Blogged Live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
Until
now, online music advertising has been a somewhat unsolved - sometimes
controversial - problem. Today Lirix
unveiled at DEMO an intelligent and elegant solution to the problem, called AdLirix.
It is a smart, context-sensitive advertising solution that will allow musicians
to make money off their music in a fair way.
The ads are inserted between tracks, never interrupting the user experience. But more importantly, the ads are contextual - because they are based on the lyrics of the songs! The advertisers bid to place ads in an auction fashion, but they are not charged unless their ad is played. The system also rewards artists, because even if their music is pirated - they will be paid because ads play. All and all it seems like a well thought through and elegant solution.
Here is what DEMO staff said about Lirix:
‚ÄúProtected by a recent patent, Lirix‚Äôs dynamic ad-insertion platform delivers targeted, dynamic advertising in streaming music and enables interesting new business models for over-the-air digital music services. The Lirix platform offers particular benefits to MVNOs, which can now supplement branded phone service with a potentially richer ad-supported music service offering as well.‚Ä?
We hear a
lot about digg, Slashdot and del.icio.us as traffic drivers for media websites and blogs.
But one site that doesn't get enough props in this regard is StumbleUpon. In our recent Social
Bookmarking Faceoff, we noted that StumbleUpon has the largest user base with
1,271,345 users. Its main rival in the space, del.icio.us, recently announced it had
reached 1 million users.
StumbleUpon is basically a browser plugin which makes it very easy to submit and vote on websites. Simply download the plugin (Firefox or IE) and then click the "I like it!" icon to 'stumble' a webpage. Once a link has been submitted, it can propagate out to the large community of SU users in a very viral way.
Neil Patel, who has given me a lot of excellent advice about website optimization, recently wrote a post entitled How to get StumbledUpon. It's a great introduction to StumbleUpon and a must-read. In fact, subscribe to Neil's blog if this kind of thing interests you.
I can attest to the power of StumbleUpon - our most popular post over the past couple of months (according to my Google Analytics service) has been Top 10 Firefox Web 2.0 Add-ons. Usually our top posts are ones that have had the fortune to be Slashdotted or dugg. But this one got neither. Instead, 27% of its traffic was driven by StumbleUpon and 14% by del.icio.us. And the flow from StumbleUpon continues. I have to admit though that it's one of only a few R/WW posts to have been stumbled in a big way, so like digg and Slashdot it's not something publishers can expect on a regular basis.
StumbleUpon is yet another example of a Web-based community that has gained a significant user base in a seemingly short period of time. Check it out!
Blogged Live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
BuzzLogic has unveiled a solution today which helps marketers keep track of social influence. Based on your topic of interest, BuzzLogic software turns the chaotic world of blogs and web sites into a network of flows of influence. The software finds top influencers, measures the weight or importance of each source, and shows you incoming and outgoing influence flows.
The company used an interesting example on stage - Microsoft Zune's marketers need to compete against the beloved iPod. To do that, they need to tap into the blogosphere to identify iPod's top influencers. The BuzzLogic team tracked iPod, Zune and iPod+Zune influencers and literally got a picture of the situation (like the one shown below). They were able to identify a few key blogs that Zune should approach to help them turn the tide. Personally, I am skeptical that Zune can catch up at this point, but with the BuzzLogic service at least they can see what the need to.
Pics: dchurbuck
Blogged Live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
MojoPac got a round of applause here at DEMOfall for demonstrating portable technology that looked like pure magic. MojoPac allows Windows users to save their entire PC onto a USB or iPod. The users can then plug the portable storage into any other PC and that PC will have exactly the same software and settings their original PC had.
During the DEMO show, the company had 2 computers - one running a standard English version of Windows and another one that was running a localized Windows version in, I think, a flavor or Arabic or Hindu. In other words, they were totally different system with different configuration, settings and locale. The demonstrator copied the contents of the English-version of Windows onto an iPod - then walked over, plugged it in and in a matter of a few seconds, the entire PC was restored and ready to go. This looked more like a Houdini trick than technology, except that it is real. Here is how RingCube describes it:
“With MojoPac you can turn any portable storage device - an iPod, USB flash or hard drive, even a cell phone or digital camera memory card– into your PC. Simply install the MojoPac software on your favorite device, copy your files, select the applications, settings and environment preferences you use regularly, and MojoPac will mirror the capabilities and functionality of a private and secure PC. Whenever you plug your MojoPac enabled storage device into a Windows XP based PC, MojoPac will automatically launch, magically turning the host PC into the customized and private PC you enjoy at home, work or school. Instead of lugging your computer/lap top, you can pack up your entire PC and carry it in your pocket wherever you go.“
Blogged Live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
Presto has launched a photo service which is focused on helping get photos to people who are not online. This might not be a spicy web 2.0 ajax application, but it solves a big problem and does it very well. Here is how it works. Say your grand mother is not web savvy. For $149.99 you purchase an HP Printing Mailbox and then signup for the Presto service, which is $9.99 per month. You install the device in your grandma's house and then login onto Presto.com.
You then create an email address, like mygrandma@presto.com. To ensure that no spam can get in, you add a list of emails that are allowed to send emails to your grandma. That's all. Now anyone with their email address on the list can simply send pictures to e.g. mygrandma@presto.com. The photos are extracted and automatically sent to the Presto device at your grandma's house. If you are busy, then you are done. If you have some more time, you can customize each photo by selecting from numerous templates that add flare and spice to each picture.
This is an example of technology going through several iterations and ending up with really simple and elegant solution.
Blogged Live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
Tribeca Labs launched
an interesting photo service at DEMO, focused on helping you preserve your digital photos. Their
application continuously crawls your hard drive and when it finds a photo it does a few
interesting things. Firstly by using adaptive imaging, Photobot automatically improves the
quality of the photo. Without any user involvement, the Photobot reduces red eye,
improves contrast and gives pictures vibrant, live-like color. As the company puts it: "it
makes bad photos good and good photos even better."
Then the software does something unexpected and very interesting - it
archives a copy of the photograph to a remote vault located in, literally, a bank in
Switzerland. Called 'Swiss picture bank', this super secure storage is located next to
famous Swiss currency vaults. All pictures are easily accessible online via a nice and
simple web site. The company's message: "Preserve your memories for generations". This is
surely an interesting twist and a valuable add on to the growing number of photo
applications and services.
Blogged live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
Dash Navigation has launched the first truly connected automotive
navigation system. Dash plugs into your car's cigarette lighter and connects to the
Internet via cellular networks and Wi-Fi.
Dash excels at helping you avoid traffic. The traffic information comes from road sensors and other Dash systems that are on the road. The information flows over to the Dash servers, gets aggregated and then pushed back to individual Dash systems - ensuring up to date traffic information.
Dash also innovates in the directions space, by offering multiple routes to the destination with corresponding time/distance tradeoffs. When you do not know your friend's address, your friend can login to Dash's web site and type in his home address. The address is then automatically sent to your individual Dash, which in turn instantly computes directions.
Dash also integrates web search and other web services. You can look up a wide range of information from movie times to gas prices. You can also look up local services like restaurants or liquor stores. Dash automatically detects the address of the destination in the search results and shows the shortest route. And after the detour it allows you to seamlessly resume your previous travel.
Dash is a navigation device which will be available in January for California and by the end of the year in the rest of the country. You can get more information on the Dash website, at http://www.dash.net.
Back in June I spoke about the corporate blogging project that I co-run with The Rights Marketing Company. Called Micro Media Corp, it's a corporate blogging and podcasting program that aims to give business people insights into the Web 2.0 and New Media worlds. Our first major customer is British Telecom and we're currently in expansion mode. We produce 3 blog bulletins every week and they are written by top quality bloggers (some of who you'll be familiar with) - Scott Karp, Taewoo Danny Kim, David Stoughton (a UK consultant), Steve O'Hear, Stephen Danelutti, Cale Hollingsworth and Rudy De Waele. I'm the managing editor of the Micro Media blogging program, so I set the topics and edit the bulletins.
If your organization is looking for regular thought leadership in the Web 2.0 and New Media world, email me and I'll send you subscription details.
To give you a taste of what Micro Media is all about, here is a bulletin that we did back on 30 August 2006. The topic is still very relevant and I can assure you there are some excellent insights inside this bulletin. Check it out...
This week Google launched Google Apps for Your Domain, a software service aimed at small and midsize companies. It's a free, ad-supported package which combines Google's E-mail, calendar, instant messaging and HTML editing software. Although it'll be hosted by Google, customers can brand the service with their own domain names. What's more, it may be just the beginnings of a Google Office according to this InformationWeek article:
"Later this year, Google plans to add its Writely word processor and Google Spreadsheets to the suite, build online collaboration features that work across its applications, and market the whole package to large companies for a fee. Google will include IT-friendly features such as APIs, directory-server integration, guaranteed performance levels, and telephone tech support."
We asked the Micro Media bloggers to analyze this latest enterprise development by Google. Is a potential threat to Microsoft Office?
Lately there has been a lot of talk about new VoIP services that work without needing to be on your computer. Tonight two announcements were made:
1) Jajah Mobile, which claims to take the computer out of the Jajah equation. Now you can make Jajah calls directly from your existing mobile phone.
2) Rebtel, a VoIP company which offers unlimited international calling from mobile phones for $1 per week, has just announced it has received $20 million in Series A funding from Index Ventures and Benchmark Capital (the news was actually leaked to the Business 2.0 blog earlier). According to the official press release, the funds will be used "to advance Rebtel's rapid growth, expand business development and marketing efforts, and accelerate expansion into more countries around the world."
VoIP leaders Skype and Vonage also both have VoIP phone-to-phone services on the market. In January this year Skype released a number of WiFi and Internet phones at CES. The NETGEAR Skype WiFi Phone is a good current example.
Michael Arrington wrote an interesting post about all the new VoIP phone services popping up currently:
"But a new crop of companies have a launched that are trying to let people make free or cheap VOIP calls from a normal POTS (plain old telephone service) phone (often a cell phone) to another POTS phone. If someone gets it right, there’s a huge market out there to destroy. The problem is that no one has gotten it right. And the mass market won’t adopt these services until they are dead simple to use."
What's most interesting to me about Rebtel and Jajah is that they both are potentially disruptive services to the traditional telecoms industry, a la Skype a year or two ago. Of course Skype and Vonage are also in that category. But the point is it's still wide open, because nobody has yet made VoIP super-easy to use on normal phones (landline or mobile).
As a side note, Index Ventures now has investments in FON (a WiFi sharing network), Skype and Rebtel. A nice little combo there.
Jajah packed and ready for action at DEMO
Not everyone agrees that the new lot of VoIP services is hard to use. But to me the process still seems a little intimidating for 'normal' users. For example here's how Jajah's Frederik Hermann explained to me process for Jajah Mobile:
"How it works - in short, you go to the Jajah site, look to see if your phone is currently supported - the first phones supported are Symbian based, like Nokia N70 and Java based such as the Nokia 6630 (J2ME). We are adding phones everyday and the software is done for many phones. [...] If your phone is supported, you pull down a small plugin. Your phone will then know that when you dial an international number, it will send the call through the Jajah "network" (you can change theses preferences if you wish and make only some calls, or all calls, go through Jajah)."
It may be a one-off set-up process, but it certainly hasn't got that "You've got mail!" simplicity to it... yet. But then breaking a disruptive technology into the market is never easy! So I'm betting that one of these current crop of startups does disrupt the telecoms market, if only because I'd back Index Ventures' track record on this any day :-)
Google is making some bold moves to bring structured data into the mainstream search box. And in the process, it appears to be running over the top of microformats, the Web community's open standards for structured data. Not to mention the challenge this will ultimately represent to eBay.
According to a PC Advisor report, Google plans to extend the product search capabilities on its main Google.com search engine in the fourth quarter. The main change is in product search, where Google Base will be brought to the fore. When a product search is done on Google.com, users will be presented with another search box to refine their query (like an 'advanced search'). After the user refines their query, Google takes them to a second page populated with product results from the Google Base listings service - i.e. from structured product data. This is already happening with real estate queries, but will be expanded into other product types.
"Ranking will be determined by the attributes that the sellers listed for the product as well as by relevancy," according to analysts at the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) Summit in San Francisco this week (where the news broke).
Google has no plans to monetise this product-search capability with display ads or listing fees - but that could change.
The plan also
involves de-emphasizing Froogle as a destination website and moving its
comparison-shopping capabilities to Google.com, because most product searches happen on
Google.com. Although Danny
Sullivan thinks Google will still need a standalone shopping search brand.
PC Advisor summarized:
"From the beginning, Google said that Base isn't meant as a destination website, but more like a database to feed information to Google search sites, like Google.com. To stress this point, Google recently removed the search box from the Google Base site."
Google Base as a database of structured data has had the potential to be disruptive to Google search ever since it was released. If what was reported from the eBay conference is on the mark, then this will be a significant upgrade to Google Search (or perhaps enhancement is the better term).
Like Steve Rubel, I wonder if this is putting Google on a collision course with eBay. But then I never underestimate the power of a centralized and focused community like eBay (as edgeio is finding out).
Fergus Burns of Nooked and John Battelle have both discussed Google Base recently. From the Nooked blog:
"To push the envelope out a bit, people should pay attention to what Google are up to.
The Google Base project is the key to marketers. This quote from a recent analyst conference call with Google management on Google Base
“Through that integration, the overall Google experience will become much more structured, much more refined, and much more precise. It’s a real improvement in end-user quality.”
John Battelle has 2 great examples - Real Estate and Travel of what this looks like in Google Search."
As Fergus summarized, marketers will need to offer feeds on a per product/brand/category basis and support additional attributes from google base and microformats.
The big question in all this is how microformats (the industry standard for structured data) will play alongside Google Base structured data. Right now it seems like Google is going its own route, so where does that leave microformats?
