TechAddress

Platform Reloaded: Facebook Launches Application Verification Program

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:32:33 +0000

If your Facebook application has vanished off the face of the earth (or at least from users’ news feeds) since the redesign, the social network has just launched a new program to help you get your swagger back. The Application Verification Program, announced earlier this year at the Facebook developer conference, is now live, allowing developers to submit their applications for review.

Applications meeting Facebook’s standards will be marked with a verification badge, and more importantly, “users will see more information from verified applications as we increase their allocations for communication channels such as requests and notifications, and increase visibility of their stories in News Feed.” Those are of course the same viral channels that helped many applications grow rapidly when the platform first launched, but also caused users to feel the platform was spammy as opportunistic developers bombarded them with requests.

So what does it take to get your application verified? Facebook has published 10 “Guiding Principles,” with the central themes being that apps should be “Meaningful,” “Trustworthy,” and “Well-Designed.” It also takes $375 – the application fee that Facebook is charging to developers seeking to get their apps verified. Facebook will begin granting apps the benefits of Verified status early next year.

Essentially, coupled with the current fbFund finalists, Facebook is resurrecting the platform, which has been largely hidden to passive users (folks who ignore the apps completely) since the social network rolled out its redesign. It’s all been very methodical – first, bury the applications under a special tab on user profiles, then, dole out funding to the best app developers, and finally, offer everyone else a way to get their apps back in the game. Ultimately, it might get Facebook where they want to be – a platform offering several hundred high quality apps, as opposed to tens of thousands of useless ones.

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Offer Your Mobile Apps as Shareware Using Mogees

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:30:57 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Founded by two early PayPal employees, Mogees is looking to be a middleman between mobile application developers and the app stores being offered by Apple, Google, and BlackBerry. While it might seem like a middleman isn’t needed here, the idea is to facilitate payment options that the app stores are not yet offering – like free trials.

Is this enough of a value-add to lure developers to give up a few extra percentage points in transaction costs on app sales? Maybe. On the Web, free trials have proven to be an effective way to get paid subscribers (see Typepad for a great example).

Mogees also provides a lot of flexibility, allowing you to offer trials that are based either on a certain number of days or a specific level of usage. Once a trial expires, Mogees will then prompt the user to pay either by credit card or PayPal, from the device. Mogees also provides tracking and stats so you can measure how your various offers are performing.

Of course, the potential problem that Mogees could run into is the app stores offering their developers similar functionality. Already, some applications are offering both a free and paid version, like the PhotoArtist app we reviewed last week. That said, if Mogees is able to prove itself as a way to improve conversions of free users into paid users, it could be an attractive option for managing payments across all platforms, all under one roof.

For the moment, Mogees only has a payment SDK available for Android, but expects to launch SDKs for iPhone and BlackBerry soon. The company is waving the first $1 million in transaction fees for the first 1,000 developers who sign up, while standard fees will be 10% of an application’s cost plus a $0.30 flat fee.

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BT and Ribbit Launch Platform for Building Web-Based VoIP Apps

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:35:36 +0000

Source:Mashable!

The explosion of Flash content like widgets has created several complex problems, like how to index it in search engines, how to make it work on mobile, and how to track it. The latter is being addressed today at Adobe Max, where Google is announcing Analytics Tracking for Flash, which will let publishers track metrics for their flash applications from within Google’s popular stats package.

Aside from the unique file format, one of the major differences between tracking Flash and tracking webpages is that Flash can be embedded anywhere – meaning that analytics software needs to be able to measure interactions from not just a single location, but from within an application, regardless of where it’s placed.

To demonstrate how Google Analytics now does this, the company has teamed up with web-based Flash creation tool Sprout. Now, users who publish widgets and other Flash apps using Sprout can track metrics such as time spent, what links and objects users click within an app, and goal tracking – all from within the same Google Analytics account as their website.

Google and Sprout demonstrate how this works in the video below:

While Analytics for Flash is an interesting breakthrough in its own right, it also could be the dawn of a new era in marketing and how companies pay for advertising. As opposed to paying simply for clicks and for views, advertisers can now (in theory) pay for actual engagement, because it can be accurately measured.

Sprout is currently charging clients based on a “pay per publish model,” meaning the client pays each time someone actually does something with an app – like customize it (with Sprout’s “remix” feature) or republish it to a social networking profile. Sprout is marketing this new approach through a product they are calling SproutMixer.

Although most of the widget platforms like Clearspring and Gigya offer their own tracking solutions, Google Analytics adding its own support for Flash tracking is a big deal – it’s a solution that any Flash developer can implement into their applications – without the need for a middleman. As such, it could have significant implications on how online advertising is paid for, and how the widget companies evolve their business models.

Source:Mashable!

Sarah Evans is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also authors a PR and social media blog.

In my previous post I discussed how to build your Twitter community, offering 10 tips as a guide. Here are a few tips on what not to do:

(Make sure you know a few of the basic Twitter commands to understand the content of this post.)

Don’t get caught up in the COUNT; get caught up in the CONTENT!

My biggest pet peeve on Twitter is when people ask for more followers. I don’t think anyone has malicious intents, but it doesn’t make any sense to me. You get more followers because you provide great content, are entertaining or someone likes you.

It’s much worse to have someone follow you, not like what you tweet and then unfollow you. Chances are, you’ve lost them for good. Practice good Twitter etiquette and don’t solicit followers for yourself or your friends.

Don’t install the Twitter application on Facebook if you send more than 10 tweets per day

You will seriously start to confuse your network…or worse, annoy them. If you’re like me, my networks are separate. Not all of my Facebook friends are on Twitter, or plan to be. When I use “Twitter lingo” it confuses them.

I learned this lesson from a personal mistake. I did have a Twitter feed updating my Facebook account until a few very nice friends “encouraged” me to stop it (one was my sister!).

Don’t publicly thank each of your followers

The quickest way to get people to stop following you is to provide a lack of good content or engaging dialogue. Thanking each of your new followers is a nice concept, but not practical. Keep in mind that tweeting the names of those following you is not valuable content to anyone. If you set the precedence you’re going to thank each and every person, you better be prepared to keep it up.

If you really must thank each follower:

1. Use the direct message feature and send it privately.

2. Retweet good content they have posted and give them credit for it (the ultimate thank you!)

Don’t underestimate the power of tracking a trend

Be part of breaking the hottest Twitter topic or find out what’s going on and join the conversation. If you have information or news you’d like to track, use the hashtag. Use Twitter search to get your results.

Keep it short and sweet. The more you cut into the 140 characters, the less content you provide AND the less likely people will use it.

When to use a hashtag (#)?

• Taking notes at a conference (Ask everyone around you to do the same thing and then you’ll all have access to ALL notes)

• Promoting major events (i.e. conference, meeting, etc…)

• Tracking a message (see how far a reach you’re getting)

• Communicating during national and natural disasters (which is how the hashtag function began)

• Promoting a favorite (i.e. Web site, musician, writer, etc…)

• Launching a new product or idea

NOTE: You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.

Don’t use up your entire 140 characters with a lengthy URL

Use applications like TinyURL or Snipurl. They automatically shorten your URL and can offer link customization. Once you submit a tweet with a long URL, Twitter automatically converts it for you. It doesn’t help your cause “pre-tweet.” Make the most of your content and space by shortening the URL in advance.

Don’t worry about those who “unfollow” you

It’s like Pandora’s Box, if you REALLY want to know when someone unfollows you, applications like Qwitter are available. I warn you, if you decide to use this function—do not hold a grudge. Those who unfollow you on Twitter may want to connect with you on a different network, or search your info at their leisure. And, yes, sometimes it’s just not a “match.” It’s not personal.

I do use the application, and I only look for trends of people who unfollow after a certain tweet or trend (i.e. if I’ve sent too many tweets in a short amount of time).

Worry more about building the community you envision…it’s energy well spent.

Don’t be afraid of being a “polyconversationalist”

(You caught me. I made up this word. For the purpose of social networking, it means one who converses with multiple people simultaneously.)

You are now part of an asynchronous microblogging world, multiple conversations are a reality. The beauty of it is the expectation that you’ll reply as you have time. When you “find the time” you may find yourself replying to multiple responses at one time. Get used to it…it’s what Twitter is all about.

Don’t miss out on the face-to-face

Social networking is just the beginning. Many Twitter users host events to get out from behind the computer and get in front of one another. Find a local event or host your first Tweetup.

Score major cool points at your Tweetup:

• Supply name badges for people to wear. Have people write their Twitter IDs on them (@yourname). For a few extra bucks check out Tweetup Badges.

• Live tweet the event (don’t forget to use a hashtag to track tweets).

• Keep a sign in of all participants, including their Twitter IDs and a valid email address, then share the attendance list with everyone.

• Take lots of pictures and upload to Flickr.

Don’t forget about your safety if you are going to meet up

If you plan on meeting up with someone you’ve never met face-to-face, here are a few tips:

• Google them. Take a look at their online presence. Are they well connected across many networks? Have they been around for at least six months to a year?

• Shared connections. (There’s nothing wrong with asking about someone prior to a meet up. Check to see if you share any mutual connections.)

• Publicly tweet/message the name of the person(s) and location of your meeting across your social networks.

• Exchange phone numbers. Call the number to verify it belongs to that person. Then give the phone number and any other contact information you have about that person to your partner or a trusted friend.

• Meet in a group setting in a public location. (Don’t meet at your home!)

• If you’re meeting up with several people you’ve never met, verify that the others are coming.

• Drive yourself or get your own transportation to the meet up. (I know…I broke my own rule in my example.)

Most importantly, trust your gut. If a request to meet “doesn’t feel right,” don’t do it. There are several Internet safety resources out there. It can’t hurt to take a peek.

Sarah writes her own blog PRsarahevans.com and is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also worked for Advocate Health Care, the largest health care system in Illinois, as the manager of communications and government relations at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital. She brings a comprehensive background in the knowledge of non-for-profit and health care management. Her personal mission to engage and employ the use of emerging technologies in all communication makes her effective in reaching a dynamic audience.

Imagery courtesy of iStockPhoto, SchulteProductions,spxChrome

Source:Mashable!

What’s the easiest and cheapest way to launch a web-based VoIP solution? It might just be Ribbit and British Telecom’s new VoIP platform, which enables developers to create and deploy a web based VoIP application.

The platform, which has been undergoing beta testing for a year (BT acquired Ribbit four months ago), will be presented at Adobe MAX, together with a range of applications in areas such as social networking, marketing and business productivity. We’ve discussed the benefits of a web-based VoIP platform before; now developers will be further encouraged to build for the platform through Ribbit’s $100k “Killer App” contest that will award prizes for the most innovative Ribbit applications across five categories.

BT claims that this “has never been done before;” an important part of their solution is openness to everyone, even other carriers. Under the motto “Bring Your Own Network,” Ribbit’s platform enables other carriers to use the platform, design new apps, or generate revenue from the applications that currently exist for the platform. Whether or not other carriers be willing to take this opportunity remains to be seen.

Check out Ribbit’s presentation of the platform below:

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Google Analytics for Flash: Welcome to the Engagement Era

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:31:58 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Google and Sprout demonstrate how this works in the video below:

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Zenbe: Email Aggregation Socialized

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:39:45 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Zenbe, an email aggregator that dips its toes in social networking, adding a hefty number of features to your regular webmail experience to make it worthwhile, is now out of beta and available to everyone. The question is: is it enough to switch from Gmail or whichever webmail you’re using?

The problem with email is this: for many it’s old and inefficient, but everyone’s so used to it that it’s hard to change their daily email reading habits. At the end of the day, all the extra features that services such as Zenbe or one of its many competitors - Fuser, Orgoo, Jubii - may offer, can simply confuse you and make you go back to the way you read email before, without “connecting to your friends” or “sharing your emails with everyone you know.”

Zenbe, however, has gone so far integrating everything into its service that it’s no longer an email aggregator; in fact, email - although still being the central part of Zenbe - is just a tiny part of what Zenbe can do. The service can perhaps best be called a social networking hub, giving you access to various webmail services (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL), social networks (Twitter, Facebook), chat (GTalk) and several other features (calendar, task list). Other features include ZenPages (which enable you to share stuff with your friends), mobile accessibility, and previewing files from all of your emails in a single pane.

All of this is set inside a neat, tabbed interface that I could definitely get used to. It doesn’t all work perfectly, though. I haven’t been able to connect with my Facebook account from Zenbe, and Twitter also had some problems: Zenbe insisted that it was down while it was, in fact, chirping happily in Twitterland.

Minor bugs aside, Zenbe fares well compared to the competition; the real question is how good it’ll be at making people switch from their Gmail and Facebook and start using Zenbe on a regular basis. It’s hard to tell, but it’s a solid service which deserves to be given a try.

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Dear Company X: Fix YOU So You Can Fix Me, Please!

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:30:05 +0000

Source:Mashable!

As virtually anyone would agree, it’s fantastic when technology works when required. But if a new report published today is any indication, the matter of when things function properly is still something we’re forced to reckon with. Perhaps things could be better. Much better.

This is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, folks. No question about it.

It’s not necessarily downtime that’s the biggest concern, though that is in fact quite serious. Instead, it’s the customer service element which matters most, and if we take a look back on the last year or two, there’s still a way to go to reach resounding satisfaction.

Pay Attention, Executives! Get Yer Heads in the Game!

I think it’s safe to say we’ve all had encounters with corporate agents and representatives that have done little but waste time or produce no significant results for the better, whether they be from a cable company or ISP (those are frequently one and the same) or wireless carrier. The resolution process can be a painful one, to say the least.

Yes, there are improvements made. Companies like Comcast have found a relatively effective way to communicate with customers through Twitter, or through corporate blogs that address concerns with reasonable haste and without having to employ a massive army of phone call responders. But all too often these changes have been implemented after the proverbial profanity has hit the fan.

That isn’t to say companies should hire weathermen to preempt chaos on the customer end, but the sheer act of communicating through channels that the client would prefer their issues be addressed through could be a very valuable change for the better that too few businesses reach.

Take a look the latest tech troubleshooting figures from Pew Internet. There are two sets of data involved that are key:

How consumers seek/conduct tech support:

38% of users with failed technology contacted user support for help.

28% of technology users fixed the problem themselves.15% fixed the problem with help from friends or family.

15% of tech users were unable to fix their devices

2% found help online

Consumers’ attitudes about various forms of tech support:

72% felt confident that they were on the right track to solving the problem.

59% felt impatient to solve the problem because they had important uses for the broken technology.

48% felt discouraged with the amount of effort needed to fix the problem.

40% felt confused by the information that they were getting.

It should be said that these figures are establish on the premise that nearly half of technology in the hands of consumers doesn’t work properly at one point or another, either through user error or technical faults.

But look at the first segment. 28% of users fix problems themselves; 15% were unable to fix their devices; and 2% found help online.

Wounds That Needs Healing

In aggregate, that’s a pretty unfortunate reality. I imagine a good number of self-diagnoses and self-fixes are done because of disillusionment of traditional help channels. Still 15% of everyone involved with the survey were unable to get back to normal, and only 2% found help online. That last number needs massive improvement.

The second set of data is telling in that the issue of impatience came up in more than half of all instances when attitudes were questioned. And if you grab the four stats together in succession, the feelings were of confidence, impatience, discouragement, and confusion.

Not good. Not good at all.

Patients Outnumber Doctors

This tells me people aren’t getting the help they need. And that if they were given the appropriate resources and guidance by companies, the costumer service bogeyman would exist no longer. At least not to the extent that it exists today.

There are entities like Fixya that are clearly fighting the good fight in the FAQ/repair/troubleshooting world, and the website’s receipt of $6 million in funding earlier this year is definite indication of demand for such a forum. But more has to be done.

Heck, it’s 2008, and it can still require hours of time to accomplish things so menial as a billing problem or email access configuration. To quote a world-famous American politician: “We can do better … Yes, we can.”

Imagery provided by iStockPhoto/DNY59/Barisonal; TBO.com

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Bizroof CRM Throws Cash Managers a Bone

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:30:56 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Delicious remains the most recognisable name in social bookmarking, but does it serve niche markets as ably as specialized tools could? Boca Raton, Florida-based Dwellicious thinks not, and has created a “Delicious for real estate” that it hopes will entice home buyers and real estate agents alike.

Better Than Delicious?

The basics are unchanged: add a bookmarklet to your browser and click it when you see a real estate listing you like, anywhere on the web. Except that unlike generic bookmarking sites, Dwellicious is optimized to work with the following: Century21, Coldwellbanker, Frontdoor.com, Har.com, Homes.com, Realtor.com, Redfin, Remax, Rentals.com, Trulia, Yahoo Real Estate and Zillow. Unlike Delicious, Dwellicious knows where to grab the data from on these pages, and bookmarks all the relevant info with ease.

Here’s the smart bit: Dwellicious bookmarks are dynamic: updated whenever the price of a property changes, or new photos are added, or the property is taken off the market. Use cases might include sharing your favorite property picks with your spouse or real estate agent. And so yes, it’s “better than Delicious” within the real estate niche, but this benefit seems marginal.

Simple Business Model

Dwellicious is not only a simple idea, its planned business model takes little explanation either: the site plans to create Pro accounts for real estate agents, offering advanced tools to help their buyers.

Uncertain Future

It’s a simple, easily explained concept. And yet, the competitive advantage seems slim: unless you’re a real estate agent, generic social bookmarking may suffice…and if I did find a dream home at a bargain price, would I want to share that information or keep it to myself?

In truth, Dwellicious’ future likely lies with the real estate agents themselves: either as a tool to keep track of hundreds of properties at any moment, or as a service to their clients. Even so, the market gap here seems slim at best.

Dwellicious will launch on January 7th 2009 at the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference in New York City.

Further Resources

For more useful real estate tools on the web, see our following resource lists:

REAL ESTATE TOOLBOX: 65+ Real Estate Resources

20+ Tools to Survive the Real Estate Crisis

Source:Mashable!

The holiday season is fast approaching, and with it, hectic travels. This is the busiest time of the year when it comes to traveling, especially for families. Luckily, online and mobile tools help make the experience much more manageable.

From travel planning sites to navigation apps and services to help you keep track of your spending, here are over 20 resources to help you survive the holiday travel season.

Are you planning to travel? Which services have you found most helpful? Tell us more in the comments.

Planning Your Vacation

Disney - Has a useful site dedicated to families on the go. Believe it or not, they don’t just recommend that all families just go to Disneyland or Disney World! There are plenty of excellent suggestions for activities and sites to see.

Kaboose - Also provides a tremendous amount of ideas for family travel and vacationing. There’s a plethora of useful family friendly tips and suggestions such as the best family-friendly cars.

The Travel Channel - Has a special section just for family travel and vacations. There are many videos covering travel suggestions as well as message forums dedicated to families on the go.

Tripology - Like an online travel agent that works with the information you provide on the type of trip or vacation you want to take. They take the information and provide relevant suggestions for your upcoming journey.

TripoRama - A travel planning service specializing in group trips. Similar to other sites, this service can make suggestions and share useful information for any type of trip you want to experience with your loved ones.

For information on finding cheap flights, check out “30+ Tools for Finding Cheap Travel Accomodations.”

Navigating Your Way

Source:Mashable!

Like many entries in the world of SaaS, Bizroof, a company offering a steadily growing CRM package, practices the art of incremental improvement, a concept popularized by Google, et al., which takes a semi-experimentalist approach to product development.

This past July, for example, Bizroof had its official launch, and only a month later implemented support for Yahoo’s location-based service Fire Eagle. This week the company is introducing users to new cash-flow analysis and sales automation tools; a whopper of a bonus for managers seeking that all-in-one fantasy.

And users will be content to know that the money management options provided are similarly well-design as the previously standard set of software. Ease of use is the order of the day. If your cost analysis job isn’t so rigorous as to require some serious machinery, these extensions will likely suffice for the day-to-day.

Layout is straightforward and segmented into view options for reports new and old as well as edit fields for money brought in and money sent out. Really, if you have just a semblance of understanding about accounting, you’ll learn it in seconds; a few minutes at most. (Account owners can also change currency settings from US dollars to euros to pounds to yen.)

For Bizroof to deploy these things to the company’s stated membership of 3,800, regardless of their use of free or paid accounts, is quite a treat, too. Just know that a Basic plan will limit you to 20 cash flow reports per month, whereas the $120/year Pro level will grant you access to 5,000.

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