Mobile phones are sensors. Today that is true mostly for location apps. In the future, there will be other ways to use the sensor functions, Forrester Research believes.
"When a phone knows where you are, what you're doing, your identity and history, and even potentially your attitudes, based on what you've done in the past year and the past five minutes, it can help predict and deliver what you want right now," says Josh Bernoff, Forrester Research analyst. "This is the context that makes mobile devices more intimate and completely different from traditional Web experiences."
Google might be just weeks away from unveiling an advertising data exchange that would create a liquid market for the data used to target display advertising, Ad Age reports. Executives familiar with Google's plans have described the initiative as one of the most ambitious in Google's march to become a brand advertising giant.
Under the plan, publishers and third-party providers would be able to feed their data into the market and advertisers could dip in and buy audience segments, such as people shopping for refrigerators, planning a trip, or demographic or psychographic segments.
The scale of the initiative, and the fact that it will contain Google's own data, plus online and offline data from third parties will provide both unprecedented richness of targeting data and represent a competitive threat to other would-be providers of such services.
Online publishers using Google's DoubleClick would be able to sell data on their audiences in the exchange as easily as they might sell ad space.
Google might have chosen some other path, if it had more display inventory to sell. But, faced with a limited ability to sell avails on its own properties, Google apparently has decided it would fare better as a provider of targeting data.
One debate internally has been over whether to charge a percentage to use the service, as it does with Invite Media (which charges advertisers for services) and DoubleClick (which charges publishers), or make it free to use so Google would reap the benefits of more effective ad campaigns, and presumably, more spending.
Google+ apparently supports use of near field communications, and it appears that some applications using the feature are under development. "Google Check-ins" is a feature of the "Stream" feature of Google+, for example.
Users then might be able to "check in" using NFC, creating an automatic post directly to their stream on Google+, also limiting its visibility by Circle category (groups). A user might want "friends" to see the check in, but not business associates or other family members or more-casual acquaintances. Read more here.
Business pages, the Google equivalent to Facebook Pages, have also been promised in Google Plus, says Mike Blumenthal, Google VP of Local and Commerce. It also might make sense to use NFC support for Business pages as well, essentially replacing the function of a quick response code, for example. Retailers will have to think about this, though.
It means putting NFC access points at the entrances to stores, or at other locations. The check in function could be handled at an NFC point of sale terminal as the customer leaves, but that doesn't create value while the customer is in the store, still shopping.
There are at least two different ways to look at NFC-supported social apps, from a retailer point of view. There is the indirect value of a check in as well as the direct value of stimulating incremental purchases while the customer is on the premises. There also is the possible value of an NFC-based payment capability, though even there, many of us would argue that the greater upside is the marketing platform created by NFC, not the actual payment.
After analyzing data from the "Technorati Top 100" websites and their RSS feeds, plus the 20 most-recent blog posts (both before and after Google+ was announced), it appears market share has changed.
Across the board, more of the top sites are using Google +1 buttons (similar to the Facebook "Like" button).
The amount of shared content on Facebook has fallen, since Google+ was launched, the analysis suggests. There also is less use of Facebook sources after Google+ launched. One might suggest the data shows people are sharing on Google+ and using Google +1 more than they did before the Google+ launch.
More people will getting access to the Internet using mobile devices than desktop devices by 2014 or 2015. And there is a bigger implication than simply the difference between fixed and mobile or un-tethered access.
The mobile Web user increasingly is using the "social" part of the Web, and social applications, compared to desktop access and applications. Increasingly, mobile will mean "social."
Ancestry.com founder and "serial entrepreneur" Paul Allen estimates there are around 4.7 million Google+ users in the United States. That number is up from 1.7 million he calculated earlier in the first week of July 2011.
An analysis of the front pages of the Web’s 10,000 largest sites shows a 33 percent spike in placement of the new Google +1 button in just the last few weeks, says BrightEdge.
The report shows that Facebook still enjoys a two-to-one lead in plug-in placement on these large sites over competing social networks. Nevertheless, the majority of brands today are still missing out on the massive traffic and engagement driver Facebook has become, as links to Facebook pages still appear on the front page of less than half of the web’s largest websites.
BrightEdge's new "SocialShare Site Analysis" found overall that Facebook is still the preferred social media platform for larger companies, with more than 47 percent of sites linking to the network.
Following just behind Facebook however, is integration of Twitter into site homepages, which was seen in 42 percent of sites measured. Overall the analysis points to a still much untapped opportunity for social platforms even on sites operated by some of the most sophisticated marketers and executives in the world.
The thing about the "mobile payments" ecosystem is that it represents a "convergence" of formerly-separate industries and businesses. Mobile payments, mobile wallet, mobile location services, promotion, advertising, marketing, commerce and money transfers now are becoming parts of one larger business. Read more.
From a demand-side stand point, emerging markets have a unique characteristic, the ubiquitous use of cash for most everyday transactions, say Alberto Jimenez, IBM mobile payment leader, and Prasanna Vanguri, IBM consultant. Cash has well-documented and understood weaknesses that allow mobile payments providers to offer a compelling value proposition to end-users.
In developed markets and high-income segments in emerging markets, the circumstances for both providers and end-users are completely different. Most end-users already have efficient payments instruments that are widely accepted and appear to present no pain points.
“For developed markets, we believe that the initial adoption drivers will fall into two categories, (1) Direct savings and (2) Improved experiences,” they say. “Furthermore, we believe that only in specific segments will Improved experiences act as a true adoption driver and that the majority of ecosystems will be initially driven by direct savings.”
There is currently a large, unfulfilled role within the developed markets mobile payments and commerce ecosystem: the role of an aggregator. An aggregator would provide a single place where multiple payment instruments can be accessed quickly, simply, and effectively, and where discounts, deals, and awards appear contextually and automatically.
Less than three months after Starbucks introduced a way for customers to pay for grande lattes using their mobile phones, the Starbucks Card Mobile app has been used by more than 3 million people, the company recently announced.
Starbucks Vice President Brady Brewer later called it 'the nation's largest mobile payment network,' according to a report from Mashable and USA Today. Starbucks rolled out the app on Jan. 19, 2011. It can be used in all of its 6,800 company-owned stores in the United States, plus another 1,000 locations inside Target retail centers.
LivingSocial, the social shopping business, is seeking to raise about $1 billion from an initial public offering, valuing the Web firm at between $10 billion and $15 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The company has chosen three banks—Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.—as the lead underwriters for the IPO.
One Facebook developer says Google+ represents an end to the Facebook monopoly. "If Google is able to build a user-base similar in size to Facebook and they offer strong or stronger viral channels, I would be happy to build Google viral functionality into apps," says Chris at Momentus Media.
The other potential advantage is the ability to create a channel for niche content. Facebook tends to be better at highly-popular content, less good at fostering content and communities based on niche interests, which is 99 percent of all content, some might argue.
Even products that are highly personal, such as a drummer's cymbal, can be sold online if social media, audio and video are used properly, the experience of the Memphis Drum Shop suggests. The issue with cymbals is the sound, which historically has been difficult to capture except inside a physical store.
The Memphis Drum Shop has a dedicated YouTube channel that demonstrates the sound various cymbals make. The videos let drummers hear a “virtual test” of what the cymbal will sound like. The channel has been up for a little over four years, and has amassed over 20 million views. Of course, from a marketing perspective, the big implication is that, by providing a way for prospects to test the product remotely, Memphis Drum Shop can sell globally, without the requirement for a physical visit to the store.
A study suggests 37 percent of Facebook users and 44 percent of Twitter users connect with brands using social media to stay in the loop on special offers. About 70 percent said they had used social media to participate in a contest or sweepstakes.
That means social media users are looking for deals and will likely register for contests (or other things) in order to do so.
Mobile phones are sensors. Today that is true mostly for location apps. In the future, there will be other ways to use the sensor functions, Forrester Research believes.
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