This is way too cool! Sci-Fi becomes reality, with these augmented reality glasses from Google. Can’t wait until they come out later in the year. I do ponder practical issues, how long will the battery last, will the 3g (or 4g) network will be good enough?? …. read the full story at Mashable
Google Hotpot is an interesting step in to personalised search and I’m sure in time will change the way we search online. However, it brings up a few questions:
Will it change the way we optimise content to ensure that we consider the personal touch?
Is it just a ploy to get more information on users to target ads to (Al la Facebook)?
How will it affect the ‘real world’? Businesses will really have to watch their back when it comes to customer service (which isn’t a bad thing). I am all for recommendation, but as a nation (UK) we tend to slate things rather than praise. I would be concerned about customers impulsively reviewing via mobile with out thought or consideration.
Also, how will they moderate? With all the controversy surrounding Trip Advisor at the moment, is this the right time to launch a recommendation product?
Anyway, Google have made this cheesy video that explains how it works (found via a promoted Tweet no less):
Every wondered what SEO is about? I have been explaining it in lengthy presentations and documents for ages now. All along there was this rap that explains it all! It is fantastic! Thanks to the creator @chuck
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The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has released a widget that gives travel alerts. Also via the Direct Gov Innovate site you can access to the API so you can create your own app!! This is the first time a government department have communicated on the web in this way. Hopefully it will be a success!
Recently I have discovered a website called www.fiverr.com (thanks @rubyq) where people will do pretty much whatever you want for $5… From promoting your website to writing a song, doing a rap or making a short video! It really shows there are people on the web who are really willing to do anything for little money. The site is hosted in the US, but there is a UK version (That isn’t as good).
These are 2 videos that my boss commissioned after we won a new business (the 2nd guy is clearly insane):
Digital Team Awesome!!! from Drama Queenteam on Vimeo.
Digital Team Awesome!!! (part 2) from Drama Queenteam on Vimeo.
I urge you to check out the new Arcade Fire interactive video. It is amazing! You need to use Google Chrome, and it is processor intensive, but well worth it. You have to enter your address where you grew up as a kid… this is so the app can pull information from Google Earth (or Maps?). The track is pretty good to0. Check it out at thewildernessdowntown.com/
Sony have put out this funny ad in the US to demostrate the power of 3D:
It looks as though Disney is going all out with the social media strategy for Toy Story 3. I blogged a few weeks ago about their interesting YouTube campaign, now they have become the 1st brand to have a promoted trend on Twitter! The top tweet in the trend is the promoted Disney tweet:
It will be interesting to see how many promoted topics Twitter will allow at any one time, as it will be shame to see the topic list littered with these trend.
After a good year of speculation Twitter announce their revenue model last April…. this is how it works:
YouTube has just celebrated its 5th birthday (thanks for the free cake, beach ball and towel!), it is amazing how much they have achieved in a relatively short space of time, according to YouTube there is about 20 hours of video uploaded every minute.
So, how do you define YouTube? According to them, they are the 2nd biggest search engine (of course they are not the 1st, that crown goes to their owners Google!), but is it a search engine? Yes, the site has a search capability, however a search engine?? Surely it lacks the basic search engine function? The ability to find other sites!
So, it is a social network? According to recent Hitwise research that states ‘Social networks are now more popular than search engines in the UK’ and that ‘Facebook accounts for 55% of all UK social networking visits, almost three times as many as the next most popular social network, YouTube’. A social network?? Really? I’m not so sure….. yeah you have a profile, and can comment on videos, but social networking?
I’m with Wikipedia on this one who say ‘YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos’!
What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts #whatisyoutube
This is an amazing advert, must have cost a bit! Over 800,000 views in a few days!! Looking forward to seeing it on an HD TV!
Social media transforms people from content consumers into content producers. – Wikipedia.org