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Content Tagged with trends + Web2.0
How Safe Is That Web App? Researchers Want Online Privacy Policies Regulated
Admit it. You don't always read the EULAs when you install software on your computer. You just click "I Agree." The same goes for the web. Most of us don't read the privacy policies that accompany our favorite web sites and services (myself included, apparently). But our failure to do so has some researchers suggesting that it's time the Federal Government got involved. According to these researchers, today's privacy policies are long and hard to read. Instead, they think it may be time for the FTC to step in and read the privacy policies for us.
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Might Be Time For The FTC, Says Researchers
A new report by Carnegie Mellon University, authored by Aleecia McDonald and Lorrie Faith Cranor, states that online privacy policies take an average of 10 minutes to read. If every U.S. web user read the privacy policy at every site they went to, the time spent reading privacy policies would total 44.3 billion hours per year. Their recommendation? Regulation. They concluded that regulation might be necessary to "provide basic privacy protections."
Of course, you can imagine a lot of companies are not happy over this proposal, specifically those that take advantage of long privacy policies which they know no one reads. Online advertisers are the worst for abusing the average user's ignorance over how the internet works. They deploy behavioral targeting platforms that track users and their behavior across the net. Instructions for opting out of these programs may be found in the privacy policies, but few people take the time to read them and discover how to do so.
Cranor, who's also a member of the EFF, thinks that people shouldn't have to read these extensive privacy policies in order to protect themselves - the FTC should get involved and regulate if companies aren't willing to improve the readability of these online documents.
Should Privacy Policies Be Regulated?
If a privacy policy is long, does that mean it fails? We've seen the privacy policies now sent in the mail to us from our credit card companies. They aren't the most readable documents either, but they're legal.
Privacy policies today only seem to be there for the hyper-aware online citizen for whom privacy is a major concern. The rest of us just hear about the breaches of trust when one of those folks takes the time to read the long and boring legalize and then warns the rest of us of their findings.
The problem with privacy policies isn't just their length, though. Alissa Cooper, chief computer scientist at the Center for Democracy & Technology, argues that "It's not only that they're long, but they're also complicated. They're not really written for your average Internet user to understand them."
The average internet user? You mean those people who access the internet for twice a day for a total of 20 hours per month? The ones that spend less than one minute per page? Something tells us they're not going to read privacy policies no matter how clear and easy-to-understand they become.
Image Credits: Computer Eye, Mikey G. Ottowa; Cameras, Urbankudos
Discuss
Who Really Uses Mint.com (And Other Banking 2.0) Services Anyway?
Given the U.S. economic crisis, people are looking for new and better ways to get a handle on their personal finances. We recently profiled 10 money management web applications that promise to do everything from analyzing your spending behavior to saving you money by negotiating lower rates on credit cards.
The proliferation of these types of apps would have you believe there's a big demand for web-based financial tools. But is there really? We would hope so, considering how their advanced technology can provide detailed analysis about your money (or lack thereof). However, we secretly wondered if the only people logging in to sites like Mint.com and the like are the young kids of Gen Y. Do adults with mortgages, credit card debt, and 401Ks even know how to use these tools?
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Are Banking 2.0 Users Really That Young?
To find out who's using the banking 2.0 tools and why, we started with Mint.com, who recently gave us a peek into their company's data. As VentureBeat noted, Mint.com's nearly 500,000 users are cutting down on expenses - they've spent an average of $300 less per month in August than in January this year, a 6% drop. However, they believed that early users of this site and those like it were sure to be younger and more tech-savvy. We believe they are tech-savvy, too, since it does require the use of computer and browser, and we know that not everyone can handle such complications. But we wondered: how young are the users really?
Mint.com Is Slowly Aging
Although Mint.com doesn't require you to fill out anything more than a zip code and email address in order to sign up, they've conducted multiple user surveys in order to get a grasp on their company's demographic data. The end result of those surveys has given them a good idea of who uses the site.
Mint.com admits that they, as a web company, did indeed "launch young." In the beginning, their audience was primarily Generation Y. However, over the past year, their user base has been gradually aging. At launch, the average age of the user on the site was 27, the same as their CEO at the time, Aaron Patzer. Today, the average age is 28, only a year higher, a year later. So are they really growing up?
Maybe they're not aging overall as a site, but when you look at the breakdowns by age range, you can see that some of the older age groups are trending upwards. Look at the 40-year-olds and up, for example - there is some growth to be seen there. Below, you can see a chart that tracks changes between September, 2007 and July, 2008:
Another trend that points to the aging of Mint users is the fact that more users now report owning their primary residence. In December 2007, that number was 39%. Today, 43% report that they own their own home.
Why It Works: You Can Actually Save Money
When we first reported Mint.com's announcement that they had saved users over $100 million while managing $12 billion in transactions, some of you were skeptical. But the company is maintaining those numbers are accurate. This is in part to due the fact that when you take into consideration the number of accounts maintained at Mint (checking, savings, credit card, 401K, mortgages, car loans, etc.) and the number of users (now about half a million), it isn't very hard to push that number up. However, it's also high thanks to Mint.com's wealthier-than-the-average-American user base. As of July 2008, the user's average income level was over $100,000/year and 39% had investment assets over $50,000.
But that's not to say that Mint is only a tool for the wealthy tech elite - anyone can save money with the service. According to a company representative, 1 out of every 10 Mint.com users changes accounts after signing up for the service. This means that those users are tapping into Mint.com's feature where the service recommends them a better offer. For example, a person with a credit card who charges a lot of airline tickets might be offered a different card with travel points. Another person might be recommended to switch from their Bank of America savings account to ING where they would get a better rate, perhaps. And yet another person might be recommended a credit card with a lower rate. And don't be mistaken - those recommendations aren't simply taking into account the introductory period where the credit card company slashes the rate to entice you, but looks at the credit card rate over the course of an entire year before determining whether it would really save the user money.
What About The Other Startups In This Space?
Given Mint.com's user base of around 500,000 and their traffic numbers, they are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, personal finance/money management web service. They achieved this growth through smart advertising campaigns that reached out to the mainstream, especially women, in magazines like SELF, Real Simple, and Reader's Digest. That appeared to have worked - today, 40% of new users on the site are women - that's a much higher number than back in 2007, when only 15% of the users were female.
So, what about the others? We reached out to some of the other banking 2.0 sites to see what sort of data they had, too. Out of the ten apps we previously featured, only Wesabe, Rudder, Geezeo, Xero, and Expensr had data on hand. iThryv is still preparing to launch and the rest did not respond to our request.
Here's how those sites compared:
- Over 100,000 users
- 56% male, 44% female
- Median income: $60-80K
- Age: 60% are 30 or younger
- Misc. - 75% have a college degree or higher, 43% are married
- The company just launched at DEMO last month, but already have 15,000 users.
- They don't collect demographic info.
- 30,000 users
- 54% male, 46% female
- 30% 18 - 34 years old
- 38% 35 - 49 years old
- Site attracts less affluent users
- More info here
- Xero has 2200 paying customers
- Their number of customers has grown 132% since March 31, 2008
- Xero will not disclose demographic data.
- 25,000 users
- Users in their 20's: 66%
- Users in their 30's: 24%
Great Tools, Now If Only Banks Would Tell People They Existed...
Overall, we can tell there are some general trends here - banking 2.0 sites are still young, but are starting to gain traction among older users. More women are starting to use these applications which makes sense, give that they are typically the ones holding the household purse strings.
However, we think that there should be more of a push by financial institutions to recommend these types of tools to their customers, instead of sticking with the old stand-bys that include desktop software applications like Quicken. As Alistair Newton, Research VP and Industry Services Director at Gartner noted earlier this year, "with banks coming under increasing pressure to deliver a range of short-term cost savings, the ways that banks interact with their customers will become increasingly important in managing costs downwards. There are a variety of ways in which banks can help customers save money and better manage their exposure to debt while saving the bank money by encouraging greater use of self-service applications."
Gartner also maintains that communities such as Mint.com, Wesabe, and Geezeo can be of long-term benefit to banks, especially as they help the more debt-exposed clients to manage their funds more effectively.
We couldn't agree more. Our hope is that in light of the country's economic meltdown, these apps will get the push they deserve.
Image credit: Cash, courtesy of: spcbrass
DiscussIs Facebook Becoming MySpace?
Given Facebook's growing marketshare both here in the U.S. and worldwide, there's a growing concern that Facebook will soon morph into that other social network - one that many of us had happily left behind: MySpace. But unfortunately, hints of MySpace have been cropping up into Facebook lately thanks to things like new, tricked-out profiles and the recently launched video content. Is Facebook...gasp...turning into MySpace?
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MySpace: We Used To Be Friends
Although always a hub for finding music, MySpace was also once a great place to go and hang out with your friends online, too. But something changed. Maybe it was the "who can have the most friends" contests that had people adding perfect strangers to their profiles, or maybe it was the spam bots that wanted to "be your friend," or maybe it was the headache-inducing profiles filled with glittery graphics and overloaded with media. Most likely, though, it was a combination of all these things and more that made an exodus from MySpace so appealing.
Now, don't misunderstand. We know that for many people out there, MySpace is still very much a part of their online social lives, and that's fine. But we're also aware of a number of a growing number of users ditching MySpace for Facebook. Some even reported that the the split is occurring along class lines.
Whatever the case, there's one big thing that draws people to Facebook: it's not MySpace.
Danger! Eyesores Ahead: Facebook App Gives You MySpace-esque Profiles
Exhibit A in the Myspace-ification (yes, we know that's not a word) of Facebook is the new app put out by PageRage. Once installed, you can dress up your Facebook profile in any number of themes. The themes feature designs involving nature, art, causes, politics, and more. This app uses the technology from Yontoo which lets you make changes to web sites once installed. With it, skinning Facebook is easy.
Although the above may look like a disaster in the making if you prefer less busy profiles, unlike MySpace, you do have an out: just don't install the app. Without the PageRage app installed, Facebook profiles look clean and uncluttered, the same as usual.
Video on Facebook? How Very MySpace Of You
Another area where Facebook is becoming more MySpace-like is video. Thanks to last week's newly announced partnership between application maker Slide and major media companies, a new app called FunSpace Channels has now launched. Here, Facebook users can search, watch, and share the latest TV, music, and other video content from media partners CBS, Current Media, E! Entertainment, FUEL TV, Hulu, Sony BMG, TMZ, Universal Music Group, 236.com, Break Media, CollegeHumor, Howcast, Video Detective, and YouTube.
This move had some questioning whether or not Facebook is where you would go to watch TV online. On NY Times Bits blog, Saul Hansell writes:
Is the core of Facebook about consuming media? That's always been the biggest difference between MySpace and Facebook. On MySpace, users are defining their personalities by programming their own collage of text, photos, music and video, blending work they created themselves with clips of professional work. When you are on MySpace you read about what your friends are doing, but at the same time you are listing to what they are listening to and watching what they are watching. Facebook is all about person-to-person and person-to-small group communications.
We wondered that as well. In the past, Facebook was all about communication, not consuming media, that was MySpace...right? Apparently not. According to research analyst David Card with Jupiter Research, a June survey showed that only 12% of social network users regularly watch professional video on social networks and there's no statistical difference between MySpace and Facebook users. In other words, watching video on social networks is still in low demand, so offering video on Facebook only really caters to the heaviest of entertainment consumers. Yet Slide FunSpace has managed to accumulate 18,330,571 monthly active users since its launch on October 1st, 2008.
Spammers Aren't Your Friends
Then there's the spam problem. According to Security Labs, they've noticed a rise in spam emails posing as Facebook friend requests. Those malicious emails actually contain attachments with Trojan horses in the form of a .zip file. These emails arrive in your inbox, but they never originated from Facebook. However, that distinction will be lost on the less tech-savvy. The Facebook brand can still feel the affects of this negative association and, even worse, the site could be blamed by its users for sending spam.
In addition to the malicious spam, the Chicago Tribune reports that companies attempting to market to customers on Facebook are getting mistaken for spam and are being booted from the system. Those companies may be walking a fine line between using Facebook for communication purposes and spamming their friends, but it appears that Facebook is erring on the side of caution. That's good because what one company thinks is communication often just seems to us like spam, so we're happy that Facebook is taking a proactive approach. However, with so many people now use Facebook to organize large events like conferences, reunions, and the like, we hope that Facebook isn't unilaterally knocking people off based on arbitrary limits.
Not MySpace Yet
So it seems that Facebook is picking up some of MySpace's themes - busy profiles, video entertainment, and yes,spam, but we think Facebook still has a fighting chance. For one thing, the first two items - profiles and TV - are entirely optional, as they are applications you can choose to install or ignore as you wish. As for the spam, it may be on the increase, but at least Facebook isn't really at fault. Having previously provided their users with an "ignore all" button to fight application spam, Facebook knows that spam is the sort of thing that can make or break a social network. Fighting this type of spam is really just a user education issue - the same issue that banks, eBay, and credit card companies have to deal with all the time.
It doesn't take much to change user perception, but thankfully, Facebook hasn't become a MySpace clone yet. However, it's worth noting these small steps in MySpace's direction.
DiscussSocial Media and Shopping: A Growing Trend
Social media is evolving. What began as a way to "hang out" with friends online has morphed into an entirely new platform for communication, information sharing, and marketing. Businesses are quickly discovering that if they want to reach the youngest demographic, Generation Y (born after 1979), they had best get online. But maintaining a web presence alone isn't enough anymore. According to new research from August 2008, web retailers are now actually trying to engage that demographic segment using social media.
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Want To Market To Gen Y? Get on Facebook
According to to a research from shopping comparison site PriceGrabber. Some 85% of Gen Y respondents said they participated in social networking, and 57% reported involvement with blogs. In order to market to Gen Y, web retailers are now starting to use social media to do so. According to an August 2008 survey by Internet Retailer, 39.3% of retail respondents use social networks for marketing purposes, 32% have a page on Facebook, 27% are on MySpace, and 26% are on YouTube.
Shouldn't Those Numbers Be Higher?
While it's encouraging to see web retailers reaching out to the youngest shoppers in this way, those number still seem sort of low. Do only 39.3% of retailers need to sell to Generation Y customers? We think that number should be higher.
So why aren't more brands involved in social media yet? Is the problem that they're still learning how to use these tools or is it that they don't have room in their budgets for non-traditional marketing and advertising campaigns? Perhaps it's a little of both. But another big issue to take into account is fear. Companies have relied on one-way communication methods for years as the method of reaching their customers. Social media, however, demands a two-way conversation. That means giving up some control, yes, but it also means there's an opportunity for increased loyalty when done correctly. When someone feels like their voice is being heard, there's the potential for having a customer for life.
Another reason it's important for brands to listen to their customers is because there are now more ways than ever for customers to share their experiences with others online. A 2008 study conducted by the Society for New Communications Research for Nuance Communications found nearly three-quarters choose retailers and products based on others' customer care experiences shared online. In addition to word-of-mouth and other trusted sources like Consumer Reports, respondents found information about others' customer care experiences online in the following ways:
Who's Doing What
It's interesting to see micro-blogging sites on that chart above - you wouldn't have seen that even a year or two ago. Twitter, of course, is the main micro-blogging site of interest these days, at least here in the U.S. We looked at companies using Twitter for customer service not too long ago, and since then even more companies have come on board.
However, if you're really interested in following companies that use social media for marketing, the best resource we've found so far is this extensive list collated by Peter Kim which, as of October 4th, includes 237 companies actively using social media for marketing purposes. At some point, though, we hope that making a list of involved companies will become impossible to do because they are just too many of them. Apparently, we're not there yet.
Data in this article courtesy of eMarketer
Image credit dollar sign, by pfala Discuss
Mobile Marketing: Better For Reaching Democrats
In this heated U.S. election season, both presidential campaigns have been using multichannel marketing techniques that have included everything from wikis to web sites and text messages to Twitter. It now appears that one of those channels, mobile marketing, is better at reaching Democratic voters than Republicans. But why is that?
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Mobile Media Use
According to Nielson Mobile, a service of the consumer research-focused Nielson Company, 43 million Americans subscribe to mobile internet. Also, 33 million Americans use text messages, 32 million IM, 29 million download wallpapers/screensavers, and 4 million subscribe to and view mobile video.
However, when you break those numbers down by political preference, the following is true of mobile media in Q2 2008:
- Overall, 62% of Democrats are data users who use one or more data service on their mobile phone (compared with 55% of Republicans).
- Democrats are more likely than Republicans to use text messaging (53% compared with 46%).
- Democrats are more likely to use picture messaging and MMS (27% compared with 21%).
- Democrats are more likely to use mobile internet (17 % compared with 13%)
Apparently, someone already told the candidates of this news. It has been widely reported the numerous ways the Obama campaign makes use of mobile marketing for voter outreach. Already, they used SMS to announce Obama's VP choice. Unfortunately, the SMS message came after traditional journalists reported the news, not first, as originally promised. Still, the idea was unique and was the first attempt in leveraging the mobile medium in that way. In addition to the SMS VP announcement, the Obama campaign's mobile web site offers news, videos and ringtone and wallpaper downloads.
The McCain camp has not been as active on the mobile front, but that's not to say that conservative voters don't use mobile media. Their use just isn't as heavy. In fact, Nielsen reports that the conservative-leaning web site The Drudge Report has a mobile audience of 567,000 uniques per month, for example.
To see how the numbers break down even further by Democrat vs Republican mobile data use, check out the chart below:
Why More Mobile Democrats?
There are a lot of conclusions one can come to from reviewing this data, but perhaps the most telling is that the campaigns really do know their demographics. Statistically, young voters are trending Democratic, and, as we all know by now, today's young voters are what are known as "digital natives." These plugged in, tech-savvy voters (also called "Generation Y") are now coming of age and many are eligible to vote for the first time. By marketing to this group of active technology users, the Obama campaign is hoping to motivate them to go out and vote. The recent launch of the official Obama iPhone app is just more proof of the campaign's efforts to actively engage this particular group of voters.
Many reports about Generation Y make note that they are known to be socially conscious and politically involved, but the election will likely be the first time we see if those generalizations are true. If Gen Y turns out the polls in great numbers, then they will have proven that they are indeed different than the other young generations of voters who preceded them. Typically an apathetic bunch when it comes to voting, young voters have not yet had the impact on U.S. elections that they could if they made the effort.
The Obama campaign seems to know that mobilizing these young voters may be as simple as interacting with them on the platforms they feel the most comfortable - the web, social networks, and their phone.
Discuss5 Big Data Center Trends For 2008
The technology landscape is shifting. With the rise of cloud computing, there has been a renewed focus on what's happening in the datacenter. But it's not just consumer-grade web apps that are driving this shift - enterprises, too, are looking to virtualize their services and move applications off the desktop in order to better manage client computers and maintain data security.
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/Five_Big_Data_Center_Trends_For_2008';digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff';digg_skin = 'normal';Recently, HP and research firm IDC took a look at some of the biggest trends they're seeing in the datacenter. These five hot new trends are having a big impact on computing today and the future of the cloud. But which ones are most important?
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According to research from IDC and HP, the following five data center trends are representative of the big shifts happening now in computing:
1) Blades
Blades will account for 29% of server sales by 2012. This market is growing quickly as customers are realizing the benefits of a bladed infrastructure: that is, space, time, cost and energy savings. Both enterprise and midsize customers are being impacted by this trend. (Source: IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Forecast, 2008Q1)
2) Going Green
Going green is less about being environmentally conscious and more about saving money. CIOs and IT managers are surprised to find that creating an energy-efficient, high-performance data center through power and cooling is much less expensive they they anticipated. The end result of going green is a reduction in overall costs (energy, space requirements, management, etc) which is savings businesses some serious dollars.
3) Virtualization
By 2011 more than half of customers' workloads will be deployed in virtual machines. With every new advancement in this area, like integrated hypervisors for example, the need to intelligently control the data center is strengthened. Data center managers need to know how to build a unified infrastructure combining both the virtual and physical environments. (Source: IDC Multiclient Study, Server Virtualization On the Move 2007)
4) Cloud Computing Means Scalability Is a Must
Data is growing at an exponential rate thanks to cloud computing. Large content-rich data, like streaming digital media (e.g. IPTV, video on demand, broadcast, etc.), static digital media (e.g. photo sharing, online music download, etc.), and web content hosting (e-mail, blogs, Web pages, etc.) are having the most impact. Cloud computing companies need solutions that can easily manage multi-petabyte scalability - without disruption.
5) Linux in the Enterprise
Worldwide Linux server shipments have increased by 35% since 2003. Currently, one out of every five servers runs on Linux and the adoption of Linux servers is expected to grow. The adoption rate will increase by almost 8% by 2012 (Source: IDC, Worldwide Quarterly Server Forecast, 2008 Q1)
If you want to learn more about these trends using a real world example, HP's Pentel Case Study makes for a good read. This company was able to reduce their datacenter footprint from 5 full racks to 1 by using a combination of blades, storage, and VMWare virtualization. They were also able to reduce their power and cooling needs. Those efforts led to a savings of over $200,000 in three years in reduced maintenance costs alone. Their I.T. department is more agile, Oracle performs up to 80% faster, and they can deploy a server in minutes. In other words, these trends are just about changing needs, they're also about saving money.
Out of all these trends, which ones are most important? We tend to think that scalability is going to be a big issue going forward, especially with the growth of web apps and their specific infrastructure needs. We've already seen what lack of scalability can do to a service - we almost lost Twitter, for example, as demand outpaced their ability to provide the service. Knowing the intelligent audience of readers we have here at RWW, we're interested in what trends you think are the most important.
Which Datacenter Trends Are Most Important?
( surveys)
Discuss
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The Scannable World, Part 3: Barcode Scanning In The Real World
This is the third part in a multi-part series about integrating the internet with the real world through barcode scanning technology.
In the first two articles we looked at the history of scanning barcodes with your mobile phone, newspaper print ads, and a new effort to bring barcodes to web printouts. Now we'll look at other uses of the technology including scanning products in store, scanning broadcast media, and even exchanging contact information with others through the use of barcodes.
Up until now, we've focused on scanning barcodes printed on paper, but that's not the only place where the mobile barcode scanning technology is being used. The ultimate goal for barcodes is to have them everywhere, from t-shirts to stickers to TV. Let look at what innovations are happening in these areas today.
Things You Can Do Today
To get you excited about the promise of what barcoding can bring, we'll take a look at what you can do with barcodes today as well as some of the industry trends. Since barcoding is still new to the U.S., this may be old news to some of our international visitors, but bear with us...we're trying to catch up here!
1) Tag The World With Wikis
Instead of waiting for someone else to provide barcodes for you to scan, you can get involved with Semapedia instead. Semapedia.org is a non-profit project whose goal is to connect the physical world with relevant knowledge from Wikipedia. The community is encouraged to create 2D barcodes (QR Codes) and then venture out into the real world and attach them to objects. Any URL from Wikipedia, Wikinews, Wikibooks, and Wikisource can be used. While we love this innovative idea, a quick look at their map showed very few places where these codes have been used.
2) Exchange Contact Data With Your iPhone / Cameraphone
In Japan, you'll find QR codes everywhere including business cards, id cards, magazines, newspapers, flyers, posters, stickers, food products,puzzles, web sites, billboards,and more. (Thanks for the links, David Harper!) But here in the U.S. it seems we're still struggling to get the trend started. So why not let iPhone users lead the way? If you have an iPhone, there is one app that lets you exchange contact data with others through the use of barcodes - just like the Japanese do! The app is called QRContact (iTunes link) and it generates a contact's details as a barcode. To use it, you simply click on the "Address Book" button to select the person in your address book whose details you want to turn into a barcode. Of course, that means you'll have to enter your own information in your contacts in order to exchange the info with others. The recipient would then only need a barcode reader application installed on their device in order to read the code and add the info to their address book. Do a search in iTunes for "barcode" and you'll find a few free readers to choose from that will do the trick.
3) Get Nerdy With Patches and Pillows
In an email from self-described "barcode nerd" John Young, we learned of all sorts of fun barcoded-related projects. He began by making a barcoded needlepoint pillow featuring a 2D barcode that linked to the Wikipedia page for pillow. After getting a little exposure on both BoingBoing and the NYT, he decided to extend the project and is now selling needlepoint canvases with custom QR Codes on them. You can find them here on Etsy: http://nerdlepoint.etsy.com.
After having so much fun with that, John decided to explore other wearables. Since so many people were already making and selling QR Code t-shirts (see our review of Japanese co. C-Shirt, too, if you're interested in how wearables work), he decided to venture into the world of patches instead. He launched the site http://p8tch.com where he sells velcro-backed "commando nerd patches." The system lets you change the target of your QR Code sort of like how TinyURL operates, so your patch can read something different whenever you want.
4) Scan Products In The Store (Coming Soon, Perhaps)
A company looking to take mobile barcode reading mainstream in the real world is StoreXperience. This m-commerce platform allows consumers to capture 2D barcodes from products. Consumers could then see product information, including local availability and customized offers right on their mobile handsets. StoreXperience isn't just limited to 2D barcodes, though. Their technology also supports RFID tags and soon 1D barcodes, too. Unfortunately, although StoreXperience has built a platform they aren't in any noteworthy stores as of today. We're disappointed that you can't actually use this technology yet, but we're keeping our eye on it.
John Young (see above) is now investigating the use of barcodes for real estate. He thinks it would be great if there was something (besides an infotube) which potential buyers could read while they're standing right there at the house. How about a mobile web-page linked by a barcode? To learn how to make your own barcode to do this too, keep reading...
6) Get Your Own Reader And Make Your Own Codes
Yesterday we mentioned the NeoReader, but as some pointed out, NeoMedia hasn't always played nice in this space. There are other readers you can use if you would rather support efforts of a more open nature. For example, the Kaywa Reader (go to http://reader.kaywa.com to see if your phone is supported); Google's zxing reader which was designed for Android but supposedly works on iPhone, too; i-nigma; QuickMark; upcode; or, for Nokia phones, there's an entire web site devoted to barcodes at http://mobilecodes.nokia.com. You can also try semacode, connexto, or scanzoom. These last three may be helpful to owners of older Nokia phones that can't use the reader provided on the nokia.com site. In the EU only, you can try the reader from activeprint.org. The Japanese apparently don't need our help, but if you want to see what one of their readers looks like, check out camreader. Then prepare to be very jealous: in Japan, they can scan the barcodes of everyday objects to be taken to the mobile version of the Japanese Amazon.com for that product.
But here in the U.S. and other parts of the pre-barcoded world, you may wonder what good is it to have a reader if you don't have any codes. Maybe it's time for us to generate our own codes and let the business world catch up with our own innovation! Right now there are numerous sites that let you generate your own codes. What you choose to do with those codes is up to you. Make t-shirts, stickers, flyers, posters, or anything else you want. Try the Kaywa QR-code generator, Nokia Mobile Codes, Winksite (which can also generate codes for RSS feeds), Denso-Wave creators, DataMatrix generator by IDAutomation, QR Code Generator by NFC Games, viooli, or even the Firefox plugin Mobile Barcoder.
OK, Barcodes Are Cool, But Here's What You Should Be Worried About
If you're not much of a do-it-yourselfer, there's a good chance the technology will come to you. Earlier this month, CTIA announced a "Camera-Phone Based Barcode Scanning White Paper" (PDF) during a keynote event where they also demoed the technology. In the paper, they endorse two bar code formats: the open standard Data Matrix and the proprietary EZ Code. CTIA Vice-President of Wireless Internet Development Mark Desautels predicted that handsets using the technology will be widely available in 12-18 months.
On the surface, that sounds like good news: if you just wait, barcoding will come to you, right? As it turns out, it's not quite that simple. The proprietary EZ Code isn't read by anything except ScanLife by Scanbuy, so essentially, CTIA just endorsed one company's product. It's worth noting that Scanbuy was on the team defining the standard, Correction: Scanbuy was working with several carriers in a CTIA-initiated trial that contributed to the results of the white paper (as well as explaining to carrier executives how it should work), too. Opinion: Conflict of interest much?
The other standard supported by CTIA, DataMatrix, is an open standard and is free. Well, except for having to go through the Scanbuy gateway for processing. What that means is that in the indirect DataMatrix model, you ca't embed a URL in the barcode that resolves directly by DNS to a web address. Instead, the codes are given an ID number and these IDs are sent to a gateway for processing - a sort of man-in-the-middle (and potential bottleneck) who monitors the "clicks."
That's why the barcoding advocates here in the U.S. want you to support the open QR Code format. This is the more popular format internationally and is used in other countries like Japan, Australia, UK, and elsewhere. Thanks to its open format and freely available readers, innovation has flourished.
There are plenty of companies ready for this technology when it arrives. For example, CEO Ron Feldman of the text messaging reminder service Kwiry tells us that they plan to implement 2D/Mobile Bar Code input support when a critical mass of phones/consumers are actually capable of using this technology. Hopefully, that's only a matter of time.
Photo Credit: QR Scanning: PSD; QRCode Future: avlxyz
See also: The Scannable World, Part 1: Mobile Phones As Barcode Scanners
The Scannable World, Part 2: Scanning Your Web Printouts
The Scannable World, Part 2: Scanning Your Web Printouts
This is the second post in a multi-part series about integrating the internet with the real world.
In "The Scannable World: Mobile Phones As Barcode Scanners," we introduced the concept of using your phone to scan barcoded objects in the real world. We also touched on some of the history surrounding this technology. One of the issues with barcoded ads today is where you find them: newspapers, arguably a dying medium whose subscriber base isn't necessarily composed of cutting-edge early adopters. So how can barcodes make their way to the people who actually use the web and other modern technologies? One company thinks they have the answer.
Enter Neomedia
Neomedia is ready for the barcode trend to take off. They've been around for a decade and have had the technology for reading barcodes with mobile phones in place for years. Now, thanks to the ubiquity of modern mobile phones, they are poised for success if this trend ever takes off. Their barcode scanning software lets you access mobile web content by scanning ads from print, packaging, billboards, and even broadcast media.
The Printed Out Web
No matter how tech savvy you are, there are still times when you simply must print out something from the web. Driving directions are a great example. Now imagine that your printout looked something like this (see below) - directions at the top with a scannable ad for a hotel at the bottom of the page:
That printout isn't a prototype, but a real ad available today from RandMcNally.com. The ad is made possible through NeoMedia's partnership with Format Dynamics, a company that works with web publishers and advertisers to help transform web pages into readable printouts which can then be monetized with ads. The company's "Clean Print" technology is a real-time dynamic reformatting engine that harvests a page's content and then produces a printed page in a coherent format without odd line breaks, cut off images, etc. Clean Print will also work no matter how the end user decides to print - whether "Ctrl + P" is pressed or a print button is used, the results are the same.
Any site using Clean Print technology can now include barcoded ads alongside their content. This is great for driving directions, but also for articles that tend to be printed out and shared, such as those from online news sites. (Don't believe it? Just look at the uproar over the RWW print button, for example). Below is an example of what that looks like. The article is from The Orange County Register's site and the ad is for Crocs footwear.
Since the partnership between NeoMedia and Format Dynamics is still brand new, there aren't many other examples just yet. But Format Dynamics is already serving ads and reformatting the printed web pages of approximately 80 web publishers, including Rand McNally, CareerBuilder, the San Jose Mercury News, the Denver Post, the Houston Chronicle, and a few others. In time, NeoMedia will extend their barcode offering to more of these clients.
How To Scan: NeoMedia's NeoReader
NeoReader is the barcode scanning software. It's not a separate piece of hardware, but software that runs on your phone. NeoReader currently works on iPhone, Java, Symbian, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile. The only missing platform is Android, but the company plans to include that at a later time. Even without Android, the company has managed to cover most of the smartphone market as well as many of today's standard phones via their Java offering. (You can see a full manufacturer's list here).
To download the application, just go to get.neoreader.com from your handset's web browser and follow the instructions. If your handset is not supported, you can still access the NeoReader program. Just bookmark the URL get.neoreader.com/go. This web page will let you enter keywords and barcodes in order to access the same content available to users of the mobile application. iPhone users can simply download the NeoReader application from the iTunes App Store.
Android has been announced but it isn't actually out yet, so we can't compare NeoReader to Android's barcode scanning apps like CompareEverywhere or GoCart. On the iPhone, though, NeoReader is not the only barcode reading app currently available - there are several to choose from. In function and feature set, the difference between most of those apps and NeoReader is minimal. Like many of those other iPhone apps, NeoReader also lets you build your own barcode if you so desire. You can create a barcode for any URL just by going to http://www.neoreader.com/code.html and entering in the URL you want to convert.
Make a Barcode:
The real difference between NeoReader simply comes down to the fact that NeoMedia is a business that's trying to make barcode scanning a reality...it's not an app put out by an independent developer. NeoReader already has a handful of sites where it can be used and over the coming weeks they will be able to add to their list as their partnership with Format Dynamics deepens.
Is This The Answer?
With the rising popularity of camera phones, smartphones, and better web browsers for surfing the "real" internet at higher 3G speeds, there's an improved chance for a technology like barcoded ads to take off. However, for it to really become truly successful a lot of advertisers and big-name companies will have to get on board and consistently offer barcoded ads for an extended period of time - not just try it once and then give up, claiming them a failure. In today's uncertain economy, the number of advertisers willing to take this chance may be low.
NeoMedia's partnership with Format Dynamics means they are able to offer a good selection of web sites where you can find the technology in use. That's a good start at least, but ultimately the technology will come down to consumers' willingness to interact with the real world in this virtual manner. The expectation behind this whole barcoded ad platform is that people will see the advertisement and then take an extra step to learn more about the product or service. Is that even how today's consumers interact with ads? In our media-saturated culture, most consumers run from ads, not the other way around.
Will adding barcodes make viewing ads a more engaging experience or will consumers continue to ignore ads like they do today? That's a hard question to answer with a technology so new and untested, but it's possible that, if done well, barcode scanning could work. The trick may be to provide an added value to the customer who takes the time to scan. That added value could be a discount, a free gift with purchase, or something else of a compelling nature to the potential customer. That could make barcode scanning the coupon clipping of the 21st century...and that might actually work. Scan to save. We would do it. Would you?
See also: The Scannable World, Part 1: Mobile Phones As Barcode Scanners
The Scannable World, Part 3: Barcode Scanning In The Real World
Socialmedian Now More Twitter-esque With "Replize"
Today, socialmedian, the social news web site which we've described as a "less noisy FriendFeed" launched a new set of features called "Replize." Now socialmedian users can track conversations on the service, much in the same way that users can track responses to a question on Twitter, all it takes is the use of @username.
Socialmedian has also announced Flickr integration which allows you to include your uploaded photos on Flickr in your news stream.
Socialmedian's New "Replize"
Today's launch of Replize on socialmedian allows users to write comments on the shared articles and include @username to address those comments to any specific user or users. The @username can also be located anywhere within the comment - not just the beginning. So for example, someone writing a comment to me would insert @sarahintampa in the comment, and socialmedian would be able to then direct that comment to me.
Comments are brought to your attention through a new "Replize" tab which allows you to quickly view all the discussions that include you. Your personal news feed will also highlight when someone includes you in a discussion. In case you aren't logged in to socialmedian at the time, you can choose to receive these replies via email as well.
Here's how it works.
- To send a replize to any user on socialmedian, all you need to do is include @username for any username(s) anywhere in the comments field. If you click the "reply" link next to a comment the service pre-populates the other person's @username. You can include several people in a replize, e.g. @jasongoldberg @sarahintampa @joebob. The replize will be sent to all.
- The service then highlights the replize to those users in their homepage News Feed. Users can also be notified by email whenever they have a replize.
- Theres's also a "Replize" tab on the homepage so that users can easily view all their replize in one place, and so they can quickly see all the stories they have been included in discussions.li>
Flickr Integration
In addition to the Replize option, socialmedian has also enabled Flickr integration as of today. Any photo you upload to Flickr is now also included on socialmedian, too. To connect your Flickr to socialmedian, go to Add Something > Site > Flickr. You can choose to add all of your Flickr photos and favorites, or only those matching certain tags (keywords).
Is @username Becoming A New Standard?
The @username trend for responding to another user on a service took off with the launch of Twitter. On that microblogging, mini-conversations service, responding to another user's tweet begins with a response in the format of @username your response. The format spread to the other microblogging services and then became unofficially integrated with FriendFeed as well.
On FriendFeed, users were working around the lack of threaded discussions by using the format @username to show which user they were responding to in the comments. Eventually, the FriendFeed team picked up on the trend and allowed those comments to be piped back through Twitter. However, the users hadn't really been after Twitter integration (though we now love it), they had just adopted the format that made the most sense for responding to another user: @username.
OK, so we know that @username isn't becoming a standard in the technical sense of the word. This isn't being ratified by some organization and made official. What we're wondering is whether we'll start to see the trend take off in more services in the future now that so many people in Web 2.0 land are familiar with the format.
If so, would that a good thing? Yes, it probably would. Although initially getting people on board with this new methodology will, at first, mean a bigger learning curve for the uninitiated, having a familiar way to respond to users on social media services could make @username the next www. or username@email.com. For the new users of Web 2.0, it puts a familiar context around the unfamiliar task of interacting with others on the these "new-fangled" social services. That could then lead to easier moves to even more services in the future.
Did we just read too much into a small upgrade to socialmedian? Perhaps. But it would be great if this began the next big trend for social media sites.
DiscussReflections on DEMO: Tech Innovation Alive and Well
Not too long ago, there were some grumblings about the state of the tech blogosphere and the industry in general. By spending so much time reading Techmeme, Twitter, FriendFeed, and the like it's easy to get the impression that some of the most influential people in our industry today were less interested in the technology they were reviewing than they were in making a name for themselves as some sort of navel-gazing superstar. Not only that, the apps that people were fawning over were often not the kind of apps that had mainstream appeal or were solving real problems. It was as if the whole crowd was shouting at each other, trying to be heard over the noise and patting each other on the back for being so hip with all our shiny, social media-flavored toys.
Was this what the tech industry had come to, I wondered? No, that was just what the tech blogosphere had come to. This year's DEMO conference proved to me that technology innovation is still alive and well.
Social Media Apps Aren't All We Have!
There have been some questions rattling around in the back of my mind for a while now about the tech industry. Why are so few apps crossing the chasm to achieve mainstream appeal these days?, I wondered. Besides Twitter, have we seen many apps become breakout hits? (And I'm counting Twitter because CNN is pretty mainstream in my book). And even more important than mainstream appeal, are any apps solving real-world problems? Do startups even exist anymore that are addressing these types of things? Or was everyone just trying to re-invent Twitter a million times over?
Now, don't get me wrong, I adore web apps, social media, and Web 2.0, but do I think that all my personal toys will hold the same level of fascination for everyone? No. A large part of the world is still quite happy spending only portions of their lives online, not every day, day-in, day-out. (I know, it's shocking.) Getting these people enthusiastic about technology means we need to start addressing some of the issues that they have today. In doing so, we can have a much bigger impact on the world as a whole.
Solving Real-World Problems Is What DEMO Does Right
One of the most prevalent themes that emerged from DEMO was that many the startups presenting there were really thinking about the problems people face when dealing with technology. I don't recall any presentations whose pitch was: "It's like ___________, but for __________." Instead, they were presenting new ideas. Some of the things truly blew me away: a single sign on for the web? Amazing. A portable plastic e-ink display as thin as a pad of paper? Incredible. Tools that extend the power of democratization to artists and introduce new ways for them to actually make money again? Awesome.
DEMO Statups Are Forward-Thinking
Not only were there startups addressing real-world issues, there were others thinking ahead to the future. Take for example, Tikitag, who was building "an internet of things" using RFID chips. Or SemantiFind who built a semantic search engine on top of Google. Or Echo Nest, a developer site that aims to power the future of music. These things aren't sure bets - they're apps for the world of the future. You want to see what emerging technology really looks like? Just look around DEMO.
Themes From This Year's DEMO
Mobile Is Everywhere
There were a few themes that jumped out at me from the conference. One: mobile is hot. So many applications and solutions were either addressing a need had by mobile users of were at least incorporating a mobile offering to complement their app. And the one question everyone wanted to know when reviewing a mobile app was "will it be on the iPhone?" (Companies: Rocketron, Clintworld, Dial Directions, Maverick Mobile Solutions, Pvt. Ltd., SkyData Systems, Inc., G.ho.st, Message Sling, WebDiet,Inc., Xumii, Inc.)
The Web Democratizes Everything
Another theme was the re-invention of the business model for online artistry. From online films, to music, to photography, companies were trying to create strategies that would finally help indie artists make money again. Not only were there sites that offered revenue opportunities, there were also new professional-level tools being delivered to everyone, too. Similar to how CMS systems like WordPress let everyone become a publisher, these new tools can help everyone can publish and distribute their music, films, and photos. (Companies: MeDeploy, MixMatchMusic, Ltd., Photrade, The Echo Nest Corp.)
Social networking is, in fact, "like air."
We've passed the point where tools are being described as "a social network for ______." If a site is an online community, you can now assume that it will incorporate the social networking aspects that you have come to expect: profiles, friend lists, etc. The difference is that now, more people are giving thought to how their site's social networking feature should more accurately reflect real-world relationships. The ubiquitous "friend" is on its way out to be replaced by levels of friendship and familiarity along with which various levels of access are permitted. (Companies: Giftag, Familybuilder, Koollage, Paidinterviews, TravelMuse, TurnTo Networks)
Team Collaboration Is An Ever-Growing Space
You've heard the term "Enterprise 2.0" a lot lately because this is an area that's really taking off. Several companies are trying to address the needs of team collaboration and each one of them has their own take on how to do it the best. Will we soon have hundreds of team collaboration suites to choose from or will a few clear winners emerge? We'll just have to wait and see. (Companies: Creately, crowdSPRING, DOCCENTERMeWorks, OpenACircle.com, Toolgether)
We Need More Ways To Find Online Videos
There are more places to watch online video today than ever before. Several of the companies at DEMO were attempting to organize the vast amounts of online video into an easy-to-use interface so we can find, watch, and share more of the videos that are out there on the net. Others want to make it easier to watch videos on any device. Video is going to be a big part of the net's future, so we need more innovation in recommendation engines and more standardization of video formats so we can move video across devices.(Companies: Awind Inc, beeTV, ffwd.com, Inc., Invision TV, LLC, RealNetworks, RemoTV)
Businesses Can't Hide From 2.0: A Look At 2.0's Impact Across Industries
If you were interviewing someone for a position with your company and they admitted that they didn't know anything about the new trends and innovations taking place in their field, what would you think? Likely, what you would think is "next candidate, please." In today's business world, job-seekers are expected to stay current with the happenings taking place in their area of interest. There was a time when those happenings were very much job-specific and anything having to do with technology fell squarely on the shoulders of I.T. That time has passed. Web 2.0 technologies lifted the veil of mystery surrounding computing technology and made it accessible to everyone. Today, if you're not staying current with Web 2.0 technologies' impact on business, then you're just not staying current. Period.
Web 2.0 Is Everywhere
No matter which department you're in, Web 2.0 technologies have had an impact. If you've been ignoring their prevalence and adoption, you're at risk of falling behind in your career and your business is at risk of losing ground to its competitors who are tuned into this trend.
Here at ReadWriteWeb, we deliver news about Web 2.0's impact on business in addition to news about web technologies in general. Depending on your area of interest, you can find a lot of great information on this subject in our archives. Or simply bookmark this post for easy reference.
Document Collaboration Suites
GroupSwim is an innovative company which has created an intelligent community building and collaboration SaaS solution. They aim to connect individuals and build knowledge utilizing social based methodologies. Read more.
DreamFactory's suite of Enterprise 2.0 applications consists of a Project Management module, a Time and Expense Module, a Document Manager, and a Team Calendar. Originally, the company was available on Amazon Web Services, but now DreamFactory's software will be available on Intuit's QuickBase platform, too. Read more.
Box.net offers collaboration functionality which allows any Box.net user can invite collaborators to any folder in their account. The collaboration feature is also fully compatible with all the OpenBox services, which extends online collaboration beyond just word processor documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, similar to what Google Docs currently offers. Read more.
The term groupware refers to applications that facilitate real-time communication, coordination and collaboration amongst groups of people. A number of startups are working hard to develop the nascent groupware market, so in this post we identify some of those startups and provide an overview of where the market is heading...read more.
What's the Deal With Wikis?
Only a handful of years ago, it was common to hear people laugh at Wikipedia. Anyone can edit it! How could you take it seriously? These days, just as blogs are, wikis are on their way to winning a reputation as serious publishing platforms. Wikis are now serious business. Read more.
Atlassian Confluence, makers of one of the most popular enterprise wiki solutions, offers Microsoft Office and SharePoint integration in their release of the Confluence 2.9 software. With these new tools, users no longer have to know the technicalities of wiki markup or even how to use the included rich-text WYSIWYG editor in order to make changes to the wiki - they can simply open up a Microsoft Office document instead. Read more.
WetPaint, a popular hosted Wiki solution, provides person-to-person and private messaging between users of their Wiki network. This means that Wetpaint Wiki users can now send single or multi-person private messages, to connect and collaborate with others about their interests. This post introduces wikis and discusees who is using them and for what purpose.First, wikis are described and then the range of wiki products in the market right now is explored. Read more.
Leave it to people in the wiki market to know how to collaborate. Nearly 20 different wiki providers have teamed up to offer a new Firefox extension that will notify users whenever they are on a page that is publicly editable, using a standard icon that sits in the same place the RSS autodiscovery icon appears. Clicking on the icon (img. on the left) will take you to that page's editing interface. Read more.
What's Office 2.0?
Web Office Defined: A Web Office suite is a combination of productivity, publishing and collaboration features. A Web Office both embraces the functionality of desktop office suites (e.g. Microsoft Office) and extends it by using Web Native features. Read more.
The State of Office 2.0: Over the past 10 years, Corel, Sun, IBM and others have tried to compete with Microsoft in the office software business, but thus far none of them have been able to take a significant chunk of Microsoft's large market share, which generates revenues exceeding $15 billion each year. These companies have tried everything; including Sun open sourcing their StarOffice suite and releasing it as the free OpenOffice. Yet, even this very compelling move has not been able to make a serious dent in the market. Read more.
Microsoft announced their Office Live Workspace is publicly available for everyone to access. The site, a free web-based extension of Microsoft Office, lets you access your documents online and share your work with others. Some say that the service's launch is a direct response to Google's entry into the web office space with their Google Docs online service. If that's so, then the question now is: did Microsoft just trump Google Docs? Or does Google Docs still rule online office suites? Read more.
The Web Office was a market that underwent a lot of changes in 2007. Our definition of Web Office is: A Web Office suite is a combination of productivity, publishing and collaboration features. A Web Office both embraces the functionality of desktop office suites (e.g. Microsoft Office) and extends it by using Web Native features. The 2007 year in review: Read more.
This is the perspective of a "skeptical, later early adopter"; the sort of person who Microsoft needs to retain and should have been able to retain easily. I don't spend time on productivity tools that may at some date make me more productive, but which today are just a frustrating time sink. That describes the majority of people. MS Office can be annoying, but it does work. So any serious alternative has to offer a significant advantage and at the same time make adoption a total breeze. Read more.
EditGrid, the main product of HongKong-based company Team and Concepts (TnC) Ltd., is a leading Web 2.0 online spreadsheet service that focuses on online collaboration and interoperability. Read more.
eXpresso was named as one of PC World's 25 Most Innovative Products of the Year for 2007. PC World succinctly summed the product up: "[it] allows Excel users to share their spreadsheets, online or off." eXpresso is different from the web office contenders that you normally hear about on ReadWriteWeb for three reasons...Read more.
Zimbra is looking to expand its platform to the iPhone. Recently they announced Zimbra Mobile for iPhone 2.0. Zimbra Mobile for iPhone 2.0 will allow iPhone users over-the-air two-way synchronization of e-mails, calendar, contacts, and photos between user mailboxes and mobile devices, and seamless "push" e-mail service for all Zimbra Collaboration Suite users. Read more.
News from the Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco, 2008. Read more.
What's Happening in the Enterprise 2.0 Space?
A report released by Forrester Research is predicting that enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies is going to increase dramatically over the next five years. This increase will include more spending on social networking tools, mashups, and RSS, with the end result being a global enterprise market of $4.6 billion by the year 2013. Read more.
Enterprise 2.0 is Happening: If you're a business who has been ignoring the Web 2.0 trend and the spread of social media: look out, the tide is shifting and you're about to be left behind. The rise of social media didn't happen overnight, the power of the internet to unite people, the ubiquity of broadband, the rise of Gen Y, the development of new technologies for socializing on the web - all of these things and more have led to the rise of social media. And this new force is affecting change in the way that companies do business - now and for many years to come.
The break-up of behemoth, vertically integrated enterprises commenced in the 1970's, got a boost from junk bond financing in the 1980's, and accelerated in the 1990's with globalization. Now, late in the 2000's, Social Media (aka Web 2.0) is adding another gear that will accelerate the fundamental restructuring of the enterprise. Read more.
Most enterprise software sucks. That is my considered opinion from 30 years in the software biz. Words that come to mind are: bloated, inflexible and user hostile. The good news is that it is getting better, a lot better. The driver for change is what I call the consumerization of enterprise software. These new software champions typically have some if not all of these 8 main attributes...Read more.
The Enterprise 2.0 Launch Pad program is a program that allows companies to showcase their products and compete for the opportunity to present their ideas to the community at this year's Enterprise 2.0 Conference. This competition, organized by Stowe Boyd, began in April when companies were invited to post their video pitches to the E2 web site. After the community voted, the list of contenders was narrowed down to five finalists who will now compete for the final spot. For that grand prize winner, the prize is free exhibit space at the upcoming conference. Read more.
SharePoint to run Enterprise 2.0? 9 companies are saying "yes," having recently launched Enterprise 2.0 offerings that integrate with SharePoint technology. If there's one thing that any I.T. pro knows it's the value of "maximizing their investment" in whatever servers they run, technology they use, or services they've signed up for. With strict budgets in place, no I.T. purchases are bought on a whim. Instead, each decision is researched, tested, thoughtfully considered, and, if worthy, purchased, then rolled out to become a part of the I.T. infrastructure. SharePoint is no exception. Read more.
Is 2.0 Affecting My Industry?
Yes! Check out the examples below of Web 2.0's impact on various industries and fields.
Finance/Banking
Google is announced that after more than a year of work on the problem, Google Finance is now offering real-time price quotes for any stock traded on NASDAQ. Read more.
Strands, the recommendation and lifestreaming service we've written about here before, announced a much anticipated deal that will put it in the driver's seat for financial recommendations served up to millions of online banking customers around the world. The company's recommendation test-case in music is no longer all they will be known for around the world. Read more.
We reported on a survey that revealed that 48% of online banking customers between the ages of 18 and 34 would be interested in using "secure gadgets for personal banking" if their bank offered them. More than a quarter of bank customers would consider switching to another bank if it took better advantage of web 2.0 technologies. While that