19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- HyperStage Proves Podcasts Popular in the Middle East [TNW Middle East]
- Digitimes: iPad 2 Will Ship With 5 New Features [TNW Apple]
- Fake Tsunami Warning sent from hacked Indonesian Twitter Account [TNW Asia]
- Wikileaks is down on verge of massive documents dump [Update: Site is back up] [TNW Media]
- TNW Picks: Chrome extensions we love [TNW Lifehacks]
- Nokia’s Ovi Suite version 3 reaches beta, integrates with Ovi Music [TNW Apps]
- Video: Darth Vader hangs out with the Galaxy S in Japanese commercial [TNW Mobile]
- Microsoft offering free Windows Phone 7 handsets this weekend with AT&T contract [TNW Mobile]
- Groupon UK exec comparing Groupon to Adwords: “we are very cheap”, more effective [TNW Industry]
- YouTube top search term in Japan for third year running [TNW Asia]
- Flipboard’s new FlipGifts section could redefine shopping catalogs [TNW Media]
- How To: Build a private collaboration site on WordPress.com in 5 minutes [TNW Lifehacks]
- Apple Store taking $101 off MacBook Air and Pro tomorrow, $41 off iPad [TNW Apple]
- YouTube agrees to revenue-sharing deal with 3 French artistic groups [TNW Europe]
- Finding New Ways to Measure Success in Social Media [TNW Social Media]
- TikTok’s iPod Nano watch grabs the #1 spot for most money raised on Kickstarter with $366,009 (and counting) [TNW Gadgets]
- Access denied: Facebook is banned…where, exactly? [TNW Social Media]
- Twitter narrowly beats out munchable chili oil in survey of products hot in Japan [TNW Asia]
- Sorry Apple, radio apps really aren’t the same as fart apps [TNW Media]
- Coca Cola vending machines to support mobile payments [TNW Mobile]
| HyperStage Proves Podcasts Popular in the Middle East [TNW Middle East] Posted: 26 Nov 2010 02:30 AM PST
Back in 2006 a company called PodMe.org launched to cover the EMEA (that’s Europe Middle East & Africa) regions with high hopes to make a serious impact once establishing themselves as a leading podcast. They flopped. They flopped so painfully not many even heard about them in the region even though they were strategically based in various locations around the world, it seems they lacked one really important ingredient: Interested Listeners. Up until recently the Internet infrastructure in the Middle East had undergone some major development, which meant trust in its reliability wasn’t at its peak. But around mid 2007 things started to rapidly pick up, especially with the smart phone devices explosion in the region, which made connectivity even more important for businesses and consumers alike. The arrival of iTunes had a positive effect on the region as well, introducing various flavors of podcasts that were otherwise inaccessible unless netizens were involved in different online networks for specific activities such as football, or programming. Many saw this rising tide as an opportunity to help transfer knowledge and have some fun online. Podcasts like dotNETArabi, Free Talk Weekly, and TechBoxing by Arabic tech blog Tech-Wd have become an effective tool to talk tech outside of traditional Arab forums. Even major broadcast networks like Al Jazeera started providing their regular programs in the form of podcasts. Radio shows like Dubai Eye putting their shows for online access also in the form of podcasts proving the saying ‘podcasting is the long tail of radio’ holds water in the Middle East too. These factors encouraged the Kayyali brothers (Beshr & Mohammad) to dedicate a couple of hours a week to put together an Arabic podcast called Hyperlink Podcast which gained popularity fast as fans started to hear their opinion on latest technology trends and products. I last talked to Mohammad Kayyali one of the two brothers back in Damascus during 2009 whom since then has ended up in Qatar working the Al Jazeera New Media team, while his brother Beshr landed in Beirut to work with Arabnet there. We sent them a couple of questions about Hyperstage, here’s what they had to say:
After speaking to the Kayyali brothers and other podcasters in the region, sponsors like Close2Edge are lending fellow nationals a helping hand in trying to speed up developing online regional markets that haven’t seen major breakthroughs in online advertisement till now. So until advertisement using platforms like Adwords will be enough to support podcasts in the region, we hope to see more and more passionate podcasters who are willing to share, and smart sponsors that see an opportunity in this fledgling market.Image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]     | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Digitimes: iPad 2 Will Ship With 5 New Features [TNW Apple] Posted: 26 Nov 2010 02:05 AM PST
The new features have long been subject to speculation, different sources have already suggested that Apple will feature its FaceTime technology in the iPad 2. With both front and back cameras, users will be able to use the FaceTime service on their iPad, contacting friends and family on their iPhone 4, iPod Touch and Mac computers. It has also been rumoured that Apple were experimenting with using carbon fiber panels and utilising thinner glass, reducing the mass of the iPad, a device that is currently considerably heavier than other tablet devices in the market. Introducing Apple’s Retina Display technology, coupled with thinner and lighter glass, will ensure high-resolution output and colour performance whilst making the device more portable. The mention of USB ports is very interesting, particularly as Apple users have long campaigned for them to be added to their tablet devices. This would also signal that iOS would need to be updated to include file management support, something Apple has never offered on its devices previously. By adding 3-axis gyroscopes, its possible that Apple will usher in a new wave of tablet physics games, allowing the company to target gamers and younger customers. Apple understandably remains tight-lipped about its plans, we can expect more information to become available at the beginning of 2011.Image Source [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fake Tsunami Warning sent from hacked Indonesian Twitter Account [TNW Asia] Posted: 26 Nov 2010 12:29 AM PST
Unfortunately this makes it a target for malicious users too. A Twitter account used by the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono‘s disaster management advisor, Andi Arief, was hacked yesterday and used by just such a malicious user, to spread hoax messages. The worst of these messages stated simply “Besok jakarta tsunami” which translates as “Jakarta tsunami tomorrow”. Andi Arief regularly uses his Twitter account to send updates on disaster related information, so the hacker had a credible platform for the messages. Arief had regained control of his account by Thursday afternoon, posting the following message (translated from Indonesian) ”
Indonesia’s location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region of high volcanic and earthquake activity makes it especially susceptible to natural disasters. The Indian Ocean Tsunami of 26th December 2004, hit the country’s Aceh province terribly, leaving 127,000 Indonesians dead. Indonesia has the second largest Twitter user base in the world, so, this malicious message, from a trusted source could have lead to widespread panic, had the hacker not used the account to make political criticism of Arief as well, so giving away his motives. It only serves to underline the importance that we all should put on ensuring that our passwords are secure and not easily broken. It isn’t known whether the hacker has been identified or apprehended at this time. Arief is not the first Indonesian official to have a social media account hacked. Former Constitutional Court Chairman Jimly Ashiddiqie's Facebook account was once hijacked and used to sell laptops.Sophos Naked Security, Jakarta Globe, image, image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wikileaks is down on verge of massive documents dump [Update: Site is back up] [TNW Media] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 11:34 PM PST UPDATE: As of 12:05 am PDT 11/26, Wikileaks.org was back up. No official word yet on what the situation was. We just were clued in on Twitter that controversial document leaking website Wikileaks is down hours after sending out the following tweet: The mirror for the site, however, is still up apparently. Also, a few of the DNS addresses for Wikileaks are unreachable according to this tweet – we tried the links and went nowhere, but we aren’t sure what the issue is. This comes just as Wikileaks is about to release a huge number of additional documents (reportedly 7x the Iraq documents previously released) that has led the US government to warn its allies about the possible damage in worldwide standing. Predictably, a number of people on Twitter are suggesting that the US government may have done something to shut down the site, though of course right now those are all just conspiracy theories (update: thought we haven’t received word from Wikileaks, the site being back up again so quickly would certainly suggest that the site going down was of its own choosing, so all of you conspiracy theorists out there can seemingly rest easy for tonight anyway) – the site most likely just simply was having downtime or the mysterious operators of the site may be prepping it for the release of the documents – we won’t know the exact story until we hear directly from Wikileaks. The tweets are coming in fast and furious (we’re seeing about a hundred or so every minute or two) about the site being down and what it means, and we’ll keep a close eye on this developing story. Somewhere, Fidel Castro is not happy. UPDATE: We just checked a few of the Wikileaks mirrors, including the wikileaks.de site, and the mirrors are giving this “scheduled maintenance” message, thought there is no mention that we can find from the Wikileaks Twitter account about this downtime and the main site is still unresponsive. Also, obviously, a lot of people on Twitter don’t know what is going on either: Final update: Unless Wikileaks puts out a statement about this downtime and/or we find out some other vital information, we’re going to leave this post as is. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TNW Picks: Chrome extensions we love [TNW Lifehacks] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 10:31 PM PST
Here are our favs:
Here’s the interesting thing about our list (and our favs), as we had this discussion in the TNW backchannel, we all realized that we often go through our Chrome extensions and cull out the ones we aren’t using. See, here’s the thing about extensions, plugins, whatever—they all slow your browser down. Oh sure, some are worse than others and only one or two extensions probably won’t cause any noticeable degradation in Chrome (or other browsers), but one of the realizations we’ve had over time is that lean and mean is faster. So, given the fact that lean and mean can make for better browsing … what are my “must have” Chrome extensions? I’m talking about I need these to get my job done. Number one: 1Password. I need that one more than any other and I’d say an hour doesn’t go by when I don’t use it. It’s how I manage all the passwords I have on various sites. Considering 95% of my passwords are randomly generated, I can’t remember them. Only 5-6 passwords are ones that I know, those are just keys to others. After that I’d make sure that I have Xmarks installed (especially now that I’ve been playing with tab syncing). I might stay in Chrome most of the time, but now and then I need all my bookmarks in Safari or (gasp) Firefox or (the horror) IE. The last would probably be the two RSS extensions to subscribe to RSS feeds and (when I use Google Reader) to let me open tabs in the background as I read. I hate having a tab pop up forcing me to click back on GR. So we have the Quora list and our list…what’s on your list?Quora, photo credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nokia’s Ovi Suite version 3 reaches beta, integrates with Ovi Music [TNW Apps] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 10:15 PM PST
This new version tightly integrates Nokia’s Ovi Music application with the suite for the first time, bringing it more into line with the competition, Apple’s iTunes. Ovi Suite benefits over Apple’s software in its ability to download maps direct to the handset saving space and reducing precious mobile bandwidth. According to Nokia’s betalabs site, users will see the following changes in Ovi Suite v3.
Nokia, once the dominant player in the mobile market (and still the overall leader in market share) has been struggling to compete with Apple and Android smartphones in the last couple of years but is hoping that recent releases will be able to help them reverse that trend.image, Nokia Betalabs, Engadget [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Video: Darth Vader hangs out with the Galaxy S in Japanese commercial [TNW Mobile] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 09:49 PM PST
Darth Vader. Ok, so you’re probably thinking “Droid” here – i.e. since Verizon has already paid up for the rights to use the Droid name from Lucas Films, maybe DoCoMo is just going with the whole Star Wars thing right? Well, no, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Neither does Luke’s father (sorry if we spoiled that for you) go around causing havoc with his lightsaber either – DoCoMo has made him into a kind of silent, laid-back companion in the commercial below. The Wall Street Journal says that:
Here’s the subtly funny commercial: [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft offering free Windows Phone 7 handsets this weekend with AT&T contract [TNW Mobile] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 09:39 PM PST
The feedback so far on the Facebook Page is mixed, with responses to the actual devices being generally positive, but with users less happy about being forced into an extended AT&T contract. As one commenter put it:
For those of you that can’t make it to a Microsoft Store, Microsoft will be posting online details of the offer early Friday morning, US time. We’ll update you with that link when it becomes available. Windows Phone 7, released in October, has seen a resurgence in Microsoft’s mobile fortunes as their previous offerings were seen as dated in comparison to the competition from Apple’s iPhone and Android based smartphones.Stay ‘n’ Alive, image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupon UK exec comparing Groupon to Adwords: “we are very cheap”, more effective [TNW Industry] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 08:42 PM PST
“I think the main reason is that we have something that Google does not have and no one else has and that we have really tapped a new market,” said Muhr, before comparing Groupon to AdWords, saying;
Muhr also said that Groupon should keep high margins for a least the next few years saying, “As the industry grows and ages the margins could come down. But I'm fairly confident about the next few years.” Of course, Muhr is a Groupon executive and we’re imagining a shareholder, so not too surprising that he would be bullish on Groupon, both now and in the future, but this is certainly an interesting look at how at least one high level manager at Groupon thinks about how the company fits into the advertising ecosystem, especially compared to Google. We have previously wondered if Google buying Groupon would be good for either side, and Groupon is also reportedly looking around for funding at a $3 billion valuation. Do you agree with Muhr’s assessment of Groupon’s value proposition, especially compared to AdWords? Please let us know in the comments.The Telegraph, Techmeme [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| YouTube top search term in Japan for third year running [TNW Asia] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 08:31 PM PST
In second place, also for the third year in a row, was Japanese Social network Mixi, which YouTube pushed off the top spot in 2008. Microblogging site Twitter is a new entry to the top ten at number 8.
These figures, released yesterday by Yahoo! Japan show that watching online videos on computer and mobile platforms is still very popular in Japan but that tweeting about those videos is also on the increase. Facebook also entered the chart in 2010 at 39th position, showing that they are finally making an impression in the Japanese market although they will have an uphill struggle to knock the local incumbent Mixi out of the top ten..Asiajin, WSJ, image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Flipboard’s new FlipGifts section could redefine shopping catalogs [TNW Media] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 07:36 PM PST
This is a really, really good idea. Why? Well, first of all, as with all of Flipboard, the FlipGifts section recreates the sensation of casually flipping through a magazine, or in this case a shopping catalog. Beyond the curation aspect of it, it’s really the image integration that is super compelling after just flipping through a few pages of FlipGifts. In three flips, we saw images of Blu-Ray players, blenders, watches, a Victoria’s Secret model, cowboy boots, and cologne. That took all of about five seconds to process. One you click on any of the posts you of course see the beginning of the article, but also of course you see the reactions (mostly retweets) in the right hand panel. This could turn into a great way to see what people are saying about the deal you’re looking at. Ok, so that’s about the story right now with FlipGifts, but let’s look into the future a bit. First of all, we can easily imagine retailers lining up at Flipboard’s office to get a custom FlipGifts section built for their stores. Going even further into the future, when tablets are more ubiquitous, we could see people going beyond casually looking at these tablet catalogs at home to even using something like this in-store. Basically, if Flipboard (or someone else perhaps) plays its cards right, it could eventually replace shopping catalogs – that’s got to be a huge market, and one that with some refinement and more partners (the number of sources is a bit limited right now it seems), we see no reason why Flipboard couldn’t go after right now. Here’s some shots of what the FlipGifts section looks like right now: [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To: Build a private collaboration site on WordPress.com in 5 minutes [TNW Lifehacks] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 06:22 PM PST As you have probably gathered by now, I’m a huge fan of WordPress and use it in lots of different kinds of projects. There is one use for WordPress, and WordPress.com especially, and that’s as a collaboration tool. Believe it or not, in about 5 minutes or less you can have a slick, private, WordPress-based collaboration website. I think once you see this, you won’t think of WP in the same way. I’m going to use WordPress.com as the example for this because making a site private and hidden on WordPress.com is just a couple clicks. I’ll talk about how to do this with a self-installed WP setup at the end of the post. If you don’t already have a WordPress.com account…. 1a. Create your WordPress.com account Just in case you’re one of the few people who don’t have an account at WordPress.com, head over there and click the big, orange “Sign up now” button to get started: 1b. Pick your blog address, username, and finish the form. One thing about WordPress.com that people don’t realize that while often you might want your blog address (e.g. tnwteam.wordpress.com) to be the same as your username (e.g. tnwteam), it doesn’t have to be. So you might set the blog address as something for your team, but change the username to something more to your liking. Create a good password, put in your email address and continue. You can edit the profile information if you wish, the important thing is looking for the email from WordPress.com confirming your sign up. When you get the email, click the link (which will send you to your browser). On the page you arrive at, chose the “Login” option, not “View your site” 1c. Make the blog private. Unlike the folks who already have a WordPress account, if you are creating an account and setting up an blog you aren’t asked if you want to make your private or not when you first set up your site. You’ll have to change the setting once you’re logged in and on your site’s Dashboard. From the Dashboard, scroll down to Settings, click the triangle to open the menu and click “Privacy”. Choose the third option for making your blog private and click Save Changes. Jump down to step 3 to continue… If you already have a WordPress.com account…. 2a. If you have a WordPress.com account already, create a new blog Log into WordPress.com, and from the My Blogs menu, select “Register a new blog.” Pick a name/address for the blog and give it a title (if you want). Just above the big orange button are three radio buttons, click the one marked “Private” and then “Create Blog” From there head to the Dashboard of your new blog: 3. Setting P2 as the site’s theme P2 is the successor to Prologue which is an AJAX-powered WP theme that is like blogging-meets Twitter-meets collaboration tool. Automattic uses P2 internally for the exact purpose I’m telling you about here. Scroll down until you see the “Appearance” button on the left. Click it and you’ll come to the screen to pick/change your blog’s theme. In the search box enter “p2″ and click “Search”. You should get only one result. Below the thumbnail for the theme, click “Activate”: 4. Add Users Right now you’re the only person who has access to the blog. That’s not terribly collaborative, is it? If you know the email address your team members use on WordPress.com, just click “Users” on the right and enter the email address. In the Role pull-down menu Select Editor or Author (Editors can edit and delete all content, Authors only their own) for most team members, Administrator if someone is going to help you manage the site: If you have to invite people, click the “Invites” link and check the box to make them a contributor on the site (you can upgrade them to Author or Editor later): 5. Collaborate! That’s it for the set up. Just click the name of your site in the header and you should see something like this:
Post updates, attach files and images, whatever is needed. The “Tag it” space it supposed to act as an organizational tool. Use project names, phases, project segments, whatever works for you here. When you’re ready just click “Post it.” You don’t need to create posts through the regular “New Post” method through the Dashboard (though you still can if you wish). You team can update and reply as needed all right here. Best of all, items someone hasn’t seen will be highlighted in yellow when someone comes back to the site! Team members can focus on the areas of the project (that you’ve set up by using tags) that they are interested in or look at the whole area at once. Best of all not only is the site secure, but you can export the data back out when you’re done in a variety of formats. Not to shabby for something that took five minutes to set up and is completely free! For self-hosted WordPress users: If you have your own hosting space and domain and want to do this yourself, it won’t take much longer, but you will have to do some downloading and installing yourself. After you have a nice, fresh WordPress install ready, go to Appearance and click the “Install Themes” tab, search for P2, install it, and activate it: Click “Plugins” then “Add New”. Search for “registered users only” and install the plugin from Viper007Bond: When the plugin is installed, activate it. Now you’re essentially where WordPress.com folks are. Just add users to your WordPress site and they will be able to get in and no one else. You can, if you wish, to block search engine spiders under “Privacy”, but they can’t get in anyway. It’s a nice extra step though. Here’s how the folks at Automattic talked about P2 over a year ago…old, but still the best descriptor/example I’ve found: Now… Get Collaborating!photo credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apple Store taking $101 off MacBook Air and Pro tomorrow, $41 off iPad [TNW Apple] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 03:24 PM PST Apple has posted its Black Friday deals for the US, with the largest discounts coming on its Mac line, with $101 off the MacBook Air and iMac. The iPad is $41 off (so you can get the 16GB WiFi version for $458 before tax), the pretty expensive to start with 2TB Time Capsule is $51 off (so $448), and the 1TB version and the iPod Touch are $21 off – everything else is either $5 or $11 off. We’d say by far the best deal is the $101 off the new MacBook Airs, as they are Apple’s newest gadget and we’d expect a fair number of them to sell at that price. The iPad at $41 off isn’t that bad either, especially as many people are probably buying them as gifts at this point in the year, as they are just about the #1 “want” tech item of the season. Also, as 9to5 Mac reports, international Apple Stores are currently down right now, which we have confirmed. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| YouTube agrees to revenue-sharing deal with 3 French artistic groups [TNW Europe] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 03:04 PM PST
While the exact revenue split has yet to be determined, Google and the SACD, SCAM (really, that’s their acronym) and ADAGP, Google will compensate the groups retroactively to 2007 when YouTube entered the country. Only videos viewed inside of France’s borders will be covered in the deal, reports Bloomberg. "The sacred link between the fortune of the work and the fortune of the author…the Internet is not a jungle, and an economic model is possible.," said SACD president Laurent Heynemann at a press conference in Paris. Google was also able to reach an agreement earlier this fall with SACEM in France, which represents musical artists.Bloomberg [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Finding New Ways to Measure Success in Social Media [TNW Social Media] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 10:57 AM PST
The difference between popularity and effectivenessThe findings of this survey have to be taken in context. This was not looking at which companies worldwide are the most social, but using the indicator of the Fortune 40 companies that are listed as the most admired. So how does that admiration translate in social terms? While there are some companies in the top 10 of that list that fully deserve their place – such as Disney and Coca-Cola, others are more surprising, such as Apple and Google. Were I to think of the top social companies, these certainly wouldn't be in my top 10. That's where the difficulty comes for what is actually effective, and what is perceived to be effective. Because the whole of Twitter is talking about Apple, does that mean their social media strategy is effective, or that in fact that are an incredibly popular company that is talked about by default, rather than engaging with these conversations directly? To break it down, it's worth looking at one of the companies in more detail, to see how the study translates. A look at Google's social profiles tells us the following : the official Google blog is updated around 3 times per day, including cross-postings from other Google product blogs. Yet although the blogs claim to 'love feedback', this is done through email. You're not allowed to comment on a post in the usual way. Granted Google are a huge company and this would require some serious moderation, but nonetheless I wouldn't equate this with effective engagement, dialogue, or customer service (3 of the 6 Social EQ factors). The official Google Facebook page has over 2 million Likes, and the company updates it at least once every day. That's certainly quality content, but if you click on to see the updates left by 'just others', there are spam comments that haven't been deleted, and not one reply from Google when you scroll back through hundreds of comments. They also hardly ever reply to comments left on their own updates. The same pattern can be seen on their Twitter account – plenty of content and a large amount of followers, but no @ replies or retweets to other users. This may not be indicative of their entire social media effort, but it does tell us a lot. Compare Google's or Apple's social media strategy to someone like Coca Cola, who regularly create engaging content for their readers and invest in diversity of content through Facebook apps etc.. and it's difficult to understand how they ranked above them. Do numbers mean success?If you were to look at this without the numbers, you wouldn't say that this is an effective social media strategy from Google, effectively pushing one-way content through to users, with no engagement. But the difficulty arises from the fact that their followers are in the millions. This means we effectively perceive their social media strategy as effective, or more precisely that the groups in the study viewed numbers as a measure of success or effectiveness. As difficult as this may be for some to accept – we know that the numbers tell only half the story – this is unarguably the perception of social media success. And it sort of confirms what we knew anyway. Importantly this study hasn't come from a company that has come out with their own arguments on social media success, these are the rankings given by a large group of Social Informants, giving their opinion. Now of course this is my interpretation of the study, but it's surprising that this association of success with numbers, is at odds with Evan Krauss, director of APCO Online and his analysis of the research. In an article he said 'We at APCO believe influence is a far more more important gauge than raw numbers'. The study was certainly organised to reflect this, with 'dialogue' being the most heavily weighted of the six factors, equating for 30% of the final score. But rather than looking at the quality of dialogue, i.e. little to none from Google, the wealth of dialogue of their followers was clearly deemed as important. Despite the fact that they were effectively talking to themselves, with no engagement from the organisation. This is without doubt one of the most interesting studies into social media effectiveness that I've seen in a while. It holds a lot of merit and the strategy behind it shows an understanding of social media that we haven't really seen in any previous studies. The sophistication of this model should not be underestimated. But when Nestle are ranked at number 18 (and number 15 for dialogue), you know there's something that's not quite right yet! I hope this study continues and evolves as I think it holds the most potential. I would like to see the approach expanded out to different areas and niche industries, to gain a deeper understanding of social media success. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 25 Nov 2010 10:36 AM PST
Based on the idea that the world’s first multi-touch watch should be designed for the Nano, Scott Wilson, the founder of Chicago-based design studio MINIMAL, made two designs, the TikTok and its premier partner the LunaTik, which both transform the iPod Nano into the world’s coolest multi-touch watches. The watches are hardly just Nanos slapped onto cheap plastic. They are well designed; engineered and manufactured from premium materials that complement the quality of Apple products. Wilson writes, “We wanted to create a product that your friends and strangers would stop you and ask “WTF is that??? And where can I get one?!” The idea was so popular that with 21 days left on the ticker, the project has grabbed the #1 spot for the most money raised on Kickstarter, a whopping $366,009 at the time of this post. In fact, while writing this post, the number went up by $20,000. Watch the video below and donate here. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Access denied: Facebook is banned…where, exactly? [TNW Social Media] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 09:45 AM PST
The recent, albeit short lived, Facebook ban in Saudi Arabia served as a timely reminder that free speech simply doesn’t exist in some parts of the world. No information was revealed as to why the ban was implemented in the first place other than Facebook had ‘crossed a line‘ (according to an anonymous source), and similarly, no reason was given as to why access was opened again. Whenever Facebook falls victim to a country's censorious regime much is written about it, but not quite so much is written when such bans are lifted. And some countries introduce bans sporadically, hence it can be difficult to keep tabs on which countries permit access and which don't. A Short History of The Facebook Ban Bangladesh banned Facebook in May 2010 following the publication of satirical images of the prophet Muhammad on the social networking site. The so called 'social sanction' lasted a mere week. Not long before that, Pakistan had forbidden Facebook too, on the back of an 'Everybody Draw Muhammad Day' campaign launched by some members of the network. Two months later the ban was lifted. Syria is an often cited example of an 'enemy of the Internet', and it's easy to see why. Facebook has been officially banned in Syria since 2007, but obstacles such as the Government-erected firewall are easily circumvented in Internet cafes across the country. And according to Alexa ranking figures, Facebook receives the 8th highest number of visits in Syria – not bad for a website that's supposedly banned. Good old proxy servers, eh? Vietnam has supposedly been refusing users access to Facebook since late 2009. But given that Facebook is seeking inroads into Vietnam via a local Policy & Growth Manager, this is questionable. The only official confirmation of this ban has been a deafening silence from the government on the subject. Oh, and a leaked circular purportedly from the government that stipulated Facebook should be banned. Throw into the equation that Facebook's Alexa ranking in Vietnam is number 6 and it seems that any ban isn't taken all that seriously, despite the apparent compliance of many ISPs. Iran, contrary to popular opinion, doesn't officially ban Facebook. Its history of banning the site has been rather turbulent, however. Facebook had very limited access in Iran from at least 2007, but the ban seemed to have been lifted some time after that. A ban was reintroduced prior to the 2009 elections, but was then lifted again a few days later following criticism. At the time, 150,000 Iranians were members of Facebook. This isn't to say Iran is the Internet's best friend, however. In early 2010, a list of banned websites was published in several local newspapers, which stated that sites such as BBC and Badoo weren’t to be used. And anyone found guilty of using such websites could face a long stint behind bars. China, it's safe to say, does ban Facebook. Although a hundred thousand users are filtering through the cracks in the great firewall of China though. But that’s paltry, from a population of 1.3 billion people, in a country that Mark Zuckerberg would so dearly love to get involved with. Very little reliable data exists with anything relating to North Korea, but it's safe to say that Kim Jong-il doesn't permit access to Facebook, or any website for that matter. With world domination high on the Facebook agenda, don’t be surprised if Facebook continues to go from strength to strength in many countries. But similarly, don’t be surprised if you read about many more short-term and prolonged bans in the future either.BBC, The Register, Reuters, Economist, Mashable, The Telegraph [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Twitter narrowly beats out munchable chili oil in survey of products hot in Japan [TNW Asia] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 09:23 AM PST
The iPad was no match for munchable chili oil, however, finishing 19th in the survey to munchable chili oil’s #3 spot, following smartphones at #1 and Twitter at #2. Munchable chili oil (we just can’t stop saying that, it’s so hot!) wasn’t the only let’s say “only-in-Japan” result in the top ten, with LED light bulbs at #10, the Toyko Sky Tree (a still being built broadcasting tower) at #7 and Ryoma Sakamoto, a historical figure in a popular Samurai drama. Some more understandable (outside of Japan) results were flat-screen TVs and the World Cup. Here’s the full list:
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| Sorry Apple, radio apps really aren’t the same as fart apps [TNW Media] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 08:31 AM PST
The Register reports on a letter to the editor of Radio Magazine in which Jim Barcus, president of app publisher DJB Radio Apps, complains that Apple started rejecting single-station radio apps on 10 November. The reason? Barcus was apparently told, "Single station app are the same as a FART app and represent spam in the iTunes store”. Apple “will no longer approve any more radio station apps unless there are hundreds of stations on the same app." When he emailed Steve Jobs directly to complain, Jobs reportedly replied in typically brief fashion “Sorry, we've made our decision". Now, I know Apple makes a lot of idiosyncratic decisions entirely in its own interests, and it's perfectly entitled to do that. However, this makes absolutely no sense at all. Individual radio station apps serve up unique content, this is nothing like yet-another-identical-fart-app. If Barcus’ account is accurate, the move is likely to frustrate radio stations large and small alike. Being able to say "Download our own app" is a lot better than saying "Find us on app X in the "Country music category in the "US" submenu – or find us on app B in the "American music category". What's more, individual apps allow radio stations to control any in-app advertising and extra content they may want to include. If you're getting rid of those, you might as well remove all single outlet news apps too – it's exactly the same principle. Could Apple be doing this because it plans to launch its own radio service of some kind? Possibly, but surely it would want to wipe out the apps that offer multiple stations too in that case. There's no talk of existing single-station apps being removed, but those who have yet to submit their apps and any new radio stations just getting off the ground would appear to be out of luck. We've approached Apple for comment and will let you know if we hear any clarity on this frankly bonkers-sounding policy.The Register [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coca Cola vending machines to support mobile payments [TNW Mobile] Posted: 25 Nov 2010 08:27 AM PST
NFC is a short-range wireless technology that allows the exchange of data between devices. By outfitting its vending machines with the technology, Coca Cola will enable consumers to simply hold their NFC tag (currently a sticker on a mobile phone) in front of the the reader on the vending machine to make payment for their beverage. As Mobile Entertainment notes, the functionality could soon be built into the SIM card of a handset. Coca Cola’s announcement comes shortly after US mobile operators announced they would be combining to offer a wireless payment system for their customers. NFC is gradually starting to be adopted as the next generation in mobile payments, coming away from internet based transactions and ushering in a new contactless way to purchase. As Stijn Vander Plaetse, VP Innovation at Belgian operator Belgacom notes:
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Twitter has become synonymous with breaking news in the last few years, regularly beating the major news channels to breaking stories. This week’s Korean attacks, for example, appeared on Twitter before any of the major news outlets picked up the story. So, when a report appears on Twitter, users tend to take it seriously.
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Soft drink behemoth Coca Cola is working with european payments specialist PingPing to incorporate NFC (Near Field Communication) into its vending machines, incorporating it into machines in Belgium and Luxembourg before the end of 2010.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Next Web To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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