made.
Sponsor
It's only because there is a big developer ecosystem creating interesting new services on top of our Twitter identities that any of us would ever consider logging in to Twitter while on another website. That ecosystem is great, and it's the kind of thing that an interconnected web that leverages portable user data would be filled with. But if user data is a form of currency and even people who are professional technology analysts (paid hundreds of dollars an hour for their technology advice - and many of these people are falling for Twitter phishing scams) - if even these people can't tell the difference between a good transaction and a bad one, then what does that say for the future of distributed developer ecosystems and data portability?
Apparently, though, fooling people these days into handing over their Twitter login through an unsafe transaction is like taking candy from a baby. It's really easy.
That's a failing of user education and of the design of distributed authentication transactions, isn't it? (Though it's tempting to blame the users who fall for it, it really is!)
Remember when debit and credit cards were first introduced and many people didn't trust them? Aren't you glad we figured out how to make that work? Similarly, we need a combination of user education (don't give out your credit card number to random people who call you on the phone) and practical measures - credit card transaction receipts have two copies, your copy is the one with the full number printed on it - take it with you. Little things like that and more made plastic a viable platform for commerce. Distributed online identity needs similar measures taken.
You know what also doesn't help? People who try to be helpful by urging users to not even click on phishing links. It's not like these are mysterious poisonous substances that will kill you if you touch them. Go ahead and click on them! Just don't give the resulting spoof pages your username and password. That's the problem!
It's early days in all of this and more moves like Twitter's tonight will be needed. For the good of user security but also for the good of all the innovation this web has the potential to deliver.
Twitter to Save Us From Ourselves & Phishing; More Is Needed to Make Innovation Safe & Viable
- Sarah PerezTwitter to Save Us From Ourselves & Phishing; More Is Needed to Make Innovation Safe & Viable
- Niklas SjostromOn Android, MySpace Reigns Supreme http://bit.ly/93GQmP
Despite CEO drama, plummeting traffic and even declining mobile website usage, MySpace Mobile for Android is the most popular social app in the Android Market and the third most popular downloaded application overall.
While Facebook might dominate social networking apps on the iPhone, Facebook for Android leaves much to be desired. It’s not as bad as it was six months ago, but it still pales in comparison to the offerings for BlackBerry — let alone the iPhone.
MySpace Mobile for Android on the other hand, integrates itself extremely well within the Google ecosystem and the Android platform. You can even update your status via voice, using a widget available in the MySpace app.
AndroidStats, a site that tracks the rankings in the Android Market, shows that MySpace Mobile for Android has consistently been a big winner for the platform. We think the great integration with the platform has something to do with that.
Let’s throw the question to Android users: What app do you prefer, Facebook or MySpace on your Android phone? Does strong mobile integration make a social network more appealing? Let us know!
Japan's Largest Telco Goes OpenID http://bit.ly/cC80hL
NTT docomo, the telephone provider patronized by approximately half the population of Japan, today linked its mobile identity layer with a general web identity for users through OpenID, according to the OpenID Foundation. NTT docomo users will now be able to quickly and easily log-in to any OpenID supporting website online with the same account credentials they already use in the country's flourishing mobile ecommerce and content ecosystem.
Just when you thought the Identity game was over and Facebook or Twitter had won, now you can welcome 55 million more docomo customers onto the OpenID side of the contest.
Sponsor
OpenID is an open source and open standards system of Identity that allows users to log-in to any OpenID supporting website with the account they've already created through a trusted identity provider. The system makes it easy for users to start using new sites with just a few clicks, easy for them to take their profile and friend data with them from site to site and easy for websites to offer personalized service immediately, based on the data an OpenID user brings in with them from their cross-service identity provider. Though ease of login has been the primary use to date, identity and payload as web-wide development platform is the long-term promise of OpenID.
It's an intriguing paradigm that has had mixed success to date, limited primarily by design and User Experience challenges. The entry of Japan's largest telco into the OpenID ecosystem could help propel OpenID forward, but many other large companies have gotten as far as offering outbound OpenID and then ceased active engagement with the protocol.
We've got our fingers crossed, though, for the success of a portable identity system that isn't owned by one single provider like Facebook. Facebook's Connect system of identity does offer a good perspective, though, on what's possible in every way but independent ownership.
Discuss
RT @rww: Japan's Largest Telco Goes OpenID http://bit.ly/cC80hL
- David Recordon
Samsung e-readers coming to Barnes and Noble this spring originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tuesday Signal: The Internet Is A Human Right (And Spending Is Up. Yippee!) http://bit.ly/brSJLE by @JohnBattelle
Well, it's Monday night, but I'm in NYC, and I am pretty sure Tuesday is going to be a blur. So here are the links I read on the plane out here (love that Wifi). Expect news from me soon on the themes and lineup for FM's annual CM Summit (this week I hope) as well as the annual Web2Summit. Meanwhile:
Internet Access Viewed as Fundamental Human Right (AllThingsD) Our culture is coming to a conclusion that makes a lot of sense to me - connection is a human right.
Time To Take The Internet Seriously | David Gelernter | Edge | 4 March 2010 (Edge) Hard to follow, but the fundamental argument is one he's made for years: Lifestreams are coming, the old web structure is ... old.
CMOs to Ramp Up Hiring, Budgets; Double Social Media Spend (MarketingProfs) Are you kidding me? What's not to like about this story?
How Do You Keep Mass Influencers Engaged? An Example from TripAdvisor (Forrester) Ya'll know I love case studies.
All Your Apps Are Belong to Apple: The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement (EFF) I am not feeling warm and fuzzy about the business constraints Apple places on its own ecosystem. It's rather like the Patriot Act. Open up, Apple. Open = more profits in the long run.
Don't Blame Your Community: Ad Blocking Is Not Killing Any Sites (TechDirt) A counterargument to the Ars post I noted yesterday. TechDirt is an FM author and the programs he notes are FM programs.
Statistics for a changing world: Google Public Data Explorer in Labs (Google Blog) Google creates a visualizer for public data. Do more of this, pretty please, Google.
MediaForge Ads Charge Only When People Interact And Buy (ClickZ) Interesting model. Good luck with that....
Tuesday Signal: The Internet Is A Human Right (And Spending Is Up. Yippee!)
- Tac AndersonAnother Nationwide Outage For The Blackberry http://bit.ly/d3AXXH
The Blackberry just doesn't seem to have the luster it once did. Today, it had another nationwide outage.
According to Data Outage News:
"A number of users are reporting and an escalated RIM tech support call has confirmed data issues affecting WiFi devices NOT connected to a WiFi network. The outage is sporadic and issues are confirmed on at least on Verizon and T-Mobile on both US east and west coasts. Again, if you are connected to WiFi, you likely won't notice any problems until you are out of WiFi range. This is not affecting ALL WiFi users, the reports are sporadic, but across all carriers, BIS and BES included."
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What's going in with the Blackberry? Once the enterprise stalwart, it is now looking like a struggling behemoth. Its interface almost seems antiquated. An analyst group is now saying the iPhone is expected to beat out the Blackberry in 2011 for the number one spot. And now we have another outage.
Twitter users are all over today's outage. Some people are saying their service has been out since the morning. There have been some reports that the outage is international in scope.
The last Blackberry outage came in December. Reported outages also came in 2007 and 2008.
Blackberry has been facing a lot of of market pressure. The iPhone, the Android and the upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series all present challenges to the Blackberry.
A report by Trefis shows the iPhone beating out the Blackberry by 2011.
The iPhone's surge into the business community is a major reason for it overtaking the Blackberry.
A Trefi analyst write in Forbes:
We expect Apple's market share to overtake that of RIM by 2011, and for Apple and RIM to have 11% and 8% market share, respectively, by the end of Trefis forecast period. We believe sales of the iPhone will eventually outpace BlackBerry sales for the following reasons:Discuss1. Apple's ecosystem of consumer products (Macs, iPad, Apple TV) and services (iTunes, iPhone apps) make the iPhone a more attractive phone for many consumers compared to the BlackBerry
2. End of AT&T exclusivity will give Apple's iPhone wider distribution in the US (comparable to BlackBerry distribution)
3. iPhone is making inroads with business customers that have traditionally preferred the BlackBerry
We often hear from brands, celebrities, companies, and organizations who are looking for the best resources to start building an application on Facebook.com, optimize a Facebook Connect integration, or build a Facebook Page. To help you accelerate your efforts, we introduced the Preferred Developer Consultant program in December to connect companies and brands to the resources they need to build with Facebook products and technologies.
We are excited to see the growing ecosystem of businesses that have been created around supporting innovation on Facebook, and today we're expanding this program to recommend 35 additional developers who can help you build world-class social experiences both on Facebook and around the Web. The program now has nearly 50 consultants in 15 countries. Over half of the new Preferred Developer Consultants have international operations and have already built campaigns, community portals, and other social applications in countries like Israel, Lithuania, and Czech Republic.
If you or your company builds high quality Facebook Connect implementations, Facebook applications, and/or Facebook Pages, and is interested in being included as a developer consultant in this program, please visit the Developer FAQ to learn more about submitting your company for consideration.
We also welcome your feedback on the Developer Forum.
Kristin Thayer, who works on the Facebook Developer Network team, is excited to see Connect implemented all over the world.
There are many, many signals in the Database of Intentions, as my readers have pointed out, but the one I feel compelled to add to the chart I created Friday is the Commerce signal. This signal emerged before search, really, and has remained a constant, though honestly it has yet to become a signal that others can truly leverage into an open ecosystem (unlike the signal of search, or status update, or the social graph). I expect that to change, and shortly. So here you go, an updated version of the chart, for the record. I expect this chart may well evolve into a pretty complicated ecosystem in its own right, over time....
AMD announced this morning that it is providing game developers with free access to Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), a physics simulator created by AMD partner Pixelux. The move is part of a new initiative in the game development community called "Open Physics."
Orange and Netvibes have announced a partnership to bring the world’s largest collection of mobile widgets to all types of mobile phone user across an extensive range of handsets. Netvibes’ huge catalogue of nearly 200,000 real-time widgets will be available on Orange widgets, a service featuring on 80% of handsets shipped by Orange. It will also be available on djinngo mobile, an Orange service open to any mobile phone user in the world. And soon, mobile widgets will be available to Orange customers in the recently launched Orange Application Shop – I think that’s fairly complete, don’t you!
The widget collection, known as the Netvibes Ecosystem, is a library of popular widgets from the leading content providers around the world. Customers will access Orange widgets with one click from the Orange homescreen. The service has a carousel from which they can chose their favourite widgets and will be available on devices from the majority of handset companies, including basic phones right up to the most sophisticated smartphones.
Orange widgets first launched in July 2009 and was designed to be quick and easy to use – even for customers totally unfamiliar with mobile multimedia services. By providing access to the best, most popular local content, in customers’ own language, Orange is trying to deliver a new ‘mobile widget marketplace’ for everyone.
“Our vision is to personalize the entire online world and empower consumers to customize their entire Web experience. Thanks to our partnership with Orange, we are bringing personalized widgets to millions of consumers everywhere,” said Freddy Mini, CEO Netvibes. “The era of the real-time, personalized Web has truly begun.”
Lofty aspiration, personalising the entire online world, but I get the (net)vibe [pun intended] – while the partnership will focus initially on mobile widgets, the partners will draw on Orange’s leadership in broadband internet and IPTV to extend the experience across other screens.
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