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....
Percentage distribution of times when I think about coffee filters
Graph by: Tipsy_the_Drunken_Fairy via Graph Jam Builder
[Austria] 
Platogo, the social games platform, has today released its Platogo Wrapper that enables casual games developers to easily integrate their games with Facebook by inserting a few lines of code.
Essentially, it lets any casual game take advantages of the basic social features offered through Facebook, such as the ability for a user to invite and play with friends in their social graph and see how their scores compare, challenge each other, and display their gaming achievements on their Facebook wall.
The idea was to offer a solution that “automatically transforms any casual game into a social gaming experience.” says Florian Landerl, Product Manager at Platogo. That ’social gaming experience’ on Facebook, of course, also means a casual game has the basis to go viral.
Also important from a developer’s point of view, the actual Facebook app created is owned by them and not Platogo. And so is the relationship with users who can become fans so that developers can keep them updated using Facebook’s built-in communication channels.
Platogo says that its solution also removes the headache of keeping up with Facebook’s endless policy changes. If the social network changes its app rules, Platogo will adapt its wrapper leaving developers to concentrate on making games.
As well as a comprehensive API so that, should they wish, develops can add further Platogo-enabled social features, the company offers its own virtual currency for use within games. Called ‘Platogo Coins’ it enables developers to earn money by selling in-game virtual goods and is, presumably, how Platogo will make money too along with a share of ad-revenue.
When I started posting my new series of Facebook data points, one of the most requested graphs was the days of the week (and times of day, which is coming soon) that are best to publish on to get lots of Facebook shares. What I found when I looked at days of the week is at first a little unexpected, but upon further thought fairly logical.
While I found less articles posted on the weekends (notice the gray bars at the bottom of the graph which indicate volume of URLs analyzed for each day), those stories that were published on the weekends tended to be shared on Facebook more, on average, than stories that were published during the week. The reasons for this probably include the fact that more than half of companies in the US block Facebook, so people can only use the social network at home, on the weekends. Additionally, the mainstream Facebook audience does not use Facebook for work.
The takeaway? If you want your article to be shared on Facebook by your readers, try posting it over the weekend.
For information on my methodology, start with this post. For this data point I’m using over 5000 stories and “average” is the interquartile mean which is less sensitive to outliers. The 0% line indicates the average number of “shares” stories from each site in my study get, when the line is above 0% it means that stories on that day are shared more than the average, and when it is below, they’re shared less. If you’re curious why it appears most of the stories in the data set are above average, this is because of the difference in the volume of published stories on various days.
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.When I started posting my new series of Facebook data points, one of the most requested graphs was the days of the week (and times of day, which is coming soon) that are best to publish on to get lots of Facebook shares. What I found when I looked at days of the week is at first a little unexpected, but upon further thought fairly logical.
While I found less articles posted on the weekends (notice the gray bars at the bottom of the graph which indicate volume of URLs analyzed for each day), those stories that were published on the weekends tended to be shared on Facebook more, on average, than stories that were published during the week. The reasons for this probably include the fact that more than half of companies in the US block Facebook, so people can only use the social network at home, on the weekends. Additionally, the mainstream Facebook audience does not use Facebook for work.
The takeaway? If you want your article to be shared on Facebook by your readers, try posting it over the weekend.
For information on my methodology, start with this post. For this data point I’m using over 5000 stories and “average” is the interquartile mean which is less sensitive to outliers. The 0% line indicates the average number of “shares” stories from each site in my study get, when the line is above 0% it means that stories on that day are shared more than the average, and when it is below, they’re shared less. If you’re curious why it appears most of the stories in the data set are above average, this is because of the difference in the volume of published stories on various days.
Buy The Social Media Marketing Book here.
Download the Science of ReTweets Report here.
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter
.
The Inverse Graphing Calculator takes typed words and converts them to the equivalent equations it would take to create them graphically. Hey, that's cool. Like a sorceress's areolas.
The Inverse Graphing Calculator (version beta-1) is like a backwards graphing calculator. Normally, you enter an equation into your calculator and then get a graph of the curve. The way the IGC works is, you type something you'd like as your curve, like 'Hello World' or 'I love you'. The IGC produces an *equation* which has this phrase as its graph!I didn't bother graphing any part of the equation on my TI-83 (because I haven't used it since high school to play drug dealer), but I trust that it's not just a scam. Of course, there is the distinct possibility that it actually IS a scam and the creator is just waiting for the day somebody wants to see an equation of their bank account info. And on that day, oh boy, on that day. Inverse Graphing Calculator [xamuel] Thanks to Mih0, who only speaks math and works on rockets and stuff. I respect that.
Smaato (a mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company) has revealed its latest metrics in to the global, mobile advertising market. There’s quite a bit of data, but probably the most interesting set of stats is the comparison, by Operating System, or Click Through Rate (CTR) worldwide.
The graph above shows Worldwide CTR Index (Click Through rate) by Handset Operating System for February 2010. One of the big surprises is the continuing decline of CTR Index from iPhone and iPodTouch with a rate of 89; it’s the first time Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) devices have dipped below the average Index of 100. In December 2009 the iPhone posted a CTR Index of 119, sliding to 104 in January 2010.
The dip in CTR Index on Apple devices and the consistency of Windows Mobile CTR, means that for the first time in the Smaato metrics, Windows Mobile has edge ahead of its rival. Just as a reference, the index consists of the average CTR of all devices and this number is set to 100.
Symbian OS established itself as the leader since the launch of the Smaato Metrics for December 2009 and Android is keeping its position as the number two operating system in regards to CTR performance in mobile advertising – nothing too surprising there on the Symbian front, but the fact Android is doing so well is interesting, especially as a relative newcomer.
Smaato’s metrics are based upon 35 mobile ad networks and over 4 billion ad requests served in the Smaato Network of more than 3000 registered mobile publishers in February 2010 – so fairly compressive – and if the stats are representative, it could possibly have some influence on how smartphone mobile advertising is addressed going forward.
Related News from IntoMobile:
As has been made abundantly clear to me over the past two weeks, just about every location-based service is planning big things for the SXSW festival, which starts later this week in Austin, Texas. A few of the players have already started rolling out small changes, such as aesthetic upgrades. But a new, subtle update by Foursquare may have much larger implications.
As we noted last week, Foursquare has begun revamping the “history” area of its website. This is likely part of the larger goal to completely revamp the website itself (which isn’t very useful right now), and this data also ties in to the new Foursquare iPhone app set to launch later this week. But another update makes the history area show not only where you checked-in, and the category of the venue, but also who you checked-in with.
Basically, Foursquare has just turned on a new layer to your location history data. And this layer is very interesting because it goes back in time to show you who you were with at a certain venue when you were there.
Now, to be clear, it only shows you the friends you were with — not all Foursquare users. (But this means that they have that data as well.) Still, this data paints a clearer picture around your location history and potentially enriches your social graph. It’s one thing to say you’re “friends” with someone on a social network, but another to have checked-in to the same venue at the same time over and over again. Either you’re torturing yourself, or you really are good friends with that person.
This is a huge part of location as the bridge between social networking and actual social activity.
Foursquare has highlighted similar data for a while on the stats page, showing you who you check-in with most often. But this new history data takes that to the next level. And while the data right now only seems to go back to last December or so, Foursquare plans to implement it all the way back to 2003 — yes, 2003.
That’s because before Foursquare, co-founder Dennis Crowley ran a similar service called Dodgeball, which Google bought in 2006, and deadpooled last year. But users were able to import their old Dodgeball data before it went under, so Crowley now hopes to build a full location history social graph going back that far for long-time users.
“We gotta backfill some of the data (easy, but for those who imported their Dodgeball history before Google took the site down, we can give you a good idea of the trends around who you’ve been hanging out w/ going back to 2003.) It’s awesome awesome awesome,” Crowley writes in an email to us.
Something else Crowley is excited about is the potential for the visualization of this data. While this location history + friends isn’t yet in the API, it definitely will be, he notes. Depending on how that data is shared, that may raise some privacy issues, but Foursquare has made it clear that they’re well aware and very serious about the issues surrounding the sharing of location data.
Even on the most basic level, this new layer of location history data should be interesting to people. It’s great to look back and see not only where you were on a certain date, but who you were there with. That’s what social data is all about.
Foursquare Just Made Your Location History A Lot More Interesting
- FredericFoursquare Just Made Your Location History A Lot More Interesting
- LouCypherFoursquare Just Made Your Location History A Lot More Interesting
- Eric JohnsonFoursquare Just Made Your Location History A Lot More Interesting
- (jeff)isageek
This graph shows employment declines at the same chronological point during America's last six recessions. Guess which one represents the current recession. Go ahead, guess. [New York Times] (Thanks, Dan!)
In a response to my article here, DeWitt Clinton of Google defined what he deemed the definition of “open” to be. According to DeWitt, “the first is licensing of the protocols themselves, with respect to who can legally implement them and/or who can legally fork them.” I argue if this were the case, then why didn’t Google clone and standardize what Facebook is doing, where many, many more developers are already integrating and writing code for? Facebook itself is part of the Open Web Foundation, and applies the same principles as Google to allowing others to clone the APIs they provide to developers.
DeWitt’s second definition of “open” revolves around, according to DeWitt, “the license by which the data itself is made available. (The Terms and Conditions, so to speak.) The formal definitions are less well established here (thus far!), but it ultimately has to do with who owns the data and what proprietary rights over it are asserted.” Even Facebook makes clear in its terms that you own your data, and they’re even working to build protocols to enable website owners to host and access this data on their own sites. Why did Google have to write their own Social Graph API or access lesser-used protocols (such as FOAF or OpenID) when they could, in reality, be standardizing what millions (or more?) of other developers are already utilizing with Facebook Connect and the Facebook APIs to access friend data? Google could easily duplicate the APIs Facebook has authored (even using the open source libraries Facebook provides for it), and have a full-fledged, “open” social network built from these APIs many developers are already building upon. I would argue there are/were many more developers writing for Facebook than were developing under the open protocols and standards Google chose to adapt. I’d like to see some stats if that is not the case. Granted, even Facebook is giving way to Google to adopt some of these other “open” standards so developers have choice in this matter, even if they were one of the few adopting the other standards.
I still think Google is adopting these standards because it benefits Google, not the user or developer. If Google wanted to benefit the majority of the audience of developers they would have cloned the already “open” Facebook APIs rather than adopt the much lesser-adopted other protocols they have chosen to go by. This is a matter of competition, being the “hero”, and a brilliant marketing strategy. Is Google evil for doing this? Of course not. Do I hate Google for this? Only for the reason that I have to now adapt all the apps I write in Facebook to new “open” APIs Google is choosing to adopt.
IMO, if Google wanted to truly benefit the developer they would have chosen to clone the existing “open” APIs developers were already writing for. This is a marketing play, plain and simple. It may have started with geeks not wanting to get into the Facebook worlds, but management agreed because in the end, it benefits Google, not their competitors. If you don’t think so, you should ask Dave Winer why Google is not implementing RSS or rssCloud instead of Atom and PSHB (I’m completely baffled by that one, too).
Image courtesy http://northerndoctor.com/2009/04/17/re-inventing-the-wheel/
Did Google Reinvent the Wheel by Adopting the Protocols They Chose?
- LouCypherShared by Bud
This could be useful in figuring out what you're connected to in buzz.
What Women Do In The Shower According To Men
Graph by: Tupungato via Graph Jam Builder
How trying to find a file online goes
Graph by: iwantzchezburger via Graph Jam Builder
In its press release announcing an April 3 release date for the iPad, Apple calls the device “magical and revolutionary” (we can’t make stuff like that up). But what will it do for Apple’s sales?
Mobile-Internet analyst Greg Sterling has a good post looking at some very preliminary numbers that basically show nobody knows yet what is going to happen. In one graph, he shows that although the number of people who say they are going to buy an iPad isn’t very high, the number who planned to purchase the first iPhone was even lower — and we all know how that turned out.
There has been debate about the functionality of the iPad. Some reviewers complained about the lack of Flash in particular. But UBS Apple analyst Maynard Um writes that the iPad is likely to evolve — “just as the original 2G iPhone evolved to become more than just an iPod with phone capabilities (recall the original iPhone did not launch with an app store)”.
The April 3 release date is a little bit later than the date some had been predicting for the iPad launch. The company initially said the product would be available “in late March,” and there have been rumors of production delays as that time approached.
But Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says he had anticipated a launch date of April 1 all along. “Production issues, in my mind, are not days or a week in time. Production issues are when things slip by weeks. So I almost see this date as confirmation that there weren’t production delays, and it doesn’t impact any of our numbers,” he said.
In its press statement announcing an April 3 release date for the iPad, Apple calls the device “magical and revolutionary” (we can’t make stuff like that up). But what will it do for Apple’s sales?
Mobile-Internet analyst Greg Sterling has a good post looking at some very preliminary numbers that basically indicate nobody knows yet what is going to happen. In one graph, he shows that although the number of people who say they are going to buy an iPad isn’t very high, the number who planned to purchase the first iPhone was even lower — and we all know how that turned out.
There has been debate about the functionality of the iPad. Some reviewers have complained about the lack of Flash in particular. But UBS Apple analyst Maynard Um writes that the iPad is likely to evolve — “just as the original 2G iPhone evolved to become more than just an iPod with phone capabilities (recall the original iPhone did not launch with an app store).”
The April 3 release date is a little bit later than the date some had been predicting for the iPad launch. The company initially said the product would be available “in late March,” and there have been rumors of production delays as that time approached.
But Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says he had anticipated a launch date of April 1 all along. “Production issues, in my mind, are not days or a week in time. Production issues are when things slip by weeks. So I almost see this date as confirmation that there weren’t production delays, and it doesn’t impact any of our numbers,” he said in an interview.
As with most things in life, success in television is really just a matter of following the formula. Canned laughs, sexy actors playing inappropriate roles, and stereotypes that appeal to the lowest common denominator. All of these things make television American’s greatest art form! Even when we hate it, we love it; we love to hate it. It’s comforting and it’s part of who we are. Let’s take a look at a few elements that make TV so predictable (and so phenomenal).
What I Do Not Want My Child to See
Graph by: ddavis82991 via Graph Jam Builder
What a Studio Audience Laughs at during a TV Sitcom
Graph by: smoothmoves97 via Graph Jam Builder
What matters in desperate housewives
Graph by: simon.enagonio via Graph Jam Builder
Fresh off the acquisition of AppVee, social mobile app directory Appolicious is releasing a few new features including a Facebook App, an Appo.me URL Shortener for links to apps, and a Twicker ad model, which allows users to view tweets and offers from sponsors on the site. Appolicious, which just raised $1.5 million in funding and debuted an iPhone app, tries to make sense of the 100,000 apps on Apple’s App Store and the 16,000 apps on the Android Market, but with a social twist. So not only can you find apps based on category or topic, but you can share those apps with your social graph on Twitter and Facebook, review apps, and more.
The Appolicious Facebook app allows users to access Appolicious’ recently launched Curated App Lists, which are recommended lists of apps from users based around hobbies and interests. The startup also launched Twicker, an ad format where advertisers send customized messages to the Appolicious audience via Twitter. The Tweets are seen on a ticker at the top of the site’s page. Sponsors pay a monthly fee to advertise via the Twicker.
Additionally, Appolicious is rolling out the Appo.me URL shortner, which gives the ability to easily create, grab and share a shortened URL that links directly to an app. You simple type in the name of an iPhone app and Appo.me automatically completes the app name and will give you a shortened URL for the link to the app in the iTunes store and its landing page on Appolicious’ directory.
Appolicious’ Facebook app will compete with the mPlayit, a Facebook-based mobile app directory. But the feature I find most compelling is the URL shortener, which makes it dead simple to find and link to any app on Apple’s App Store. Founded in May of this year by former Yahoo VP, Alan Warms, Appolicious is hoping to expand its platform to include Blackberry and other smartphone apps. Warms is a serial entrepreneur who sold his startup Buzztracker to Yahoo in 2007.
Mobile App Directory Appolicious Rolls Out Facebook App, URL Shortener And More
- LouCypher
Earlier this week, the RIAA published a blog post slamming the news that the Hope For Haiti Now charity album was freely available on BitTorrent sites.
“The posting highlights a truly ugly side of P2P piracy – the undermining of humanitarian fundraising efforts via online theft of the “Hope for Haiti Now” compilation. So much for the notion that illegal downloading (”sharing”) is an effort to help advance the plight of artists.”
But reading that, I wondered just how popular the album is on file-sharing networks. It might be available, but how many people are downloading it? So I asked someone best placed to answer that question – Eric Garland of BigChampagne, which tracks activity on these networks.
“Yes, the charity record is available online, on torrent sites and one-click hosting etc, but the interest/volume is relatively low – nothing like a big pop record,” he says. And he pulled out some stats to show the comparative downloads of Hope For Haiti Now and Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster to show it. Click on the image above to make it bigger and see the graph.
At its peak on 24th January, Hope For Haiti Now was being downloaded 2,680 times a day according to BigChampagne – compare that to The Fame Monster’s 63,845 downloads the same day. Meanwhile, by 23rd February, Hope For Haiti Now’s daily downloads had dwindled to 820, compared to 47,971 for the Gaga album.
It seems pirates may have a conscience after all…
A few minutes ago, Christina Desjarlais Yates posted to Facebook:
well as a customer, through this wonderful age of technology we have plenty of notice, and I would be happy to see you all strike to get what you deserve,,hell with the suits and their great pay,what about all of you Hard workers who get the shaft... ??? You have my support... = ~ )
Stop & Shop and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union representing about 40,000 supermarket workers in southern New England continue negotiations against threats of an impending strike.
Among the media dispatching messages, is a simple Facebook fan page, created and managed by a coalition of four local chapters with over 12k fans. The page titled, If Stop & Shop Workers' are forced to strike, Stop & Shop loses my business. This simple, free, and highly social fan page, that speaks clearly and directly to union members and to Stop & Shop consumers, has become a major tool in today's current bargaining efforts.
A Fan Page? How? Why?
The UFCW's Strong Youth Core Already Lives on Facebook
The UFCW maintains the youngest membership of any union in the United States, and this appears to be one of the reasons why Facebook has become such an important organizing tool. This does not discount the older membership, some of whom are online and participating on the fan page wall with 40+ years of union membership. The youth core, however, have large integrated and connected social graphs, they get their news from within Facebook, and are already there participating in conversation. Taking the message, the goal, and the movement to Facebook strategically makes sense and has proven to be successful and viral.
Real-time Marketing the Message to a Sensitive Social Graph
Union voices used to have to work tremendously hard to reach out to the public-at-large, namely through public picketing. Facebook and other social networks have the ability to spread the union membership's message in personal, social, and credible ways, rapidly and in real time. Each time a "fan" posts a message to the wall, that same message goes out into her newsfeed and can reach anyone and everyone in her social graph. This means that she can garner sympathy and support from non-union supporters, who can become better informed of her state of employment and who can pledge to not shop at Stop & Shop if a reasonable agreement is not reached. This kind of social marketing can have tremendous and detrimental impact if companies like Stop & Shop ignore the online chatter.
New Level of Connectedness Across Historical Job-Related Boundaries
The page is also a time-free destination, where shift workers in this particular industry, who would never come into contact with one another, can become connected. It's also a piece of live media outside of management and likewise outside of the international governing union, which makes it incredibly authentic, somewhat lawless, and open to the public-at-large for participation. This level of connectedness creates a high level of relevance between the lives of consumers, workers, and loosens the historical stronghold of management.
Social Strike Hub
Currently, the page exists as a place for union members to post their thoughts on frustrations with management, experiences of employment, and share information around the potential strike and picketing being planned. If an agreement is not reached and a strike commences the page will become a single-stop destination for information on where to shop.
To get clarification and more insight into the ecosystem that's been created by the Fan Page, I asked Amber Sparks, senior communications specialist of the UFCW a few questions:
How can a Facebook Fan Page become a major asset during contract negotiations? (it is only useful when negotiations turn sour?)
It's a simple and easy way for members to keep up-to-date on what's happening in negotiations, what the issues are, what the company's saying, that kind of thing. It's certainly useful when members need to mobilize and to reach out to the community for support if they're forced to strike or take action to get a fair deal.
Local unions can post flyers that members can print out, people can post links, pics, info on meetings, actions, rallies, etc., which is great, but it's also useful when negotiations are going smoothly, because members and loyal shoppers, community members are going to want to know what's at stake, what's on the table, what's being discussed.
It's not the only way to reach out to members, but it's an important tool, since so many people are on Facebook everyday. It makes it easy for workers to find out what's happening and connect with other workers and community folks.
Do you think that Facebook and other online social networks are legitimate organizing tools for unions? Is their "lawlessness" something to be concerned with? (is there a historical equivalent to self organized union coalitions?)
Facebook and other online tools are absolutely legitimate organizing tools for unions. Not only legitimate, but I think they're essential for the modern union. Workers are leading busier lives, and we need more ways for them to connect with each other and with their union, and Facebook and other online social networking sites provide that kind of venue.
We're not too concerned with "lawlessness," as you put it, because we've found that while there are a few people on any given site trying to cause trouble, most people are hanging out on our Facebook pages because they want to be there and be a part of that community in some way. So maybe there will be someone there badmouthing workers or saying hateful things, but we've been amazed how quickly workers jump to their union's defense and to their own. Our members are kind of awesome, I have to say.
It might sound crazy, but honestly, nothing makes us more excited here at the UFCW than when we see a Facebook page that a member has created for their store or for their union.
We get giddy over it because that means that member is excited about their job and is proud to be a UFCW member, and that's just so cool. Any negatives are far outweighed by the positivity of that message. When workers are positively impacted by their union, and want to spread the word, that's the best thing in the world in the struggle to improve our image so we can continue to help working people.
Can technology and social networking help the modern union become ubiquitous in American life the way that it once was, giving it new importance or revived presence?
I hope so. I mean, I don't think technology can do it alone, but it's an important tool in our belt and we'd be crazy to ignore the impact it could have. When you look at how important social networking is to people, especially younger people today, how it's a major part of their life, it seems natural that if we're online and engaging with our members, or even just providing them a forum to engage with each others, that can't help but create more familiarity with modern unions and help kill old stereotypes.
The more openness and democracy we have in our interactions with members, the better. I think being online also helps members feel that we're relevant, that we know who they are and what jobs are like today, and we're not just this thing of the past. We want members to know we're changing to meet their needs. This is just one of the ways we can do that.
Bio: Amber Sparks is a Senior Communications Specialist at the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union, where she works on development of new media strategies in politics, organizing, bargaining, and outreach. She has a Master of Arts degree in Political Management from George Washington University.
Nathan Yau is a doctoral candidate in statistics, but the most valuable lessons he's learned in analyzing and working with data don't involve formal math. Here's how he suggests looking at lines, charts, and numbers to find interesting things.
Photo by net_efekt.
Yau lays out the skills and mindsets that have served him well in his studies and analysis. As he puts it, he can't shoot from the hip with questions about proper sampling size or rendering formal analysis, but he's learned what to look for when looking at data—something we all do regularly, whether in monthly budgets or spreadsheets at work.
Two of his suggestions:
See the Big Picture
With that said, it's important not to get too caught up with individual data points or a tiny section in a really big dataset. We saw this in the recent recovery graph. Like some pointed out, if we took a step back and looked at a larger time frame, the Obama/Bush contrast doesn't look so shocking.Ask Why
Finally, and this is the most important thing I've learned, always ask why. When you see a blip in a graph, you should wonder why it's there. If you find some correlation, you should think about whether or not it makes any sense. If it does make sense, then cool, but if not, dig deeper. Numbers are great, but you have to remember that when humans are involved, errors are always a possibility.
It's not a top 10 list or secret hacks—just smart advice, and worth looking back at when you're vexed by a hidden message beneath all the numbers and lines you see in any data set.
