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November 28, 2006
Switched broadcast
Scott Brown wrote about something very interesting in a recent "Video Insider" from MediaPost, called switched broadcast. In essence, it has to do with technology that would allow cable companies to send only the channel that your TV is requesting to your set-top box instead of all 500 channels simultaneously (as they do now).
Sending only one channel at a time frees up bandwidth on the network for other things.
It is those "other things" that I'm interested in. The whole "Web 2.0" thing has brought us some very interesting advances in technology and the Internet. Primarily, it has opened up even more options for individuals to showcase their skills and creativity and has further challenged traditional media owners (the recording industry, the film industry) and media creators (production companies, ad agencies, musicians, news organisations) to be at the top of their game.
At the same time, the Web 2.0 craze seems like it's losing momentum in some respects. There are definitely too many companies coming along trying to be "the next [enter Web 2.0 company name here]." And there are too many investors trying to get in on the game, spending too much money on ideas that are likely to never go anywhere, especially the copycat Web 2.0 sites. The "Social Networking" game is over, sure there are ways to connect people that are different to Facebook or MySpace, and photo sharing sites that work slightly different to Flickr or Photobucket, and a million video sharing sites popping up. But for the most part, these brands (Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube) are already best-in-class and are not going to be overtaken by a slightly different version of the same technology, unless you are making dramatic improvements to the functionality... or, as Facebook has done, an advancement to the idea of "Web 2.0" social networking by opening your API and allowing people to extend the user experience by developing within your framework.
I was in Gatwick Airport about three months ago and overheard some teenagers talking about setting up their Social Networking pages. One of them said he was using Facebook (and I believe it was because he felt that there were better looking girls on Facebook) when the girl said "Why don't you just create a MySpace page." His response that MySpace takes too long to setup. To that she said "I was able to set mine up in a two days." And he said, "Exactly, two days too long." Just as I was ready to begin rushing off to tell my clients about Facebook, the third teenager said, "yeah but everyone's already on MySpace..." a comment that ended their debate in agreement. Funny that now Facebook is one of the fastest growing sites in the world and is attracting people that none of the other Social Networks could manage to appeal to (even my dad has a Facebook page, no offense dad), apart from perhaps Friends Reunited.
And that's my point... If you are going to get into "Web 2.0" then do something groundbreaking.
What will be the next remarkable product to come along and forever change how we look at the Internet, and at ourselves?
I like the idea of video editing via the Web, and I like how Google is offering a document editor (similar to Microsoft Word) and spreadsheet editor (similar to Microsoft Excel), but these don't exactly take us to a whole new level.... so what is it?
I can see Interactive TV really taking off, and I'm sure that there will be people that come along with completely new ways to deliver television programming as a result. Miro is headed in that direction, as are countless others I can see.
I can also see gaming going to a whole new level, especially in the more mature audiences... but what else?
Will SecondLife become a completely virtual world that you walk around and talk in (like you do when you play XBox Live)? It seems so as VoIP is about to penetrate SL.
I applaud the people that are pushing the Internet to the next level... and hope to be working with you or taking advantage of your next groundbreaking creation.
Posted by Andrew Spencer at 12:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 20, 2006
Think SEO isn't important to online recruiting?
If you are one of those people (and most of you are) that thinks that SEO isn't important to your online recruiting strategy...think again.
Matthew Martone's blog post about changes to Google's AdWords Landing Page Quality Rankings (from this Google Article) blew me away. In it, he says:
"Well optimized career site landing pages have an even greater opportunity to be visible and attract the less-active and passive job seekers using the Search Engines.
Poorly optimized career site landing pages, which is very common, will result in even more missed opportunities to attract job seekers and convert them to applicants."
He even includes some recommendations on optimising your pages...
I highly recommend that people begin looking at SEO in the HR and recruiting world...
Posted by Andrew Spencer at 09:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 03, 2006
It's all going mobile...
I just received this in an e-newsletter from MediaPost:
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This morning, Google said it had created a new application that will allow mobile users to quickly retrieve e-mail on their cells. The new app supposedly will make a cell phone more like a BlackBerry by enabling faster e-mail access; Google said it will employ "automatic pre-fetching" technology, which will let users receive messages up to five times faster than in the past.
Cingular this morning also unveiled plans to let consumers buy music tracks for download to their phones. Cingular competitors already have beefed up the content they offer via cell phones, and many expect that Apple will eventually launch its combined phone-iPod.
Additionally, YouTube chief exec and co-founder Chad Hurley said the company wanted to branch out into mobile in the next year. Speaking at an ad conference in New York, Hurley reportedly said: "Within the next year we hope to have something on a mobile device." He continued, "It's going to be a huge market, especially for the video mind-set we're dealing with."
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YouTube on mobile is very cool to me. I like the thought of being able to make short movie clips of my son and my family and friends in the US being able to watch it on their phone, from wherever they are in the world.
Posted by Andrew Spencer at 02:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack