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Real Time Web - The Third Leg of Marketing
What to see more slides on this topic, check out ReadWriteWeb's article on the topic
Social Media, Mobile and Web Innovation by Calgary local Roger Kondrat
Real Time Web - The Third Leg of Marketing
What to see more slides on this topic, check out ReadWriteWeb's article on the topic
Mark Zuckerberg wants to help users connect to "higher quality content"Facebook set out its stall to unseat Google and be at the heart of the web experience as it becomes more social.
The world's largest social network unveiled a series of products at its developer conference F8 aimed at helping the company achieve that goal.
These tools will make it easier for users to take their friends with them as they browse the web.
"We are building toward a web where the default is social," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder.
"If you look back a few years ago and even as recently as today, in most cases the web isn't designed to use your friends. They don't assume you have a real identity but we are seeing that seep in more and more.
"We want to be one of the things that empowers that and right now most users are using Facebook and we hope we can be a good force in driving that forward," Mr Zuckerberg told the BBC during a news conference.
He added that the "web was at a turning point" and that the way forward was to have friends, or what Mr Zuckerberg called "your social graph", to guide you online.
"One of the points Mr Zuckerberg was making was that the web has become a lot less anonymous and Facebook is definitely positioning itself as wanting to be the owner of that information," said Maya Baratz of the Huffington Post.
Personalisation
At the F8 conference in San Francisco, Mr Zuckerberg unveiled a number of products aimed at putting users and their friends at the "centre of the web".
The most significant was an open graph protocol to let publishers tag their content by type along with a "Like" button that partner sites put on their webpage. This allows users to indicate what they like on a website, be it from photographs to news items and from clothes to music.
Facebook says it will serve 1 billion "Likes" on the web in 24 hoursThat information will then be stored by Facebook the way it already stores connections between people. At the same time any website will be able to take those individual preferences and use them to tailor a more "personalised online experience" for the user and their friends.
Facebook said this means its members will see a web that caters to their individual tastes.
Crucially all this can only happen when users are logged into Facebook and "makes it easy to make any page (on the internet) a Facebook page," said Bret Taylor, Facebook's director of platform.
Business opportunity
Mr Zuckerberg described the features he presented at the conference as "the most transformative thing we've ever done for the web".
Justin Smith, founder of InsideFacebook.com said there are a lot of business upsides to this product.
Facebook has overtaken Google as the most visited US website"When someone "likes" your page, that is a valuable action because it means you will be able to publish updates directly to them in the future which could be used for a variety of purposes like promoting traffic to your website or advertising anything you want."
Some of the early adoptees of the "Like" button include CNN, the movie site IMDb.com, ESPN and Levi's.
Levi's will integrate the "Like" function on its e-commerce site as well as build a "friend" store where consumers logged into Facebook will be able to see a list of their friend's favourite products and shop online with them.
"We're creating a new shopping experience that will change the way people shop online," said Jodi Bricker, vice president of digital at Levi's.
'Audacious and a bit scary'
So what does this mean for Google, the world's most powerful internet company with billions of users who access the web using hyperlinks?
"People are discovering information not just through links to web pages but also from the people and the things they care about," Mr Zuckerberg told a conference hall of around 1,500 developers.
Facebook has more than 400 million users who share 25 billion things a monthOm Malik, founder and editor of the technology blog GigaOM.com told BBC news "even a blind man can see this is a Facebook versus Google battle and in many ways if the web is going to be more social then that plays to Facebook's strengths."
Damon Cortesi, founder of social media company UntitledStartup, agreed.
"Facebook has won the internet," he told technology blog ZDnet.com
"Facebook has always been social, but in terms of dominating the web over Google they have made strides today."
But Mr Malik sounded a note of caution.
"The whole idea to socialise the whole web is fairly impressive, audacious and a bit scary. I am very scared about the privacy issues around this initiative. They haven't really been very clear as to how consumers will have more control over the things they do on the web."
The issue of privacy has been something of a thorn in Facebook's side. It has suffered backlashes in the past over moves to change users privacy settings.
"Nothing we have released changes any of the privacy protections we have," said Elliot Schrage, the company's vice president of public policy and communications.
"We're providing new opportunities for people to have a social experience if they want it."
via news.bbc.co.uk
My Comments: Some interesting insight into what Zuckerberg is trying to do for his customers and the web in general.
Premier douche-bag Mark Zuckerberg [of Facebook] gets a thrashing from Walt of AllThingsD @ their conference.
Jason Calacanis had this to say about Mark Zuckerberg, "You can't trust this guy! He's avoiding the questions! Look at him sweating! The Golden Boy Emperor has no clothes!"
I have been apparently like Jason for the past year verbalizing similar thoughts. I have told people that Facebook is successful but it is a trainwreck in the making, with a guy at the helm that doesn't follow my Dad's famous words of wisdom as I started my first company at 16, 'hire people smarter than you Roger and then listen to them'.
Mark you have smart people all you have to do is LISTEN to them and if you are and this is the shit you are in, fire them and get new advisors. I am small agency in Calgary and the thing I want most more than clients and more than money is good partners to grow with. Good partners that know better than me about the millions of things I need to do to make my company successful. You Mark do not have this problem, so don't expect any simpathy from anyone.
Now fix your shit and lets get on with our lives.
PS. I was number 1434 to join the QuitFacebook movement and although I didn't follow through on that websites' timeline I am still watching very very carefully for a chance to leave your site Export button or not for a competitor!
PPS. Did you notice how much the guy babbled and sweated like a lost puppy up there? Sheesh someone throw that guy a bone and some speaking lessons.
I think Palm should buy this ad and use it to do some marketing. Just buying it would make the news, definitely a good all around PR/Marketing plus for a struggling brand with an amazing product.
Thanks to @nscafe for bringing this video to my attention.
Today I started using Posterous with any kind of seriousness and I have already found a huge problem and that is their Post.ly service.
Since we launched in Toronto, Calgary and now Edmonton yesterday, we've learned a lot... like how to balance the complexity of making changes to a massive infrastructure like ours (a billion dollars is a lot of equipment) with the immediacy of the customer conversation.
We're trying to achieve this balance by acknowledging the conversation we're having with customers, at the same time as sharing these suggestions within the WIND team, making decisions to execute, and moving forward where we can. I wanted to say thank you for the continuing conversation, and update you on one of your requests that we're moving forward on.
There's been a lot of community conversation around the early cancellation fees (ECF) charged by the incumbents. My preference would be that the whole concept of ECF in the market would be eliminated by the government or the industry as being patently unfair to customers.
I understand and support customers paying for the services and hardware that they have used and will keep, but paying for future services? No way.
However, I don't see that change happening any time soon, so we've decided to launch an offer with some help for customers looking to pay off their ECF with the incumbents.
WIND will provide you $150 in credit on your account to help offset the "sting". No questions asked. Just port your number from any of the other operators before the end of March, and we'll credit your account with $150. It's that simple.
And if you're an existing WIND customer and ported your number, just call 1-877-946-3403 (or 611 from your WIND phone) to get the 411 on how you can get this offer too.
We also have more details here on the site, and our retail team is always happy to see you, too.
-Chris
This is a great deal, if you are thinking of switching but haven't because of the ECF charges. Wind will give you $150 credit to join their network once you port your number. Seems rather supportive of their business AND their customer. I like that.
What does this mean from a society perspective, I don't know. From a marketing perspective this is definitely further evidence that the Internet is becoming the ultimate media channel, overtaking TV, Radio and Newspapers/Magazines as the primary source of information, fashion and communication. What do you think?
This product looks absolutely amazing and if it proves to be truly commercial will probably be the godfather to even better products. Older generations have the Moon/Apollo missions, we have the Internet, what do our kids have? Texting? This could be the beginning of their future. Fingers crossed.
