Location based social network Foursquare celebrated 10 million registered users yesterday but how are businesses and organizations using the platform? I wrote a year ago next month about the incredible potential offered by Foursquare accounts for organizations: following a Foursquare page as a user is like opting-in to view the world through the lens of that organization's geo-annotations. It can be awesome. (My favorites? History Channel and Eater.)
Are businesses getting into it? For one perspective on that question, I extracted some data from the 128 most recent Foursquare Pages that have been created. The 128 most recent Foursquare Page holders have added 728 tips in 311 cities so far. They've amassed a total of over 8,000 Foursquare followers and they came in with some social media experience as well: those organizations already had an aggregate of over 800,000 Twitter followers. Above, a map of all the metro areas around the world that new Page holders have added tips in. Below, more stats.
Over the course of 2010, Latitude Research completed a multi-phase innovation study, Children's Future Requests for Computers and the Internet, asking kids across the world to draw the answer to this question: "What would you like your computer or the Internet to do that it can't do right now?" This study is part of a larger research initiative by Latitude that positions younger generations as a window into the future of technology, capable of informing tech experiences that resonate with people of all ages.
Download the study summary (PDF) for Children's Future Requests for Computers and the Internet.
Today at the D9 conference, Microsoft unveiled the latest version of its Windows operating system. Code-named Windows 8, in a surprise move Microsoft is incorporating touchscreen technology into the Windows UI. Windows 8 will be used across a wide range of computing devices - PCs, laptops, tablets and more. One OS for all of those devices. This runs counter to Apple's philosophy, which has separate OS's for its desktop / laptops (Mac OS X) and tablets / mobile phones (iOS).
The current Internet era is characterized by multiple devices, including mobile phones, tablets, Internet TVs, netbooks, laptops, and of course the good old PC. One of the key services needed in this multi-device online world is reliable synchronization. Yet faulty or not-quite-optimal sync is one of the problems I experience the most these days.
Just before I started writing this, I was attempting to sync data from the online note-taking app Evernote. I had made some notes on my iPad Evernote app while in a cafe, where I didn't have Internet connectivity (I'm a premium subscriber to Evernote, so I have offline access to my data). When I attempted to sync up that content to my Evernote desktop app in my home office, it didn't immediately update. I refreshed... then again... no sync. Perplexed, I moved onto another activity and then checked again 5 minutes later. By then the changes had synced up, but the delay was disconcerting.
Mobile, location based social networking is a young but exciting field. How will it gain mainstream adoption and how will it become a viable business, though? A new partnership announced today between notable location service Loopt and high-flying mega-discount provider Groupon provides an interesting data point in the discussion.
Loopt tracks the location of users persistently, without their having to check-in manually (though you can do that too), and it will now send push notifications of Groupon deals nearby. GigaOm's Ryan Kim does a good job covering the announcement, but there are a few details in particular that I want to raise.
When you look at the numbers, there's no doubt that Google is the clear leader among search engines. But if recent moves by Google and Bing, in which both added social indicators to their search algorithms, are any indication, then social search could be the thing of the future.
We have to wonder then, if social search is indeed the next big thing, if Bing could have found some solid ground to stand on in taking on the big G.
In a report released today, research firm Forrester attempts to define exactly what this "Post PC" era actually is. Foremost, it does not mean "absence of" PCs, but a whole new computing paradigm that will fold into existing technology and lead us to the computers of tomorrow.
Forrester came up with several guidelines and principles that will help manufacturers, developers and consumers navigate the technological waters that are stretching to the horizon. The research firm defines Post PC as, "a social and technological phenomenon in which computing experiences become ubiquitous, casual, intimate, and physical."
In the past 24 hours, more than forty thousand people have signed up on Facebook to attend a flash mob barbecue this weekend in Higienopolis, a wealthy neighborhood in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Sao Paulo state government conceded yesterday to demands from the Neighborhood Association to block construction of a subway station. The neighbors objected that the subway would lead to "different people" congregating in the area.
Danilo Saraiva, an online journalist at leading Brazilian portal Terra, set up a Facebook Event yesterday called "Barbecue of the Different People." Saraiva, who has only 300 contacts on Facebook, set up the event after lunch and now thousands of people are RSVPing every hour. Messages posted to the Event page read, in Portuguese, "I will take the mayonnaise, I will take the popcorn. I will take the cheap soda." Saturday in Higienopolis is likely to be...very different.
In a shocking late-night turn of events it was revealed Monday that Microsoft has acquired Skype for more than $8 billion. (Confirmed by Microsoft this morning here.) It's a bold move that raises a lot of issues. ReadWriteWeb's Founding Editor Richard MacManus argued that the companies together could make big waves in two key parts of the future: mobile and the connected home. Richard's thoughts about Skype plus Kinect are particularly intriguing.
I want to address the news from a different perspective. For me, as for many others I believe, the acquisition raises a number of fears as well as some hopes.
If you're familiar with Twitter (or even Facebook these days), then you might recognize the new feature just released by real-time comment system Disqus: @mentions.
Originally started on Twitter, the @ symbol has quickly become the character of choice for directing comments toward a certain recipient. Now, the symbol has made its way to the popular commenting service, allowing users to mention others in the conversation and even pull other people into the conversation.
