Here comes another bubble...

Here_Comes_Another_Bubble_-_The_Richter_Scales
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Is it really coming?

Via TYPO3 unleashed

Facebook vs. MySpace

I found interesting article on YahooNEWS about 2 biggest social media sites.

The most interesting part of the article is when they make a comparison of social media market with search-engine market:

"Is Facebook to MySpace as Google was to Yahoo?"

The growth of Facebook, in the last year, answers this question in positive way. The growth rate is telling us, that Facebook will soon be in the first social networking site on the planet.

And because of this huge number of users, he is becoming a target. And who will buy Facebook?

Will it be the IPO (Initial Public Offering) way? I think not. (Andrej is gonna be soooooo disappointed ;-) ).

I got a hunch ;-), that it will be one of the big players.

So who's the potential buyer?

As News Corp owns MySpace, they are not an option.

It will be one of the BIG 3: Yahoo, Google or Microsoft?

For Yahoo there are possibilities that they will acquire Bebo (so the Facebook is not an option for them) - but they would push themselves a few steps in front of Google (in terms of social networking) and they would keep the dominance on the photo market (as they already own the Flickr).

But my hunch goes more in the direction of Google or Microsoft.

I would put my vote on Google. Facebook is something what would make their portfolio almost complete. Till now they have acquired Youtube (this gave them the dominance in video) and Doubleclick (which gave them the link to the classical online advertising) - if we mention just two biggest acquisitions. But Google is missing the successful story in social networking sector (as their Orkut is not doing very well). And this is why is Google almost logical option.

But let's not forget Microsoft. They are also big enough to acquire Facebook. And they have already bought $240 million piece of the Facebook (via Businessweek).

One thing is sure: This will definitely be the biggest acquisition (estimation ranges from $3-$6 billion). Some are mentioning even higher figures.

As there are predictions that the acquisition will happen in 2008, we can say (again!!), that 2008 is really gonna be the year of the social media.

Google/OpenSocial

Want to know what Google's new standard - the OpenSocial - can bring to the social media?

Check this video, with David Glazer from Google/OpenSocial (interoperability between Bebo and Facebook).

Try this one too (incorporation of Flixter social movie review into Myspace using OpenSocial).

Via ZDNet

What will 2008 be about?

Last couple of years it was all about blogging. We can see that blogging is changing the nature of journalism. Bloggers became so powerful that even old-media started to cite them. The phenomena of citizen-journalism emerged. Bloggers even get the press credentials for various events (from political to commercial).

But through this year something else started to move and it is moving fast. We definitely can see it as a snowball effect.

What is the ball bringing?

Social Media. Social Networking Sites. Sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, LinkedIn, Hi5, Bebo, Orkut or Tagged. And many other (smaller ones) who fight for their share.

Social media are all over the press (in the old media and in the new media). This new services are getting a lot of publicity and attention.

As comScore revealed with it's study, there is a good reason for this huge attention. Figures which were revealed by comScore show that the ball is rolling (Facebook increased the total number of unique visitors, from Jun 2006 to Jun 2007, for 270%).

What is the answer to question from the subject of this post? You definitely know it by now.

Yes. Bingo.

2008 will be about the social media.

And we should go out-there and explore the functioning and engage, because we will need them.

Why? Sunny Smith from Spontana wrote in a comment, where some other statistics for social media was posted, that:

"the applications to marketing would be limitless - especially since these sites really lure folks into sharing all of their interests and preferences - movies, sports, and all of their vitals - age, location, education level. There will be a certain amount of falsification, but overall I think that the majority of people are truthful and genuine. The data from these sites have huge potential both in the aggregate, as well as the micro-level, for both mass media, and direct marketing - it's just a matter of time until the big business gets rolling!"

Let's roll!

Valleywag's 25 predictions for 2008

After I posted a ZDNet's threat list, I sensed a great desire, to find list of more positive predictions for 2008. Valleywag (Sillicon Valley's tech gossip rag as they sign themselves) posted this 25 predictions. Their direction is absolutely more positive & funny, something I was looking for. ;-)

Ten threat predictions for 2008 by Richard Stiennon from ZDNet

Richard Stiennon from ZDNet gave us a list of 10 predictions - a list of possible web threats in 2008:

1) Facebook widgets (misuse of Facebook applications)
2) Google's OpenSocial (new social networking site)
3) Salesforce.com (data loss)
4) China (their attacks on western governments and institutions)
5) Ex-Soviet states (weapons of cyber-extortionists)
6) Cyber crime (getting up close and personal)
7) Disruption of financial markets (by phishing attacks)
8) Storm Trojan
9) Use of DDos (by terrorist organizations)
10) Game console (network games can bring network attacks)

Via ZDNet.

We definitely need to be aware of possible threats.

But we are more interested in positive aspects of new technologies and therefore ask:

What are 10 web opportunities in 2008?

P.S.: Some points from Richards's list can definitely appear on opportunity list (as we would claim the positive/opportunity aspect of the point and not the negative/threat aspect). E.g.: Facebook.

How to handle growth?

Number of websites is increasing rapidly (much of the growth is in the recent period coming from blogging sites). Total number of sites had, according to Netcraft, increased for 0.7 million in November 2007 (reaching 7 billion).

Others may be claiming different figures - stating that Netcraft's figures are too low. Possible. We don't want to debate about the different methodological approaches. We just want to show that the web is growing. Non-stop. With every minute (when I will publish this post the we will again grow for one additional site). ;-)

So what are the options, the ways to handle and cope with such amount of data, which is coming from various sources: from personal websites, companies, news sites, blogs,...

One option for dealing with this information-overload is: SEARCH ENGINES. Yep! They handle this for us. We just querry and they offer us a solution. And we usually get what we were looking for.

It's always: Let's Google or I'll Google you (in some cases people even Google somebody before going on a date with him). ;-) Google as a strategic tool. ;-)

But this is today's state-of-mind of the search. What will be the future?

iJustine pointed to a fantastic & inspirational video of Jonathan Harris:





Jonathan demonstrates the features of two projects (one is We feel fine and the other is Universe). Both projects are visualization of web - drawn with the help of API & numerous "footprints" which are left behind by web-users.

The future of search & visualization of data, which exist online, will have to go into this direction. There is no other way!

P.S.: And the visualization of data is definitely more beautiful than the Google's result page. ;-)

Thanks iJustine.

Reason for Google's success...

In previous post we showed that Google is dominating the search engine market.

Reasons?

This video (via TED) can tell us.

Anja who will soon join the Google team in Dublin can get some company insight (Larry Page and Sergey Brin look pretty harmless; every-year-skiing-team-bulding looks quite fascinating) .

;-)

Bon vojage!

Google vs. other search engines

Thinking about Google usually drives your mind in the territory of monopoly. It generates videos like this one or puts into existence anti-Google-websites (Stasa found good example).

It's global success is proven monthly by all main web-research providers (comScore, Nielsen Online or Hitwise). Although results differ because of different research methods, all three research companies are showing Google as a dominant player in the search business (and trend shows that Google's share of search is increasing).

comScore qSearch 2.0 (via Marketingcharts) shows, that the following figures for September/October 2007:



Similar results can be seen form Nielsen Online MegaView Search (via Marketingcharts):



Findings of Hitwise (via Marketingcharts) for US show this:



There is no doubt, that Google is ruling the market. Mainly because of simplicity & relevancy.

But this monopoly-and-like-big-brother-company can also be an inspiration for the different kind of project: GWEI - Google will eat itself.

;-)

Bon Apetit!

Interactivity in advertising

We were discussing about interactivity in this post.

We stated that interactivity changes the relationship between author, text and audience.

Let's demonstrate this changed relationship with the TV ad for Mobitel, produced by advertising agency Publicis.

It is the latest ad for ITAK, named WTF!?

Publicis made the following commercial:




But where is the interactivity? None till this moment.

But here comes the turnaround.

When the campaign started the audience was asked to participate. With their own proposals for abbrevations which appear on tags.

Author gave the possibility to the audience to change the text.

Audience became the author. Interactivity? For sure.

And the result looks like this (and it is called DIY commercial):




GR8! ;-)

Do you talk internet?

DRAFTFCB about Second Life

SecondLife is a buzzword. Many of the companies decided to go into SL. After Simobil-Vodafone (Slovenian mobile operator) entered the SL they gained a lot of PR in classical media (PRINT, TV) and online (blogs). But the Simobil world in SL is more or less empty. No avatars come to visit (despite the feature that SL world enables - sending SMS into the real world for free; it looks this is not something which users would have for benefit which is big/good enough). What should Simobil offer to slovenian avtars (and slovenian mobile users) - to make his SL presence a success? Any idea?

This reason (an some others) forced companies to leave the SL. Of course - why would we be in the SL if it doesnt bring no significant (positive) impact on our revenue. But, various community media (SecondLife, Facebook, MySpace,...) are in my opinion important channels for different business units in the contemporary society and this is why we need to test this environments.

I hope that it will not prevail the view of the advertising agency DRAFTFCB expressed with this video:



But I must add, that probably anyone who went into SL knows, what DRAFTFCB is talking about. ;-D

Gauntlett or Silver?

Gauntlett or Silver? Who is more right? Who can tell the truth and nothing but the truth?

The difference of approaching the filed of web studies of two authors is significant. We can say this firmly if we compare only the introduction of both books (Gauntlett’s Web.Studies 2nd ed. and Silver’s Critical Cyberculture Studies). Different approach and different focus gives the different result. And how the approach, focus and result differes? We can say that the main difference is the following:

For Silver we can say that he is more theory-oriented, and for Gauntlett that he is more practice-oriented. If Looking through the glass of Williams‘s dichotomy high culture / popular culture, we can state that Silver represents high (web)culture and for Gauntlett that he represents the popular (web) culture. Before making the analysis we can finally stress that Silver offers more bird’s-eye view theory and Gauntlett more forg’s-eye view theory.

Silver is more interested in how internet studies are developing as an academic filed (showing the development with the help of Beaubine’s, Hogan’s and George’s four stage model). He is making the up-to-date overview of authours, literature, journals and academic centers. After elaborating the „academic“ perspecitive of the filed he highlights three cruical elmenets of the filed (historical contexts, social contexts and cultural difference). As Silver‘s focus are web studies as the the new discipline he structures his book into four sections: I) Fielding the filed, II) Critical approaches and methods, III) Cultural difference in/and cyberculture and IV) Critical histories of the recent pasts. Main effort of his book is making the overview of the field, making the basis on which others who come behind him can build and re-build.

On the other side Gauntlett shows himself as more practice-oriented scholar. As the one who analyses the popular forms of cyber culture. All his findings, of course, have the relation to the theoretical background, but because his focus is practical, he makes his intruduction to the filed differently. He drives us through different phenomena of cyberculture: internet, www, HTML, ASP, Flash, Google, Amazon, blogs, Wired…As he builds his book on the basis of practical happening in cyberculture, he structures his book very differently as Silver: I) Introduction, II) Web life, identities, arts and Culture, III) Web business, economics and capitalism and IV) Global web communities, politics and protest. In realtion to this structure he finds the following issues important: expression, communities, anonymity, identity, web-business and influence of web on politics and international relations.

If we answer the question from the title: Gauntlett or Silver? Pracatice or Theory? Both, because this is the only way to paint the truth and find out the true eseence of different aspects of modern networked society. Both because, they are the just the different side of the same coin.

References

• Silver, D. 2006. Critical Cyberculture Studies, Chapter: Introduction-Where is Internet Studies?, 1-14, New York: New York University Press. Available at: http://www.nyupress.org/webchapters/0814740235intro.pdf

• Gauntlett, D. 2004. Web.Studies, 2nd ed., Chapter: Introduction. Available at: http://www.newmediastudies.com/intro2004p.htm

Interactive or not interactive this is now the question?

Starting with famous Shakespear’s question from Hamlet, transformed into paraphrase, is indeed the right starting point. Are the new media interactive? Do they bring revolutionary tool to the contemporary society? Is interactivity just a myth or reality?

Interactivity as word, should be clearly defined otherwise we can stand on the stage where this word can mean just another cliché. Analysis of interactivity must be contextualized, otherwise the concept can become, as Manovich (2001:70) said, „too broad to be trully useful“.

The concept of interactivity is definitelly not a concept, which would come into play with new media. It is a concept which exists in our world from the ancient times (imagine Greek amphiteatre) and gets replicated in every new medium. And „new media“, which are based on the computer technology, are of course no exception. They are interactive per se. As Manovich (2001: 71) put it, is on this level „the concept of interactivity a tautology. Modern human-computer interface (HCI) is by its very definition interactive“.

Replications of interactivity are driven by specific reasons: avant-garde teatre as a way to break with traditional teatre forms (artistic reasons of the artist); interactivity in TV show Big brother as a way to attract the audience (economic reasons of the TV station).

In every medium is interactivity changing the relationship between the author, text and audience. For instance: without voting component is Big brother, just another show. The TV station would have no reason to call it „interactive TV show“. Author of the text is still the TV station, but with voting feature is audience becoming co-author (as they can influence text dynamics).

Change of relationship can be traced also in the case of indymedia.com (independent internet media): audience is becoming the author. With this kind of changes are traditional media loosing the position of being the only legitimate author. In this manner, we can see that bloggers, which was an audience before (and still is), are becoming authors. And not just any authors, but are becoming so important that they receive the press-acreditations, they receive the press-release materials and get quoted by traditional media.

Let us conclude with another example of how modern technologies are changing the relation between author, text and audience: mobile technologies don’t just serve it’s primary function – giving the ability to talk. Mobile phone users can become movie producers (competing with tradicional production studios). In some cases they can become the ultimate source of photo/video material for traditional media (as BBC used photos and video material when reporting about terrorist attacks on London underground). Audiences in traditional sense are becoming authors as understood in traditional way.

References

• Cover, R. 2006. Audience inter/active: Interactive media, narrative control and reconceiving audience history. New Media Society. Vol8(1): 139-158.
• Manovich, L. 2001. The Language of New Media. MIT Press.

Photosynth demo

I warmly recommend watching the video. Inspiring presentation of Photosynth - a tool which enables producing new pictures from pictures which exist on the web in various picture sharing communities (like Flickr).



Via TED & Youtube

Futuristic view on society

Check this futuristic view, how things will evolve in the future.




The second interesting video is this one. It talks about the same theme, but from a slightly different perspective.