Tag: Microsoft

  • Wave Content

    And just when Microsoft seemed to get moving on Google, with Bing, its new search engine (in case you haven’t heard) with a $80-100 million ad budget, and bundling the real time social search engine OneRiot with IE8, Google comes right back with what could potentially be a game changer for a whole set of services, including Facebook and Twitter, in addition to the obvious mail, and search services. Last week, most of the web world were giving raves for Google Wave. In many ways it took the zing out of MS’s announcements.

    Look no further than Mashable’s Google Wave guide for details. To summarise, Google Wave combines email, chat, IM, wikis, social networking and many other potential uses. A ‘wave’ is a conversation thread that can feature one or more friends and even bots (that can source and modify information, communicate with users etc) and have documents, videos, images, maps etc, there’s drag and drop file sharing too. It can be modified by any participant, who can also add other participants and all this and can even be taken outside to say, a blog. And all this is real time, and really real time, where I can even see the other participant/s typing.  There are also gadgets (like Facebook apps) built on the OpenSocial platform. (so if someone develops a Scrabble gadget, we can play a multi user game live, and maybe add photos of our playing while at it). And there’s an API for developers to build more and more applications. To really understand what the fuss is all about, check out the video. Its way more than an email+real time communication and collaboration  tool on steroids. But with all this content, Google really needs to have a lot of storage space.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

    Wave seems to be aiming at turning the entire concept of social networking on its head. Instead of a single service (Facebook/Twitter), a conversation could be started on anyone’s Wave interface, participants dragged in, and new content created and collaborated upon, and then taken outside. Take a few Google products, for starters – Blogger, Google News, Picasa, YouTube and imagine what one could do with real time collaboration on these. Create a post, have live comments, and then post it. Wait, maybe I won’t even bother to post it!! I am wondering what sort of privacy settings would happen here, would we able to create groups (like say, FB) and set different criteria for different sets?

    Now, look outside Google, say Twave – Twitter + wave, that uses a Tweety Google bot to display your entire Twitter feed on Wave, where you can archive it, thread conversations and so on. Imagine what this could do to say, news reporting. Live wikis, with witnesses collaborating to create authentic news stories, and the crowd being the check and balance.

    Gmail is addictive, and many users usually neglect their other ids after they become used to the functionality of GMail. If Wave does deliver all the above, then the season’s favourites – Facebook and Twitter really need to look over their shoulder, more so, because the new stream creator is not just another player, its Google. There’s another aspect I am thinking about. Mashable’s testing report states that “Central to Google Wave’s interface is search – you create specific searches based on not only keywords, but activity, history, person, and more.”  Unlike FB and Twitter, GMail users are used to ads, if Google Wave starts off with ads, the resistance to it might not be a lot, especially if they’re of the useful contextual+semantic kind. Twitter was called a protocol (Seth Godin, I think), perhaps the protocol standards have been upped.

    Meanwhile, though i think that Google Wave is a great piece of work, as always, I am also worried about Google being the beginning and end of my web experience. There’s just too much power there. 🙂

    until next time, surf the wave

  • Search Advances

    So, Twitter seems to be getting serious about its real time search capabilities. According to various reports, all of which seemed to have emerged from this source, Twitter’s new VP of Operations, Santosh Jayaram, has said that Twitter Search will soon be doing two things in addition to what it does now

    • it will crawl the links that people tweet
    • it will sort results by its reputation ranking system

    The ranking algorithm is going to be very interesting, because unlike, say, Google’s search algorithm, this would have to work at two levels – one, similar to Google’s Page Rank to ascertain the site quality, and two, the reputation of the person sharing the link. So, it’d be interesting to see which one would come on top, assuming the same story – me, sharing a TechCrunch link, or Mike Arrington sharing a link to this blog. 😉 Mashable had earlier written about an alternate  Twitter search service called Tweefind that uses various parameters to rank a person. The eternal debate about what should make a better twitter rank just got more interesting. 🙂

    RWW has connected the above happening to an interesting change that happened at Twitter recently – Twitter replacing tinyurl with bit.ly as the default url shortening service. According to an earlier article on the same site, bit.ly does more than just shorten a url, it “analyzes the page being linked to, pulls out the key concepts discussed on that page, and then provides real-time statistics about where the link is being shared and how many people are clicking on it.” Now, isn’t that interesting??!! When talking about the crawling of links, its hard not to think about the various services I’d written about earlier, (Krumlr, Fleck etc) which work on a delicious+twitter principle – use the delicious method of tagging and then share to twitter. I wonder, if at some stage, this is the kind of semantic association that Twitter would want to build on top of the crawling spiders, or will the machines take care of this too?

    The impact of all this on Google remains to be seen. Google is also looking over its shoulder to another hyped up participant in the ring – Wolfram Alpha, which is yet to make a debut. But there are speculations that they are on top of that situation. Anyway, Google must be doing something, they always do, that’s what makes them so dangerous. Since it already indexes tweets, adding real time shouldn’t be a big deal. A greasemonkey script does that for me!! But with the addition of Search inside GMail, the possibilities of that + Google Profiles + Friend Connect (and Gtalk status sharing) in creating a human layer  on top of the existing search is interesting. Their Searchology event has brought out a lot of new stuff  –

    • Search Options – a collection of tools that help you wean out the information you are really looking for, and view it in the way you want to. Essentially you can now tweak Google Search some more to your preferences.
    • Wonder wheel – it clusters search information
    • Rich Snippets – In addition to the info that currently gets displayed in a search item, there will be a line that sums up the result – eg. ratings for restaurants. It has asked publishers for their cooperation in adopting microformats to create this structured data.
    • Google Squared – As per the post, it “doesn’t find webpages about your topic — instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet.” Its description does remind me of a certain yet to be launched search engine 🙂
    • Search will also indicate whether a site is optimised for mobile devices, and will consider location when delivering search results. (Google Suggest bringing in results from local places for say, restaurants)

    Some excellent live coverage happened at Search Engine Land.

    Meanwhile, a small detour for Microsoft and Facebook. Microsoft claimed recently that its going to become “more disruptive in search.” Facebook recently opened its stream API but also cut off the RSS feed for the updates. I used to make use of it in at least a couple of places. 🙁 It also acknowledged Indian users by making itself available in 6 Indian languages. I wonder where Facebook figures in these search battles. Does the opening of the stream API mean that we will soon have a real time status search mechanism? But how useful will that be when a lot of users prefer to keep their profiles walled (like FB itself)? But its interesting to note that many geeks also auto update their FB statuses with their twitter ones thanks to many available services. FB is quite an aggregator too, in its own way, so I wonder if we’ll get to see a search that shows Twitter + FB statuses, and the videos, pages, shared links and comments content on FB. Meanwhile, on real time, alerts now happen as pop ups. 😐

    The last couple of days also saw new versions of a couple of existing players – One Riot now indexes and groups link shares on Twitter and Digg. It also allows you to dig further into the data- numbers, who shared it first etc  and then share it on the two services. Tweetmeme is launching an enhanced search version which lets you filter results by age, category, channel and also shows how many times result has been tweeted.

    To me, real time is only one of the things that makes Twitter’s foray into search interesting. After all, when I search for real time links to a story on Twitter, I don’t think an Ad Sense like mechanism will work for revenue. So it is the combination of semantics, sentiment analysis, and real-time data that makes this Twitter development seem like a huge leap (when it happens). Google seems to be working on making more sense of data, than real time, or semantics. Can that be taken as actually walking the talk when they claim that search is still in its infancy and there’s a lot of room for existing and new players? Twitter and the new services don’t have the scale of indexed pages that Google has, and Google doesn’t have real time. For now, its interesting how all of these services actually work out complementing each other, as shown by the comparison here.

    I have to admit, with all the connecting that was happening on Twitter, I was hoping that a revolutionary model (of revenue and web behaviour) would evolve. The current developments, though a lot of it is still conjecture, are not as over whelming as I’d hoped for. Its an organic evolution of sorts – semantic, real time, social web. Perhaps it is only the beginning.

    until next time, the search is on…

  • “What will you do when the money goes?”

    Even as stories abound about a Google acquisition of Twitter, Adage had a story on how Google is already making money out of tweets. According to the article, Google is offering ad units that display the client’s five most recent tweets across the AdSense network. The link leads straight to the client’s twitter account, and the campaign is measurable by the increase in follower count. One could say that Twitter gets some publicity out of this, but its obviously not getting any money.

    The ad network Federated Media recently launched ExecTweets, a site that aggregates tweets from business executives. The site is sponsored by Microsoft. With a twitter account, you can join the conversation, receive tweets from the community and vote for tweets and execs. At least on this one, Twitter will make some money.

    Since we have mentioned two biggies, might as well mention the third too, though what they’re doing is different from the above. Sideline is the desktop app from Yahoo, that runs via the AdobeAIR platform. It can do custom search groups, advanced queries and auto refreshes by pulling in data from tweets. There are other services that offer similar features, but maybe there’s more coming. And it does promise 20% more awesomeness. 🙂 On a tangent, a service called Say Tweet, which I have used in my personal blog to display my Twitter status, does give a sense of what Yahoo could do with Flickr and Twitter.

    In addition to the biggies above who’re using Twitter, there are numerous applications and services being built based on Twitter, and several others inspired by Twitter. A few examples. Tinker, from advertising and publishing network Glam Media, allows users to track real time conversations (from facebook and Twitter) happening around TV shows, entertainment events, conferences, and so on. It gives information on events by showing most followed and most discussed streams, popular events, and on trends with charts and historical data.  It also has embeddable widgets, which can be used to view a feed as well as update. They already have advertising and featured events and have further monetisation plans. iList Micro, from the iList service that alllows you to broadcast your listing to friends across networks, is the Twitter version and uses the hashtags #ihave and #iwant to create a simple process of classifieds. I have already mentoned Yammer (which now offers integration with Twitter), and Blellow in earlier posts, which are renditions of Twitter for more niche/enterprise uses, there’s also status.net arriving in a couple of months time.

    In spite of the several ways in which business are using Twitter, and the potential, I actually get worried when such services pop up on a regular basis, because I fear that when each service figures out a revenue model, one door could possibly be closing for Twitter itself. For instance, recently Jeremiah Owyang had a good post on social CRM being the future of Twitter, and within a few days, I read about Salesforce adding Twitter analytics to its CRM offering, and about CoTweet, a part marketing-part CRM tool.

    Twitter hasn’t been idle. From experimenting with advertising on profile pages (for third party and own apps, free for now) to tweaking title tags for better Google results, to hiring a concierge for celebrities (yes, really!) a lot is being done. And there’s also a new homepage design (limited roll out) which gives more prominence for the search function and increases homepage stickiness. It will also display popular trending topics (like in the current search homepage). (Hmm, perhaps one ad every 5 items, I wouldn’t mind that when i search)

    With the new funding, perhaps they have enough money in the bank to wait, watch new services, and incorporate the popular ones into their own functionality, in order to provide a diverse and robust service to all kinds of users.  Twitter is so open ended that it is different things to different people, but I wonder if identifying a few areas that they’d want to develop for revenues is of prime importance now. What I’m worried about is other services staking out potential revenue models, and whether addition of features towards no particular intent might result in everyone else but them making money out of these very features. But hey, maybe they have a plan. 🙂

    until next time, tweet dreams

    PS. the lyrics of the song mentioned in the title 🙂

  • Social Advertising

    A post on the WindChimes blog sparked off an interesting argument on whether banner advertising on Facebook is called Social Media Marketing. But before we step into that, a quick look at what Facebook has been upto recently.

    Facebook recently announced that users had uploaded 10 billion photos on the network. Considering that Facebook’s not a flickr or picasa, this gives an indication of the quantity and quality of users’ relationship with the social networking service. Facebook also recently announced its Fb fund recipients. Read about this effort to help seed innovation here. For those who want to check out Facebook as a desktop app, check out Visual Sage. (via Startup meme) Facebook Connect has also been in the news recently. It is scheduled to launch on Nov 30. You can check out CNN’s Facebook Connect implementation – for the post presidential debate discussions, here. There are also links to the implementations of CBS, Red Bull etc. And the last ‘collateral’ links to a wonderful take on Facebook friendship, and this on social networks, revenues, and brands’ expectations from them. Meanwhile, Facebook can draw solace from the fact that it was the social network of choice of 1/3 of the  US online retailers interviewed. (from a study by Internet Retailer and Vovici via WildBlueSkies)

    As far as advertising goes, the inclusion of Microsoft Live Search into the social network is quite a significant development. Goes without saying that along with the search results, a few ads would also be thrown in. 🙂 Looks like win-win, for both Microsoft and Facebook. (with their revenue/cost concerns).

    And now, whether Facebook Ads are social media. I’d say (technically)any advertising on a social network would automatically qualify for social media marketing, since advertising is a way of marketing. Now, with specific reference to Facebook, as part of its redesign earlier, Facebook had also categorised the different kinds of ads that can be purchased. Out of the 6 categories mentioned, #5 is akin to a first generation banner ad.  I’d written about some unique features of Facebook Ads earlier. Like I’d mentioned in that post, this normal banner ad has been given a cool social twist by allowing users to give it a thumbs up/down and give their reasons for doing this. Let me go a step down and ignore the rating. Connecting my profile and actions to the kind of ads served, it gives the ads at least some contextual connection, and hence appeal.  So, in practise too, I’d consider banner advertising on Facebook a part of social media marketing. On Magpie, over on Twitter, however, I’m still in two minds.

    until next time, social soul searching

  • Social Factories

    What self respecting social media blog could let the Facebook redesign slip by without a post dedicated to it. Now is a good time considering that Mark Zuck has deemed that we shut down our silly protests and just accept his virtual reality. Inspite of short term solutions offered, well meaning advice, and groups consisting of millions of supporters, Facebook was unruffled, plodded on with migrating everyone to the new design, and was perhaps quite sure of the premise that there wouldn’t be an exodus of users because of a design change. I, for one, am not unhappy with the new design, since functionality has been improved (for me) but at the cost of a relatively (since Fb was never known to be easy) ‘cosier’ design. I also thought that apps suffer a lot since they are relegated to a separate tab, and are not automatically seen when i visit a person’s profile. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.

    I was quite intrigued by Startup meme’s smart comparison of the new Facebook design and Vista, and possible strategic implications. The possibility of Microsoft’s increasing interest was further fueled by a TechCrunch article I read recently. It raises a good point of how, to a functionally conscious generation, Windows and Office might be dispensable, in favour of the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn etc. With the rise of collaborative tools, and cloud computing in the horizon, this might be bad news for Microsoft, especially since the success of Windows and Office has always been taken for granted. In such a scenario, a Facebook collaboration (and perhaps acquisition later) makes a lot of sense. After all, Facebook is trying to become a web OS, as this post suggests. Its a great read and goes on to wonder where the Facebook browser is. But to get back, all this means Facebook would open up a crucial second front for MS. 

    The interesting part for me is who will influence whom more. Microsoft, to me, has been an old style capitalist product company which just sends out factory made stuff without listening to consumers, while Facebook, notwithstanding its latest design move, is a ‘social’ service that listens to consumers. Hey, Mark Zuck did write a post to address the plebeians, and as Mashable points out, 4 out of his 6 posts has been to address user concerns. But with 1% MS in its lifestream, Facebook quite firmly put down the user created anti new design rebellion, I wonder if its a change in attitude we witnessed. If MS influences Facebook than vice versa, it could be fatal to both. Or perhaps Mark Zuck is just promoting this movie, just like this Facebook app does. 😉  Speaking of Facebook apps, a new one – Rock the Vote, allows Facebook members to register their names in the voting list, online. (via Startup Meme)

    While on social media and design, there’s been some activity happening on Friendfeed too, they released a new beta version recently, changed the design, and after listening to user feedback, made additional tweaks which were appreciated. The new beta had shifted the navigation structure from the top to the right, and made provisions to organize friends into different groups. Two additional features are photo hosting, and allowing users to view the FriendFeed stream of other users easily from the interface. Following user feedback, the navigation bar was moved to the left. But I think the best addition would be the grouping of same stories. What used to happen was thats everal people used to share the same story when it broke, now the first share will be shown with the option below to check out who else shared the same. The options below is for all services – a tweet, a delicious share, a google reader share would all be displayed. This would go a long way in reducing what makes up a large portion of ‘noise’. Nice to see good changes and the importance they are giving to user feedback.

    Sometimes, I wonder whether organisations, including social media ones, are just like a ‘famous people’ stereotype. Do they stop being friendly and have lesser conversations when they become famous?

    until next time, when socialism turns to capitalism…..