Opera 10.5

Opera recently updated its Web browser as it launched the version 10.5. The new browser claims to be “the fastest browser on Earth” available for the Windows operating system. Opera 10.5 uses a new JavaScript engine called Carakan and a new graphics library (Vega) with the pretentious aim of making the browsing faster than ever. It also includes private browsing options and improved standard support for HTML5 and CSS3.

Chrome beta 5.0

Google also updated its browser with the launch of Chrome 5.0. The new browser adds features such as integrated automatic translation and privacy features to make the Web faster, safer, and much easier.

Firefox 3.6

In January 2010, Mozilla released its last update: Firefox 3.6.  The new version is more than 20 % faster than Firefox 3.5 and includes new features like customizable browser themes, a ground-breaking Plugin updater, improved JavaScript performance, and so on.

Okay, so let’s analyze customer’s reactions and measure each browser’s success and acceptance now. We can obtain interesting data from the recent digital or “choice screen” ballot that has given users the opportunity to choose their favorite browser. The New York Times reported that with this method, over 50,000 people had downloaded Firefox. Opera’s downloads have increased threefold since the “choice screen” began to appear.

In summary, we can identify a tendency that leads to a constant browser update. Ten years ago, having such a big browser variety didn’t seem possible. Today, customers have a load number of options and possibilities. Browser innovation is leading towards a harder competition. For that reason, users should be always aware about the new features and tools to be able to choose the one that suits them better.

While many of us are hoping a surge of mobile users will adopt new phones such as the HTC EVO or even the new Nokia N8, many of us are crossing fingers the hype behind HTML5 and the posibility of HTML5 offering an open and free environment for web developers is worth the wait.  Apple’s lack of interest in allowing Flash to run in its devices has been frustrating, however Steve Jobs feels optimistic and many are impressed by what he introduced in the last couple of days. Steve Jobs mentioned recently iPhone and the new iPad will not carry Adobe’s Flash, it will be based on HTML 5, there will be NO CHANCE that Flash will ever run on iPhone!  Take a look at this video where Jobs discusses iAds and takes a shot at Adobe’s Flash.

Online ads are interactive but… they lack emotions. In contrast, television ads don’t have interactivity but they use images, video and proven marketing techniques to get the message across. iAds wants to find an equilibrium between online and television advertising. 

Google has added to the heated web discussions over the lack (or the NEED ) of Flash by releasing a Pac-Man 30th Anniversary landing page for it’s search engine.  The page runs on iPhone and iPad, it uses HTML5, and while it does not have sounds in iPhone (I assume related to HTML5 support) it runs, no Flash!  So maybe Google’s message behind this was, we can run HTML5 and screw you Apple if you don’t want to allow Flash?

Is Flash a threat to Apple’s App store?

Did you know that an average iPhone user spends about 30 minutes a day using apps? If you put an ad every three minutes you will have 10 ads per mobile device per day, add the daily sales of apps in the App Store, it’s a money maker. Well, in fact, there will be 100 million devices available in the Apple mobile community with iPhone OS.  Since Flash would allow for the Apple mobile community to skip the use of apps, does Apple consider it a threat or is their excuse about Flash being buggy valid?  Shouldn’t Apple let us deal with the bugs and make the decision?

iAds’ main goal: the apps keep you in the app.

Nowadays, whenever you click on a banner ad you leave the app and redirected to a banner that takes you to the advertiser’s web site. Then, it’s really hard to find a way to go back! For that reason, users decide not to click on the ads in order to avoid the hassle.

As iAd is in the iPhone OS itself, people will never face this problem again! Users will be able to return to their app anytime!

How will it work?

iAds will take up the screen using HTML5 and will be able to explore it. Apple showed a demo of this new marketing strategy using Disney’s Toy Story 3 movie. Take a look!

Apple will sell and host the apps and it will give developers 60% of split of the revenues.

iAds on iPads?

Apparently, iPads will soon run the iAd advertisement platform. So, publishers will be able to expand this method into a new device.

In conclusion, Apple is taking a big step forward, but still maintaining its tight control on what new web and mobile technology should offer.  We will have to wait and see Google’s reaction to this move. What’s truly important is that iAds will make apps much friendlier and less annoying, it will open new opportunities for business and web developers. Introducing emotion and an increasing interaction can be the beginning of a new advertising era, even if I still love Flash!

Sources:

Apple Introduces iAds: “Mobile Ads with Emotion”

Could Apple Actually Beat Google in Mobile Advertising?

Apple iAds another marketing strategy

As you know, mobile devices turned up to be a necessity; they are an essential gizmo in our life -we cannot even imagine our life without them. So, okay… this is a huge market that opens a window of opportunities for businesses. But you have to plan an effective mobile marketing campaign first. For that reason, businesses should pay attention to mobile trends and most importantly find out how to achieve mobile optimization.

More mobile trends for the next years

• New Mobile Apps will be crucial. Very soon, mobile apps will become mandatory in order to obtain new customers and truly develop a mobile marketplace that can generate significant profits. Create your own apps and jump on the app band wagon!  

• Massive growth of mobile shopping. Due to the existing mobile price comparison apps (ShopSavvy, Red Laser, Amazon Mobile) customers have a huge power as they can compare prices and choose where to buy. Moreover, there are mobile coupons that are gaining popularity (Cellfire, Yowza and Zayers) and help customers save money on their purchases. The growing popularity of such tools lets us predict that brands will have to create more customized mobile marketing campaigns.

• The Mobile platform will provide valuable marketing information. With the growth of location based marketing, brands and businesses can know when and where customers go shopping. This trend will surely move on to the next level. Based on the GPS location systems, brands will soon determine which your favorite places, your shopping and dinning habits are. For that reason, the location based technology will become more useful since you can suggest customer’s friends some of your favorite spots!

• Outdoor advertisement will be easier to measure. Digital out-of-home (DOOH) signage is making outdoor advertisement measurable and this will obviously lead to the acquirement of valuable statistical data. For example, Vans’ “Be Here” allows users to submit video, photo, or text messages to be displayed on a digital billboard in Times Square.

• Create a simple and user-friendly experience. Optimizing your Web site for mobile users is extremely important in order to be IN the mobile revolution. Be aware of the audience’s needs and simplify things for them!

In a nutshell, the mobile market can bring innumerable benefits to your business. In order to stay on track, pay attention to the upcoming trends and adapt the ways in which you reach potential and existing customers. To achieve optimization successfully, simplify things for them and never forget  that with the mobile revolution, customers are literally always there for you.

Sources:

Five Mobile Trends for 2010

2010 Mobile Trend Report

Yes! Although the whole world was expecting its advent, it seems that it didn’t live up to their expectations. Well, the product’s reviews had not been as good as anticipated. In fact, did you know that Apple just sold 300,000 iPads on the release day whereas analysts had estimated around 600,000 to 700,000?

Some critics revolve around the fact that it doesn’t provide cloud music capabilities. Cloud based music removes the need of large music storage at home. Users can buy music and store it on record level servers allowing them to stream it anytime.

Other reviewers claim that they wanted a 3G version of the device. But, Apple announced that they wouldn’t have any 3G devices on the launch day. Still, customers were keeping their fingers crossed waiting for a surprise.

Attensity™ Group, has study its public reaction on Twitter. 73 percent of the tweets shows a positive opinion toward the Apple’s iPad, especially its screen quality, keyboard and applications. In addition, 26% of the tweets indicated that users aren’t willing to replace their iPhones and 19% of them showed a strong disappointment on the lack of support for Adobe® Flash as well.

Others revolve around application pricing, the synchronization and backup speed when connecting with iTunes.

Moreover, some reviewers have made other negative comments about iPad.  They are against the fact that users can’t use regular connectors from other devices. If you want a physical keyboard of a camera, or a case you will have to buy it separately because it isn’t included in the package!

We are  aware that introducing a completely new device isn’t easy. Actually, it’s really hard to alter user’s technological choices and behavior. For that reason, we will have to wait and see what happens. In the mean time, Apple will try to recover its corporate image with the release of its new iPhone OS 4.0.

The moral of the story is the fact that generating such high expectations over a product can bring positive outcomes or not. Sometimes it’s better to truly surprise your target instead of generating such anxiety and making your brand followers count the days in advance!

More sources

The iPad Revolution: Naysayers Miss the Big Picture

iPad a Disappointment? iPad 3g Available Later, No Cloud Music Capabilities

26% of Tweets Express Disappointment That iPad Can’t Replace iPhone

Apple Finally Ships The iPad – So…. How Do People Feel?

iPad A Disappointment: 12 Reasons Not To Buy it

Without a doubt, social network users tend to become part of online communities in which they share interests and opinions. Moreover, there are different types of online communities. And businesses should understand their differences in order to obtain better marketing results and target their products and services correctly. For example, becoming a member of groups that embrace social or charity causes can help you reinforce a positive business image.  It use to be all about trust marks and testimonials, now it’s about your fan pages, groups and social connections.

Rod Howard, founder of  Telligent, an enterprise collaboration software company, made an interesting categorization of online communities:

• Direct Communities are those online communities that are owned and managed by a certain company. The business runs and manages the community and obtains valuable data from users who become part of it. Some examples are the Starbuck’s blog or Dell community. These types of communities may include internal employee-target communities that can be useful in order to motivate and know your worker’s demands and concerns.

• Managed communities are started and managed by an organization or business but are run on customer-facing social networking sites (Twitter profile, Facebook page, among others). In this case, the social networking sites are the ones that get benefits of the data they obtain from customers.

• Participating communities are started and managed by individuals or users. Some examples of such communities are fan profiles and independent groups that show enthusiasm towards a product or brand. Of course that organizations can participate, but they don’t have authority or access to data.

Okay, now that you know this, let’s see which type of community best suits your business concerns. Even so, remember that the first thing you have to do is identify your goals and your target audience.

• Direct communities can be useful when you need to give support to your current customers, or if you want to measure results much easily.
• Managed communities can be a good option to reach new customers and increase your visibility and popularity.
• Participating communities can help you know if users are connected with your business voluntarily.

On the other hand, being aware statistics on online community is crucial for your strategy. It is a good way to find out where to focus on. For instance, as we said in the beginning of this article, if you know that women are more likely to become members of such groups, you can focus on them and then, you can find alternative ways to reach the male audience.

Taking the time to analyze which communities best suit your business is crucial in order to optimize your time and reach your marketing goals!

Sources:

How Businesses can Harness the Power of Online Communities

Study: More women embracing Web communities

SMO may include:

• Blogging
• RSS feeds
• Social news buttons
• Third-party community functionalities
• And much more!

Social Media sites need to create content constantly not only to attract more visitors but also to obtain valuable marketing research information. Moreover, these sites require an effective Search Engine Optimization strategy in order to keep communications with a community of active users. How to do it? Well, let’s focus on some effective tips you should have in mind:

• Users should be able to understand how to use your Web site without any instructions. They want usable thing that are as fast and simple as possible. If they have to learn how to use complex tools they will probably get bored or angry. Make it intuitive and efficient.

• Protect users from abusive or inappropriate content! Give them all the necessary tools to block or report spam and other abusive contents. By doing so, they will trust you even more! Try to be genuine and innovative. Users hate shameless self-promotion and they can easily identify when that’s the case!

• Give users the power and freedom they want! If possible, let them control sections of the site and have certain privileges. For example, give them access to naked links where they can edit, transform and build the site providing creative content; and they will feel as real members of your Web site! Allow them to fully express themselves in profiles too. Let them know that you trust and care about what they have to say!

• Feedback is crucial! Listen to your user’s comments and suggestions. You will know what they are doing, and most importantly; what they want. The ability to exchange compliments and recognize contributions to the Web site can create an emotional tie and loyalty towards your company!

• Get the search spiders onto your Web site! Google prefers Web sites that generate large quantities of fresh and new content. So, utilize an automatic site map generator such as XML-Sitemaps to let Google know that you have done your homework.

• Make your site is a destination for useful information. For instance, you can create resources for your users like directories, wikis, resource links, and so on.

• Help users link your site, out of your site, cross link within your site, and bookmark your site with social bookmarking links. Add Tagging, Linking and bookmarking strategies. Creating links summarize texts that explain the content of the linked page will make you increase your search traffic and incorporate more and more users!

• Let users rate you. Generating rankings and tags will make users feel connected to the content.

Nuff said folks! Start working on your SMO strategy! Remember that Social Media Optimization is one of the most effective SEO techniques. Most search engine optimizers are using this trend to achieve higher rankings! So, get started as soon as you can and become social! If you need some help or further information on Social Media Optimization just give us a call at 1-800-932-2580.

More sources:

Social Media Optimization

Tips For Social Media Optimization

When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion, the question revolving around the whole world, WHY?…  Everyone thought it could make it by generating enough advertisers to make it profitable… but was that enough to help it compete with the Hulu’s of the world?

Now, the company will start generating more profit as it introduces its first incursion into the business of charging users to stream full length feature films. YouTube’s first step into this market includes five independent films tied to the Sundance Film Festival available for ten days at $3.99 per rental. With 2,684 views the company generated a profit of around $10,000 dollars.

Apparently, the Sundance movies are just the beginning of a more ambitious pay-per-view project. In a few months, the company will start offering television shows and commercial movies for rent as well. Now, we know the plan…

This first attempt generated small revenue for Google. So, YouTube hasn’t represented a direct competition for other online movie services so far. Still, we can interpret the movie rental service as a new way of “monetizing” a service which represented a huge investment for Google in 2006. The Giant paid $1.65 billion for YouTube and is now trying to generate income from such a huge investment.

We will have to wait and see what happens. Maybe in a few months, Apple’s iTunes Store, Hulu, Amazon.com and Microsoft’s Xbox Live will have to start worrying about YouTube’s growing competitive skills. What do you think? Do you think this could work for YouTube?

For the moment, it’s early to judge the service since it only involves a few independent movies… no blockbusters or hyped up movies.  These type of movies and documentaries don’t attract large audiences, but they are useful for testing the market.  If you are an entrepreneur, it’s a good idea to learn from these online businesses.  Taking a chance can pay off, but we must be good a defining our market and testing it.
Keep in mind that entering a new market and introducing a new product without first testing your market is like jumping off a cliff into the sea!

Now, probably the company is pushing a more aggressive promotion strategy to have a profitable and successful plan. Including famous and  commercial movies will be crucial if YouTube’s attempt to increase its profits.

Now the question is: What makes YouTube different from the rest?  Will it appeal to the younger demographic that has made YouTube such a social media success?

Sources

YouTube’s Take from Movie Rentals: $10,709.16

YouTube begins its push up into online movie rentals

The company aims to battle with other powerful real-time platforms such as Facebook´s News Feed, FriendFeed and Twitter.

How does it work?

• Since it is right in your Gmail account, you won’t need to set up anything. This means that you will automatically follow people you frequently email and chat with. Once and for all, you will not have to import your contacts or friends.

• You can choose if you want your posts to be public or private. It’s important to know that the default is public. Still, you can also send posts directly to a friend using a variation on Twitter’s @ reply syntax, like this: @name@gmail.com.

• You can connect Google Buzz to other sites you usually use such as Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader and Twitter. So, you will be able to keep up with everything your friends have been doing around the Web-all in one place.

• It offers big and full resolution photos. Moreover, you will be able to play videos online, so you can watch them without the need of opening a new window.

• Post can be geotagged. So, Buzz will be able to show recent post around the user’s current location.

Watch this instructive video for further information!

How did Google’s arch enemies react?

Apparently, they are not happy at all!

Yahoo’s authorities claim that the company launched Yahoo! Updates one year and a half ago. They argue that this tool is very similar to Google Buzz since  it’s a social feature that lets people share their status, content and online activities. It’s a tool that keeps them informed on what their friends and family are doing on Yahoo! and across the Web.

On the other hand, Microsoft considers that Google’s product is both late an unnecessary. Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation.

Facebook didn’t have much to say about it: Generally, we’re supportive of technologies that help make the Web more social and the world more open and are interested to see how Google Buzz progresses over time”.

In a nutshell, we will have to wait and see Google’s Buzz performance. Still, we know one thing for sure: social media will keep on growing and expanding its horizons!

Sources:

Hands on with Google Buzz – It’s a Stream in Your Inbox

Google Gets More Social With Buzz

Google Buzz in Gmail

Microsoft, Yahoo Diss Google’s Buzz

Google Buzz vs. Facebook

Facebook celebrated its 6^th anniversary with a complete Web redesign (yes! AGAIN) which seeks to make the homepage search more user-friendly and interactive.

On February 4^th, 80 million users received the new homepage update according to Inside Facebook.

Ok, so let’s try to highlight and identify some of Facebook’s most relevant changes and new features.

Search bar relocation

Now, you find it at the left side of the screen. It shows results for users depending on how closely they are connected to you, how many friends you have in common, etc.

 

 

Top Menu

Attention please! You will see an alert in the left right corner near the search bar every time you receive a notification about someone writing on your wall or sending you a message. If you click on the icon, you’ll see a drop-down menu with the most recent notifications that you have.

 

 

Left Menu content

You can access all the core features in one place: News feeds, messages, photos, events, and so on.  

 

 

More prominent Chat also situated at the left- hand menu

It only shows people who you frequently communicate with. If you want to see all your online friends, you must open the Chat bar in the bottom right-hand corner or click “See All” at the bottom of your left-hand menu.

 

 

Peter Deng, a Facebook’s Product Manager, also provided a useful overview about the recent modifications and new features:

But…. are people still afraid of this kind of changes? Remember that on March 2009, Facebook had introduced a new Web site layout, and user’s reactions weren’t positive. According to a survey by that time, only 5% of the respondents liked the redesigned site. What’s going on now?

There is no doubt that the recent Facebook updated page makes everything more user-friendly, intuitive and interactive. The web site is turning to be more easy to use showing that redesign means that the company is updated all the time according to people’s changing and increasing needs and desires.

---

More Sources:

Facebook gets a facelift on 6th anniversary

Introducing Your New Navigation