BlackBerry Messenger - RIM's FaceTime
Microsoft's Spindex - a personal web trending tool?
Update: Some screenshots from TechCrunch.
Microsoft's Fuse (that’s Future Social Experiences, for you) Labs have been up to a few interesting projects lately (like integrating Twitter results into Bing and Docs.com with Facebook), that signals the Redmond giant’s rethink and foray into social media.
Earlier this week they launched Spindex, a social media aggregator that can collate data from Facebook, Twitter, Bing, Evernote and RSS.
Probably why the news went under the radar was that it initially doesn’t sound any different from web aggregators like FriendFeed. But what makes Spindex different, at least to me, is its ability to siphon trends from all the content it gathers. Now, I've been looking for a tool that can track trends that emerge from all the content I follow via the RSS feeds of blogs, Twitter and Facebook - and even contemplated paying a few student developers a few thousand bucks to build one for me. I’m glad I didn’t. But it’s not something anyone can whip up - even Microsoft calls it "the impossible project”.
I gather I’m not the only one that would find the trending feature of Spindex useful. It looks like a quintessential tool any marketer, researcher or journalist would need to keep their ear to the ground when it comes to the social web. Like your very own web zeitgeist of sorts, for any given time.
The Huffington Post's first lady, Arianna Huffington, reveals over - Telegraph
She says Murdoch will fail with his new paywall and Google-blocking strategy, internet users only expect content for free, search dominates people’s news consumption and the only way for media companies to survive online is to be “promiscuous” which means getting your content on as many platforms as possible and then monetising through advertising.
A simple solution.
Google Acquires Teracent To Apply Machine Smarts To Display Ads
The startup’s proprietary alogirthims automatically pick the creative parts of a display ad (images, colors, text) in real-time determined by like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.
Sounds impressive. And hot on the heels of Google acquiring AdMob. Something just dawned on me. If the news/media industry is so dependent on advertisements, why (aside from budget cuts and running tight ships) don't we have the foresight to make these acquisitions?
It's clear that we need to adopt the same strategy and a kind of cross-pollination between disciplines like technology and design for the news industry to evolve.
In similar ways, that's how technology-based companies have been leapfrogging ahead of once-incumbent and complacent industries. Google in the news industry. Apple in the music industry and then, interestingly enough, the (tech-based) mobile phone industry. Amazon with bookstores and publishers.
Maybe only a new player without the burden of legacy can change the game.
The Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report 2009 Key Findings
Can news outlets learn a thing or two from brands about engaging experientially with their audiences? The way brands do with their consumers? I've been impressed on many occasions with the ingenious ways in which brands are using the new digital channels available to them. They're always the first to move and latch on to trends. Because it's a cutthroat business.
On another note, here's a scary thought [from slide #29]:
“We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive. We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.” - Trevor Edwards, Nike
Q&A: Julian Sambles on the Telegraph's social media strategy
"I would recommend that journalists engage with social media sites and forums around their chosen subject."
Most don't.
22 ideas for changing the way news is produced
A rather ingenious list of ideas. I like this one:
Transparency would be a core element of our journalism. One example of many: every print article would have an accompanying box called "Things We Don't Know," a list of questions our journalists couldn't answer in their reporting. TV and radio stories would mention the key unknowns. Whatever the medium, the organisation's website would include an invitation to the audience to help fill in the holes, which exist in every story.
"Help doesn’t mean a handout" : Google CEO Eric Schmidt On Newspapers & Journalism
"Help doesn’t mean a handout" : Google CEO Eric Schmidt On Newspapers & Journalism
What Murdoch doesn't get:
"That’s especially so in that Google has no plans to produce news content itself. Google’s success, he says, is tied to pointing its visitors to sources of quality content."
"Japan's Papers, Doomed but Going Strong"
Via the Washington Post:
“Seeing all this, Japanese newspapers have no intention of giving away on the Web what their readers remain willing to pay for in print…”
So the papers in Japan guard their business by refusing to give away content online so readers will keep buying their dead-tree medium. Does anyone else find this ridiculously short-sighted? Hmm, I guess it might work for now but it definitely isn’t a sustainable business model. It would be almost effortless for a new player to disrupt the market by offering free quality content online.
