TechAddress

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

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

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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Qoof Goes All-in-One With Video Retail. Outta the Way, QVC.

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:32:12 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Qoof, a company specializing in video-enhanced commerce for retailers on the Web, à la HSN or QVC, is expanding on its toolset this week to include what it regards as an “all-in-one” platform showcasing products in detail surpassing that made possible with a smaller application the company introduced earlier this year.

Furthermore, Qoof is able to distribute retailers’ content through ad networks and to sites like Facebook, MySpace, and iGoogle, along with video integration within an existing storefront. A site uniquely designed for a retailer’s video offerings can also be created. The company plans to move into the mobile realm in the early months of 2009.

Having toured a sample implementation of the new system, it definitely becomes clear to what extent a Qoof client can serve a retailer’s needs. Some items may benefit from such exposure. Others less so. But there are really plenty of areas in which the platform could prove useful. Jewelry sales, as was shown when we first featured the company in July, is prime for such a reveal, as you can see in the example here.

Whether the design of the application is fitting for use in numerous places, it’s hard to say. If a seller intends for the device to have a central purpose to the customer’s experience, it’ll likely work quite well. Front page placement might be ideal, too. The inclusion of a product browser and detail panel allows it to serve as a hub of activity.

Again, much depends on what it is a retailer opts to do with its wares insofar as video production. But I imagine there’ll be a place reserved for the application in a good number of interesting settings. So far, Buy.com, Ice.com, Knot, and Gaiam are said to be signed on for the launch. The revenue model for Qoof being employed is one of pay-per-performance.

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HipLogic Slaps a Phonetop on Top of Your Mobile OS

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:34:34 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Wigix is an online marketplace with an interesting business model - it doesn’t charge buyers or sellers for items listed under $25, and starts charging different fees above that, depending on the price. Today the service has a new feature out called Storefronts. It enables both buyers and sellers to create their own customized online shops with their own branding.

James Chong, CEO and Co-Founder of Wigix, puts it this way: “With the launch of Storefronts we are providing professional sellers with the simplest way to list multiple products and create a customized online retail experience. Through our affiliates program, consumers can now make money in multiple ways, even just by recommending products or cross-linking with our site.”

Storefronts’ features include Shelves and Smart Shelves, which make it easy for Storefronts owners to build their store inventory, categorize it and track sales. One of the ideas behind Storefronts is lack of distractions; buyers are kept within a specific Storefront and they’re not bombarded with other Storefronts or similar products while they’re in it.

Storefronts also enable users to customize their shops with various color schemes, banners and messages, automated stock notifications, accounting reports, tracking order history etc. With all these features, Storefronts are a very solid offering for anyone who needs a Web shop but doesn’t want to go through the hassle of setting one up on their own.

Besides this announcement, Wigix also has a new, three-tiered affiliate program, open to any Wigix user with a website that can link back to the Wigix homepage. Users earn income based on revenue provided to Wigix through advertising as well as completed transactions.

Source:Mashable!

HipLogic used to be called Numobiq when they took $4.5 million in funding from Benchmark Capital to develop a system that makes smart phones even smarter.

Now, they have a new name and their software is ready for the world. It’s based on a custom development platform called mobiJAX, which is based on JavaScript and XML, and is compatible with Web/WAP, Web services, J2ME, as well as native applications. It acts as a platform on top of any mobile OS, on phones from manufacturers including Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and others. At today’s Mobile Internet World Conference, they’ll give a first public demonstration and release the software development kit free of charge to developers.

At HipLogic they call their concept phonetop. The idea behind it is to make it easier to find content you regularly access; you can put such content on your phonetop, and HipLogic’s “smart-pull” technology will update and present it in such a way that it’s always available to you.

While it’s hard to judge the technology without trying it out, what’s presented in the demo doesn’t really seem to surpass what the iPhone can already do; even the rectangular layout of the icons looks similar. Yes, it’s nice to have customized weather, sport, and news feeds, but it would have made a lot more sense a couple of years ago when it was truly a daunting task to do all that, even on a smartphone. Today, you can set up similar shortcuts to customized feeds and services on the iPhone. Furthermore, its fantastic OS pretty much kicked all other phone manufacturers in the behind, and now they’re catching up fast.

See the video presentation of HipLogic software (with a truly cinematic voiceover) below.

Welcome to HipLogic from HipLogic Inc. on Vimeo.

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Facebook Providing More Detailed Stats for Application Behavior

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:30:47 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Mashable is rocking the U.S. SummerMash Tour in New York City for our final stop on the tour. We’re at Touch and are ready to party with a crowd of 600 tonight. We have some exciting things in store and you won’t want to miss out. We’re also joined by our sponsors, Sun Startup Essentials, Yoono, mySites, MoneyStrands, Kickapps, ffwd and special friends Social Radi.us and Stickam.

Can’t make the event? No problem. Check out the live stream from exclusive video partner Stickam (after the jump). They’re conducting interviews throughout the night and reporting on the happenings at the event.

Want to join us on tour? Check out the other upcoming stops on the U.S. Summer Tour:Boston | New York City

Source:Mashable!

Facebook’s new profile design and initiatives for developers promoting their apps within the improved Facebook navigation has led to none other than more tweaks on Facebook’s part. In this never-ending journey of improvement, Facebook is going to offer a new option for developers that displays their application’s metrics. This is being offered in direct response to th developer community, which is seeking better ways to understand their application’s performance.

The new section for developers will be a new Features tab in the Insights area of your application, which will show additional user stats pertaining to specific features within Facebook. Total counts for actions like canvas page views, clicks on profile boxes, confirmation on Feed forms, and the adding and removing of bookmarks lets developers gain more perspective on the activity occurring around their application. Better trend analysis allows developers to better their apps for future releases, and truly leverage the Facebook platform. The additional stats also allow Facebook to further differentiate its platform from other networks’ platform offerings, in hopes of providing a better experience for both the developers and the users.

Such a desire for additional information on the developers part isn’t entirely surprising, however, as Facebook spent the better part of the last 12 months rolling out new regulations for developer apps in an effort to curb any negative affects that could result developers taking advantage of the marketing capabilities of Facebook’s platform. As Facebook has also instituted some very stringent programs that encourage “well-behaved” apps in addition to more subtle incentives set up throughout the platform, it’s increasingly clear that Facebook needs to ensure a controlled environment for applications and user experience.

So with all these modifications that have taken place over the past year, the developers that have apps on Facebook’s platform are certain to want to know more about their performance, especially as there have been cases of apps being disabled for what seems to be no apparent reason.

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New Issuu Platform Raises the Bar for Creating Beautiful Publications

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:32:34 +0000

Source:Mashable!

AdCamo, the service for advertising in the background of web pages, is re-launching today as a platform for web sites and ad networks that want to offer the format to their clients. For publishers, this means if you want to sell background advertising, you can use AdCamo to manage campaigns and serve inventory. For ad networks and agencies, there is an API so the AdCamo platform can be integrated into your own systems and software.

The backbone of this strategy is something that AdCamo calls the Platform Management Interface, which features many of the same tools you’d expect in an ad platform, but designed specifically for the background ad format. You can create new campaigns, track impressions and clicks, and view details on a unique metric for the format called Time Before Click (TBC) that lets you see how long it takes someone to click on the background ad.

Of course, the big question about background ads is whether or not websites will adopt them because of the obvious aesthetic issue. As I noted in my earlier review of AdCamo, the format is often used by MySpace, but hasn’t seen massive adoption by the small-to-midsize publishers that AdCamo would seem to be targeting with its new strategy. To try and address this, AdCamo is offering 3 different ad formats that publishers can use: Tiled, Projection, and Pillar.

And, these formats actually seem pretty flexible. While the “Tiled” format (the same image repeated over and over) is perhaps a bit obnoxious, Projection and Pillar are neat because the background isn’t actually a glaring ad, but rather imagery that compliments traditional banner advertising placed elsewhere on the page. My favorite is this sample coffee ad, where the background is coffee beans, with a banner ad for them in the middle of the page:

In short, if background advertising takes off, AdCamo is well positioned to be the platform for managing it. Becoming a platform as opposed to an ad network is a smart strategy for driving adoption, as it means the company can focus on the technology while allowing firms with existing clients to do the selling. Will publishers bite? As always, it comes down to whether or not advertisers are willing to spend enough on the unproven ad format to make publishers sacrifice the aesthetics of a clean web page background. For its part, AdCamo says that it already has several large publishers using the service and ad agency alliances locked up, but declined to cite any names at this point.

Source:Mashable!

Facebook may be the de facto leader in the United States, but in Japan (and other areas across the globe) it has some significant work to do if it wants to catch up to the local social network flavors.

But according to comScore, it’s doing just that. Over the past year, Facebook’s growth has tripled and it’s quickly gaining ground on Japan’s top social network, Mixi.JP. In fact, Facebook grew an astounding 213 percent over the past year, while Mixi grew by just 3 percent and MySpace inched forward just 10 percent.

That said, Facebook is still way behind Mixi and other social networks in Japan. During the last year, 12 million visitors used Mixi, while just 172,000 visited Facebook.

Regardless, Facebook’s astounding growth in Japan and other places across the globe underscore an interesting development in the company’s next phase of growth: for quite a while, it was a US social network, but as it continues to improve its services and use its localization efforts, it’s quickly realizing that Facebook will appeal to people all over the globe.

And in the process, I wonder if Facebook can be the first major social network to break out of the walled-garden mentality that has developed in the space and become the leading social network both domestically and abroad.

As it stands, MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, Mixi, and countless other social networks reign supreme in certain countries throughout the world. But as Facebook’s popularity grows all over the world – it currently does best in the US, Canada, and South Africa – it’s slowly but surely bucking that trend.

For years, we’ve listened to countless social networks claim that they have what it takes to be the world’s supreme social network that people from anywhere would love and enjoy. But so far, not one company has been able to deliver.

But as we consider the growth Facebook is enjoying and delve a bit deeper into its performance across the globe, we quickly find that its localization service has worked extremely well and it’s quickly becoming a major player in many of the major foreign markets. That doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily going to control those markets and it doesn’t even mean that it will win out. But it does mean that Facebook is the first social network in recent memory to fully grasp a presence in more countries than its own.

And that, for sure, is an important first step in taking a more global role.

Source:Mashable!

Issuu has released a new publishing platform that could very well change the rules of the game when it comes to creating online publications. The platform is a place where developers, designers and companies can work together in collaboration to customize their Issuu distributed publications such as magazines, newsletters, etc.

New Tools

They will also release the documentation for their IML (Issuu Markup Language) which will be used to control the viewer’s theme. The custom themes or skins are hosted on your own website (you just point to that location in the URL), so basically anyone who knows how to upload a file to a Web server can use it. This means that hardcore developers and designers will have the ability to create all kinds of new things for the Issuu viewer. More details on using their full API will be coming soon too.

Customization Crazy

Besides changing the theme, you will also be able to customize your publications even further by adding your own logo, background, buttons, and other elements.

To Flash or Not to Flash

Issuu provides two radically different ways to customize the viewer. You can either use the industry standard Adobe Flash or any image editing software that you prefer. This is a smart move on their part because the last thing you want to do is limit the options that you provide your users. It would’ve been detrimental to cram just a Flash option down everyone’s throats. It’s also an Iphone friendly decision.

Recent Improvements

Before releasing the new Platform, Issuu was wise enough to resolve their existing technical issuus ..er…issues. They fixed several problems and improved their service by listening to their core users.

Here’s what they took care of last week:

Presentation mode

Combined with their full-screen mode it now provides a rich choice of presentation modes. It can be a handy backup when presenting and getting feedback for listeners. It’s also ideal for photo-presentations.

Paper mode

This is an innovative online PDF reader that works entirely without Flash. Built with the Ajax framework, this viewer will replace swf content with jpegs, if Flash isn’t installed. Obviously, this was created with iPhone users in mind.

Closer means faster

The most important improvement has been performance, always the biggest complaint for any online service. Issuu accomplished this by serving files from a server that is geographically closer to the user.

Other important features

Issuu provides some key features to keep in mind such as crisp vector graphics, true full-screen mode, three zoom modes: Free move, Hand tool, Read mode and strong Google indexing.

Mashable View

Here’s a sample publication created on the new Issuu platform for a Mashable article. Notice the slick new look and feel. Everything is extremely customizable and easy to change.

Get your own - Open publication

Conclusion

While all of this coolness comes free at this time, there will be a Pro version somewhere down the road which will offer many more bells and whistles. This premium edition will provide businesses with the tools needed in order to produce and distribute proprietary content in a more secure and professional manner. In the mean time, anyone can start taking advantage of a free publishing tool that used to cost an arm and leg.

The online publishing space is a hot arena these days with players like Scribd, Yudu, DocStoc and others. The Issuu Platform will definitely raise the bar.

Issuu company profile provided by TradeVibes

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iWidgets: Promote Your Website Through Fun, Viral Widgets

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:57:03 +0000

Source:Mashable!
Twhirl and Seesmic owner Loic LeMeur announced this afternoon, as reported by CenterNetwork’s Allen Stern, that Twhirl would now be supporting Seesmic video embeds within the most popular Twitter and FriendFeed client on the web. The download is in somewhat of a limited test mode now, and only available from this download link.
Presently, the extent […]

Source:Mashable!
Promoting websites can be a difficult task. Unless you are internet famous or a social media expert, it takes a bit of marketing strategy to get your name and brand out there. There are a number of methods that you can use to advertise your website, among them creating a widget.
This morning the leading provider […]

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OneSpot Launches Publishing-as-a-Service Platform. What’s That?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:36:00 +0000

Source:Mashable!
OneSpot is a new content aggregation and redistribution system that is hoping to change the way in which web media is published. For site owners looking to provide more relevant content on their sites for their audiences, OneSpot doesn’t just collect the potential media and throw it at the site owners–it searches the web […]

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