Friday, May 13, 2011
How "Old People" Use Media
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Google News Goes Local
Google now allows users to view location based news, localized by zip code.
Users who want to take advantage of the new feature can visit news.google.com on their smart phone and enable location sharing to see the “News near you” section at the bottom.
Users who want to take advantage of the new feature can visit news.google.com on their smart phone and enable location sharing to see the “News near you” section at the bottom.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Google Studies Smart Phone Behavior
Smart phone behavior is important for any number of reasons, in particular to the extent that the behavior itself creates the opportunity for all sorts of innovations that can lead to new businesses being created.
For example, 71 percent of smart phone users search because of an ad they’ve seen either online or offline.
About 82 percent of smart phone users notice mobile ads. Some 74 percent of smart phone shoppers make a purchase as a result of using their smartphones to help with shopping. Also, 88 percent of those who look for local information on their smartphones take action within a day.
For example, 71 percent of smart phone users search because of an ad they’ve seen either online or offline.
About 82 percent of smart phone users notice mobile ads. Some 74 percent of smart phone shoppers make a purchase as a result of using their smartphones to help with shopping. Also, 88 percent of those who look for local information on their smartphones take action within a day.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Blogger Outage Caused by "Data Corruption"
Google's Blogger service was restored on April 13, 2011, after a global outage that lasted at least 20.5 hours.
"During scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior," the company says on the Blogger blog. "Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages."
A small subset of Blogger users (Google estimates 0.16 percent) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts.
All day April 12, 2011, Google put Blogger in read-only mode while restoring content. As part of the repair process, Blogger rolled back to a Wednesday May 11th version, leading to deletion of material on a temporarily basis.
In the afternoon of April 13, Twitter is reporting service disruptions as well.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Now Twitter is "Having Stability Issues"
Experiencing site stability issues 1 hour ago
We are currently experiencing site stability issues. There may be intermittent issues loading twitter.com and Twitter clients. We’re working to fix it as soon as possible.Google "Blogger" has just been restored, after a global outage that lasted more than 24 hours. Now Twitter says it has an outage.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
How "Open" is Android?
Engineering always involves tradeoffs. Smaller size might be an advantage, but smaller size limits input and output options. Bigger smart phone screens are a plus, but at the cost of battery life. More features can enhance user experience, but means more complexity. "Open" systems encourage innovation, at the cost of standardization and interoperability.
As it turns out, Android code is made available without charge to device manufacturers, but those manufacturers must adhere to a “compatibility” standard determined by Google. Some will complain about the threat to "openness." Others will cheer the consumer interface advantages, among them the assurance that software and hardware actually works.
Observers have faulted Android for its fragmentation, over the last year, for example, a somewhat inevitable result of allowing choices. But Android seems to realize it has to limit the amount of freedom developers have, in order to ensure that users and customers can be sure "Android" apps and devices actually work on the devices they buy.
As it turns out, Android code is made available without charge to device manufacturers, but those manufacturers must adhere to a “compatibility” standard determined by Google. Some will complain about the threat to "openness." Others will cheer the consumer interface advantages, among them the assurance that software and hardware actually works.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Dish Network Might Offer "Early Release" VOD
Dish Network is considering offering an "early release" video-on-demand for films that are about eight weeks out of theaters, similar to what DirecTV already offers. The DirecTV offer shows new-release movies about eight weeks after they have ended theater exhibition, for a $30 price.
Dish is in negotiations with Hollywood studios and no final decision has been made on whether to introduce the service.
Dish is in negotiations with Hollywood studios and no final decision has been made on whether to introduce the service.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Google Launches "Google Guides" Program
Apple has for decades made quite a decent business supporting the education market, and then reaping benefits as those users moved along in life.
Google is trying something similar, launching a program to turn its college Google Apps users into evangelists as they hit the workplace.
"If you attended a university that’s “gone Google” or just sought out Google products on your own, you’ve learned how to use Apps to collaborate and communicate with your professors and peers," Google says.
"With this in mind, we’ve created the Google Guides program to help you take your Google Apps expertise to your future job."
"With this in mind, we’ve created the Google Guides program to help you take your Google Apps expertise to your future job."
"When you become a Google Guide, we’ll equip you with resources to introduce and implement Apps in your workplace."
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
HEAnet, Juniper, ADVA Demo Automated Router and Optical Layer Provisioning
Communications networks are not loosely-coupled systems, as a user's PC, tablet or smart phone is loosely coupled to that user's web services, local applications, peripherals
HEAnet, Juniper Networks and ADVA Optical Networking have successfully demonstrated the automated setup of optical circuits between Juniper Networks routers using an ADVA Optical Networking Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical network, using a common signaling protocol.
The typical end user of services won't care. The carriers that have to create and maintain services will care quite a lot.
Using the control plane, HEAnet was able to provision end–to-end circuits between the routers over the optical network, using equipment from multiple suppliers. That typically is harder than first appears.
The deployment of the control plane enabled the initiating router to discover, reserve and then build an optical circuit across the optical network without any user intervention beyond the original user commands on the initiating router.
Rapidly growing traffic levels in both metro and core networks are driving many network operators to deploy a new network architecture based on integrated packet-layer routers and optical-transport systems, the companies say.
That is the optical core network equivalent to the requirement that retail service providers likewise operate their networks at lower cost as well.
“This is one of the first customer GMPLS interworking tests between router and optical equipment manufacturers,” said Eoin Kenny, project leader, HEAnet.
HEAnet, Juniper Networks and ADVA Optical Networking have successfully demonstrated the automated setup of optical circuits between Juniper Networks routers using an ADVA Optical Networking Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical network, using a common signaling protocol.
The typical end user of services won't care. The carriers that have to create and maintain services will care quite a lot.
Using the control plane, HEAnet was able to provision end–to-end circuits between the routers over the optical network, using equipment from multiple suppliers. That typically is harder than first appears.
The deployment of the control plane enabled the initiating router to discover, reserve and then build an optical circuit across the optical network without any user intervention beyond the original user commands on the initiating router.
Rapidly growing traffic levels in both metro and core networks are driving many network operators to deploy a new network architecture based on integrated packet-layer routers and optical-transport systems, the companies say.
That is the optical core network equivalent to the requirement that retail service providers likewise operate their networks at lower cost as well.
“This is one of the first customer GMPLS interworking tests between router and optical equipment manufacturers,” said Eoin Kenny, project leader, HEAnet.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Sprint Offers Switchers $175 to $75
Sprint is offering up to $175 to business customers who switch from other wireless carriers, and $125 for individual customers who buy a smart phone. Sprint will pay $75 for individuals who buy a low-end "feature phone."
The credit is meant to "give customers a chance to try Sprint without having to worry about fees or charges for terminating their contracts with their current carriers," Sprint spokesman Lloyd Karnes said, according to CNN.
To get the credit, all accounts must be ported from existing contracts, and they must remain active for 61 days. A two-year contract is required. The offer began May 4.
read more here
The credit is meant to "give customers a chance to try Sprint without having to worry about fees or charges for terminating their contracts with their current carriers," Sprint spokesman Lloyd Karnes said, according to CNN.
To get the credit, all accounts must be ported from existing contracts, and they must remain active for 61 days. A two-year contract is required. The offer began May 4.
read more here
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Will ChromeBook Fly?
There is a substantial belief in some quarters that Google's Chromebook is going to be squeezed between the tablet and the PC, much as the entire "netbook" category is seen to be squeezed between the tablet and the standard notebook.
If there is a new category here, it might be the market for "PC as a service." We seem to be moving towards applications, infrastructure and platforms as a service. It might not be so appealing to rent devices as a service, but we'll have to see.
If there is a new category here, it might be the market for "PC as a service." We seem to be moving towards applications, infrastructure and platforms as a service. It might not be so appealing to rent devices as a service, but we'll have to see.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Trust in Companies, Government, Media Has Dropped: What Do You Do?
It is tougher than ever to maintain a brand's equity these days. Overall levels of consumer trust seem to have dropped, and the velocity of change has increased, mostly because online word of mouth is so prevalent.
"Young & Rubicam’s BrandAsset Valuator indicates that the percentage of brands that consumers deem trustworthy fell from more than 50 percent to 20 percent between 1997 and 2008," says Chris Stutzman, Forrester Research analyst.
In some ways, those numbers are not surprising. A new study by Edelman suggests there has been a dramatic drop in consumer trust levels in government, business and media since 2008 as well.
The study by Edelman of 5,075 people in 23 countries of people 25 to 64 in the top 25 percent of household incomes in each country suggests U.S. citizens and consumers have less trust in their institutions.
Just 27 percent believe "you can trust the media to do what is right," a dip of 11 percentage points from 2010 levels.
About 40 percent of U.S. respondents believe "you can trust the government to do what is right," down six percent from 2010.
Only 46 percent believe "you can trust business to do what is right," a drop of eight percentage points from 2010. See this.
Given that climate, it is not surprising that brands overall face more skepticism. But one problem these days is that market share numbers do not entirely reflect brand respect or brand trust, in the short term.
Nor do "brand awareness" measures help as much as they might. Consumers might be aware of brands, and have negative opinions. The new challenge for brands is that news travels faster these days. It is tweeted, blogged and posted in real time, all day long.
In the past, it might have been sufficient to measure trial volumes, purchase volumes, repeat purchase behavior, referral volune or churn. In the past, it might have been useful to rly on "perception" measures such as interest, relevance, reputation, quality or value metrics, satisfaction scores or awareness.
These days, brands also have to contend with a tidal wave of ratings and reviews, formal and informal, generated across a huge range of channels, all day long, across huge and growing numbes of web channels.
In a June 8, 2009 article from Marketing Vox and Nielsen BuzzMetrics SES magazine Chris Aarons, Andru Edwards and Xavier Lanier argue that "25 percent of search results for the world’s Top 20 brands link to user generated content." See this.
"In 2010, more than 87 percent of the U.S. adult online population used social media to offer more than 256 billion influence impressions of products and services," says Stutzman.
Nor is volume the only issue. It is the velocity of potential word of mouth effects that also is a challenge. Opinions can move abruptly across the web. For that reason, Unilever uses YouGov's Brand Index to monitor eight measures of brand equity on a daily basis.
For marketers more accustomed to national or quarterly measurement, that will come as a bit of a shock. But Unilever's approach makes sense in a world where consumer sentiment, measured by tweet streams, for example, can suddenly go negative or highly positive, fluctuating relatively wildly between quarterly or annual measurements.
The practical implications are that an annual or quarterly measurement frequency cannot react to suddenly-negative or suddenly-positive consumer sentiment. In either case, a brand wants to be able to respond.
Consider a sudden news event, such as a major product recall. If the product being recalled is a popular automobile, many consumers will assume the supplier will want to offer incentives for people to buy, in the wake of the negative news. They will want to "buy on the dip," in other words.
But a brand has to move quickly to sense the sentiment, in order to act, either to counteract negative sentiment and sales trends, or to reinforce positive sentiment.
Twitter is only part of a content marketing program, but a monitoring effort sometimes can lead to more effective content being produced.
"Young & Rubicam’s BrandAsset Valuator indicates that the percentage of brands that consumers deem trustworthy fell from more than 50 percent to 20 percent between 1997 and 2008," says Chris Stutzman, Forrester Research analyst.
In some ways, those numbers are not surprising. A new study by Edelman suggests there has been a dramatic drop in consumer trust levels in government, business and media since 2008 as well.
The study by Edelman of 5,075 people in 23 countries of people 25 to 64 in the top 25 percent of household incomes in each country suggests U.S. citizens and consumers have less trust in their institutions.
Just 27 percent believe "you can trust the media to do what is right," a dip of 11 percentage points from 2010 levels.
About 40 percent of U.S. respondents believe "you can trust the government to do what is right," down six percent from 2010.
Only 46 percent believe "you can trust business to do what is right," a drop of eight percentage points from 2010. See this.
Given that climate, it is not surprising that brands overall face more skepticism. But one problem these days is that market share numbers do not entirely reflect brand respect or brand trust, in the short term.
Nor do "brand awareness" measures help as much as they might. Consumers might be aware of brands, and have negative opinions. The new challenge for brands is that news travels faster these days. It is tweeted, blogged and posted in real time, all day long.
In the past, it might have been sufficient to measure trial volumes, purchase volumes, repeat purchase behavior, referral volune or churn. In the past, it might have been useful to rly on "perception" measures such as interest, relevance, reputation, quality or value metrics, satisfaction scores or awareness.
These days, brands also have to contend with a tidal wave of ratings and reviews, formal and informal, generated across a huge range of channels, all day long, across huge and growing numbes of web channels.
In a June 8, 2009 article from Marketing Vox and Nielsen BuzzMetrics SES magazine Chris Aarons, Andru Edwards and Xavier Lanier argue that "25 percent of search results for the world’s Top 20 brands link to user generated content." See this.
"In 2010, more than 87 percent of the U.S. adult online population used social media to offer more than 256 billion influence impressions of products and services," says Stutzman.
Nor is volume the only issue. It is the velocity of potential word of mouth effects that also is a challenge. Opinions can move abruptly across the web. For that reason, Unilever uses YouGov's Brand Index to monitor eight measures of brand equity on a daily basis.
For marketers more accustomed to national or quarterly measurement, that will come as a bit of a shock. But Unilever's approach makes sense in a world where consumer sentiment, measured by tweet streams, for example, can suddenly go negative or highly positive, fluctuating relatively wildly between quarterly or annual measurements.
The practical implications are that an annual or quarterly measurement frequency cannot react to suddenly-negative or suddenly-positive consumer sentiment. In either case, a brand wants to be able to respond.
Consider a sudden news event, such as a major product recall. If the product being recalled is a popular automobile, many consumers will assume the supplier will want to offer incentives for people to buy, in the wake of the negative news. They will want to "buy on the dip," in other words.
But a brand has to move quickly to sense the sentiment, in order to act, either to counteract negative sentiment and sales trends, or to reinforce positive sentiment.
Twitter is only part of a content marketing program, but a monitoring effort sometimes can lead to more effective content being produced.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Visa to Launch Digital Wallet
Visa plans to launch a "digital wallet" service in the United States and Canada, sometime in the fall of 2011.
Visa said the wallet and services platform will store Visa and non-Visa payments accounts including PayPal information and will support near field communications payments through Visa’s payWave application.
Visa said the wallet and services platform will store Visa and non-Visa payments accounts including PayPal information and will support near field communications payments through Visa’s payWave application.
The card network sees the wallet being used for e-commerce, mobile shopping, micropayments, social networks and personal payments. Notice the range of applications the service will embrace: digital wallet is more than "payment transaction."
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Google-Backed Corduro Launches Mobile Payments Service
Google-backed mobile payments startup Corduro launches this week with a combined mobile wallet/payments processor for Android and the iPhone.
Like Square, Corduro is primarily a way for merchants to take payments on mobile devices. In some cases, not all, it can be up to 30 percent cheaper for merchants to process a transaction using Corduro or Square, compared to taking a credit card payment.
Like Square, Corduro is primarily a way for merchants to take payments on mobile devices. In some cases, not all, it can be up to 30 percent cheaper for merchants to process a transaction using Corduro or Square, compared to taking a credit card payment.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
Roku Owners are "Cutting the Cord"
Some 15 percent to 20 percent of Roku owners are cancelling their cable or satellite services agreement and are relying solely on a broadband connection to get their television programming, says company VP Jim Funk.
If that trend holds, and if Roku adoption increases rapidly, that would be a big deal, indeed, as it would represent a rate of abandonment of multichannel video subscriptions that is virtually unprecedented.
The Roku box, which connects via WiFi or Ethernet to a television set, streams a variety of free and subscription channels.
If that trend holds, and if Roku adoption increases rapidly, that would be a big deal, indeed, as it would represent a rate of abandonment of multichannel video subscriptions that is virtually unprecedented.
The Roku box, which connects via WiFi or Ethernet to a television set, streams a variety of free and subscription channels.
Gary Kim was cited as a global "Power Mobile Influencer" by Forbes, ranked second in the world for coverage of the mobile business, and as a "top 10" telecom analyst. He is a member of Mensa, the international organization for people with IQs in the top two percent.
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