Home � � Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Disney Makes a Big Bet on Geolocation with Gowalla”

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Disney Makes a Big Bet on Geolocation with Gowalla”

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Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Disney Makes a Big Bet on Geolocation with Gowalla”

Disney Makes a Big Bet on Geolocation with Gowalla

Posted: 18 Nov 2010 05:00 AM PST


Disney has decided to partner with location service Gowalla — rather than Facebook or Foursquare — for an immersive location-based campaign to help people explore its flagship Disneyworld and Disneyland parks.

The Gowalla/Disney partnership focuses around custom Passport pages that not only show off Disney-branded stamps (Gowalla’s version of Badges), but also a photo and check-in stream. Gowalla’s Disney page also offers Disney-branded pins that users can earn by completing specific trips within Disneyworld and Disneyland.

This isn’t just a few Stamps and a check-in stream, though; Gowalla and Disney have created literally hundreds of Stamps for rides and locales within the two parks. Everything from the fireworks show to “Finding Nemo-The Music” offers a Stamp or Pin that can be earned by checking in.

This is a major win for Gowalla; Disney is the world’s most-recognized entertainment brand, and any form of promotion by Disney should drive new users and extra attention to the location-based service. It’s struggled to keep a high profile in the face of stiff competition from Foursquare, which raised $20 million earlier this year, and Facebook, whose Places feature recently got a new Deals platform.

Neither Foursquare nor Facebook seem suited for creating the type of exploration experience that Disney likely wanted to deliver to its audience, which is why the Gowalla partnership makes some sense to us. Still, location is far from mainstream and its unclear how many people Mickey Mouse can drive to adopt the checkin.

More About: disney, gowalla, location

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Apple to Launch iAd in Europe in December

Posted: 18 Nov 2010 03:29 AM PST


Apple’s mobile advertising platform iAd is coming to the UK and France in December, as well as Germany in January, the company has announced.

iAd is one of the crucial features of iOS 4.0, bringing HTML5-powered interactive ads to Apple’s mobile platform, letting users stay within their current application while engaging with an ad.

Citing Advertising Age, Apple claims that over half of the top 25. leading advertisers in the U.S. have signed up for the platform. According to the IDC, the projected share of iAd’s mobile display ad revenue in the U.S. for 2010 is 21 percent.

At launch, users can expect to see ads from L’Oréal, Renault, Louis Vuitton, Nespresso, Perrier, Unilever, Citi, Evian, LG Display, AB InBev, Turkish Airlines and Absolute Radio.

More About: advertising, apple, iAd

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Microsoft’s Kin One and Two are Back at Verizon

Posted: 18 Nov 2010 12:43 AM PST


As announced in a leaked Verizon road map a few days ago, Microsoft’s Kin One and Kin Two are back in Verizon’s inventory.

Kin One now costs $119.99 or $19.99 with a two-year contract while the larger, more powerful Kin Two will set you back $219.99 or $49.99 with a two-year contract. The Kin Two is also subject to Verizon’s “buy one, get up to 3 select phones free” promotion, again with a two-year activation per phone.

The Kins are treading the delicate line between a feature phone and a smartphone; as such, many users thought the smartphone-like data plans they were coming with were too expensive. Now both devices are coming with more flexible data plans, but the question remains: will it be enough to spark interest for the devices which were pulled from the shelves after only three months on the market?

[Kin One, Kin Two]

More About: feature phone, Kin, kin one, kin two, microsoft, Mobile 2.0, verizon

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John Doerr vs. Fred Wilson: Are We In a Startup Bubble or Boom? [VIDEO]

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 11:49 PM PST


Yesterday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, two prominent figures of venture capital took the stage and engaged in a heated and very lively debate.

John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Fred Wilson, a partner at Union Square Ventures, began their conversation cordially enough, but disagreements quickly sprung up.

Doerr is known for his investments in Sun Microsystems, Amazon, Compaq, Google and Netscape. He is one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture capitalists, boasting a net worth north of $1.7 billion. Fred Wilson, on the other hand, is one of New York’s best-known VCs, leading investments in companies such as Twitter, Etsy, FeedBurner and Delicious. His widely read blog, A VC, is one of the most influential in the web startup space.

These two titans of startup investment first disagreed on Facebook (Wilson says it’s not an unstoppable juggernaut); they also butted heads over the state of venture capital (Wilson calls it a bubble, Doerr calls it a boom) and on Google (Wilson and Doerr disagree on whether the company is still innovating).

Check out the YouTube clip below to see Fred Wilson call John Doerr “the Michael Jordan of Venture Capital” after duking it out with the legendary VC:

Reviews: Amazon.com, Delicious, Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube

More About: fred wilson, iFund, John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins, sfund, Silicon Valley, Union Square Ventures, venture capital, W2S2010, web-2.0

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Our Readers — and Steve Ballmer — Think Windows Phone 7 Will Succeed

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 11:12 PM PST


In a recent poll, we asked whether you thought Windows Phone 7’s chances were in the mobile market.

While other recent Microsoft releases (namely, the Kinect) have seen fabulous sales at launch, Windows Phone 7-powered devices reportedly limped in with just 40,000 units sold during the OS’ first day on the market.

At a shareholder meeting today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was enthusiastically specific about Kinect’s sales and goals, but he became much more general when discussing the company’s latest mobile OS, saying that Windows Phone 7 was “off to a great start… It marks the beginning, we think, of a new era in smart phones. The response has been really fantastic.”

Whether that “response” refers to actual sales numbers we haven’t yet seen or rather to the general feeling of consumers toward Windows Phone 7 devices isn’t clear.

What is clear, however, is that most Mashable readers don’t have overwhelmingly negative opinions of the Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Almost 43% of respondents said they thought Windows Phone 7 would succeed for one reason or another, versus 37.4% who said they thought the OS would fail.

While some of our poll respondents said that Microsoft had lost its touch when it came to mobile OSes, many more of you said that Windows Phone 7 would succeed because it’s simply a good product. In fact, out of all possible responses, this one got the most votes:

And of those who thought Windows Phone 7 would be a success, a full 85.5% said that success would be on the strength of the product itself rather than marketing or other causes.

For those who thought the OS wouldn’t do well, the majority said that Windows can’t match the strength of its dominant competitors, iOS and Android.

Of course, a large group of respondents correctly said that it’s probably too soon to tell exactly how Windows Phone 7 will perform in the long run:

What do you make of these poll results — and of Windows Phone 7 — so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Reviews: Android, Mashable, Windows

More About: microsoft, Mobile 2.0, sales, windows phone 7

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AT&T Gets a MiFi To Call Its Own

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 10:39 PM PST


Not one to let a bandwagon roll right by, AT&T is getting a MiFi to call its own.

MiFi devices have risen to prominence over the past year or so. Unlike the typical USB dongles that serve mobile broadband directly to your computer, a MiFi creates a short range Wi-Fi network. The advantage is that multiple devices and computers (usually up to five), can simply connect via Wi-Fi. This eliminates the need for cumbersome mobile drivers, since they work on standard 802.11 b/g wireless protocols.

It might be passe to bash AT&T’s coverage capabilities at this point, but, with its track record of poor service, we’re questioning who would select AT&T as a mobile broadband provider versus the viable MiFi devices already on the market from Verizon and Sprint.

In any event, you’ll be able to pick up the AT&T Mobile Hotspot MiFi 2372 on November 21 for $50 after a $100 mail-in rebate. Monthly pricing will be $35 for 200MB or $60 for 5GB of data.

More About: att, MiFi, sprint, verizon, wan

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Facebook and MySpace to Make Joint Announcement on Thursday

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 10:06 PM PST


Facebook and MySpace are set to make an unprecedented join announcement tomorrow, according to an invite sent to Mashable.

“Please join us for an invitation-only announcement by Mike Jones, CEO of Myspace, and Dan Rose, VP of Partnerships and Platform Marketing, Facebook,” states the invite. The announcement is set to take place tomorrow, November 18, at 12:00 PM PT via webcast.

Our best clue as to what the two companies will announce is that Facebook’s VP for Platform Marketing will be making the joint announcement on behalf of Facebook. If we had to guess, we’d say the announcement will be related to MySpace using the Facebook Platform or Facebook Connect.

MySpace’s recent overhaul of their entire site and UI places the company directly in the entertainment vertical and out of direct competition with Facebook. Now that the company is focusing on content, Facebook Connect or platform integration make sense as a way to increase distribution.

Let us know what you think Facebook and MySpace might announce in the comments.


Reviews: Facebook, MySpace

More About: facebook, invitation, myspace

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For Holiday Advertising, Target Takes Aim at #BlackFriday

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 09:52 PM PST


A week and a half before retail’s biggest day of the year, Target has bought the Twitter hashtag #BlackFriday.

The retail giant is using this promoted trend as a way to publicize a daily gift card sweepstakes between now and Saturday, November 27. This Wildfire-powered giveaway has users tweeting about the sweepstakes — tweets that, of course, include the #BlackFriday hashtag. Publicity that publicizes itself is so meta.

Target’s link from Twitter sends users to a promotional page focused on its two-day Black Friday sale. Target is also giving web shoppers special daily deals from this page.

While the hashtag, like any, carries its share of spam, a large number of real users are weighing in on Black Friday shopping plans (or working woes, for those who labor in retail). Target’s ad is a timely and appropriate entry into the ongoing conversation; at the same time, it amplifies the conversation as users jump on the trending topic bandwagon to discuss Black Friday and their holiday wishlists.


Twitter’s promoted trends are the kind of ad inventory that Ev Williams was talking about today at Web 2.0 Summit when he said that brands are demanding more ads than Twitter has available to sell them. In fact, the former Twitter CEO said the supply-demand ratio for ads had become the company’s biggest challenge.

Target itself is no stranger to smart inclusion of social media into its marketing and sales mix. Just yesterday, Target announced a partnership with location startup Shopkick to offer rewards for user checkins; at the end of the summer, the retailer worked with Gilt Groupe, a private-sale network, to promote its designer lines. And earlier this fall, the retailer began selling Facebook credits in stores.

What do you think: Is hashtag marketing going to generate great returns for Target and other major brands that experiment with Twitter advertising?

Reviews: Twitter

More About: advertising, black friday, MARKETING, Target

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Automatically Share What You Browse with Friends [INVITES]

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 08:25 PM PST


The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Sitesimon

Quick Pitch: Share your click stream with friends in real time and increase your influence score by discovering good content first.

Genius Idea: Sharing what you find online can be a great way to stay in touch with your network and become a valuable social media connection. And there are scores of services to aid you in this mission. There are different services to help you share multiple links with one short URL, share your text messages, share your music, share photos, and share videos.

Instead of managing the tools to accomplish all of this sharing, Sitesimon (pronounced “site simon” though originally contrived as “sites I’m on”) gives users the option to just share everything automatically. Your friends can browse through your click stream and visit the sites that you’ve visited.

Using a browser add-on, you can choose to either select certain sites that you want your friends to see or, if you set the service to automatic, to block from view what you want to keep to yourself (whose Facebook profile you’re visiting 12 times a day, for instance).

The major challenge for the company will be convincing users that Sitesimon is a worthwhile way to share content. The company’s main argument is that what is most interesting on the web isn’t necessarily what people decide to share. Plus, it’s a lot easier to passively share content than to copy, shorten, and broadcast it.

Recently launched competitor Discover.Me lacks the feature that we think might make Sitesimon worth signing up for: a “site score” that measures web influence. Your score improves when you see a web page earlier than other Sitesimon users and when other people on Sitesimon view pages through your click stream. In other words, you’re rewarded for discovering cool stuff on the web, even if you don’t make an effort to broadcast it.

Sitesimon was founded by three recent graduates of NYU and is currently unfunded. Only about a month into private beta, it’s too soon to tell how the concept will catch on. But it will be interesting to see if people are ready for the “all-in” level of sharing that the company is betting on.

Sitesimon is currently in private beta, but 500 Mashable readers can get early access by signing up here.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, 7immy

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Reviews: Facebook, Mashable, iStockphoto

More About: click stream, sitesimon, social browsing, social media

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Facebook Gives App Developers a Cool New Tool

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 07:44 PM PST


Facebook has announced a new feature for app developers. Starting today, you’ll be able to create and use “Test User” accounts for testing your Facebook applications.

With the new, API-controlled accounts, you’ll be able to create ample test users without violating the TOS, and Facebook won’t disable the profile for being fake or for being a spam account.

Devs can create one test user, or an application can make up to 50 test accounts. Any test account can be accessed by any developer associated with that application. To create an test user account, just use the Graph API with the application access token.

With the API, you can make friend connections between various test user accounts without having to login as one particular user and manually accept friend requests. This nicety should make testing app actions among groups of friends a lot easier.

Once you’re done with the test accounts, they can be easily deleted.

Also, as Facebook developer relations head Douglas Purdy noted in the comments on Facebook’s blog post on the subject, test users will be helpful to Facebook engineers working on platform stability.

“This feature is absolutely key for us to be able to work on stability and bugs,” he wrote. “Our hope is that this lets folks build automated tests to give us an early warning into any breaking changes we miss… This should help people give us narrowed repro of bugs they encounter in their test suites.”

There are a few limits as to what you can do with a test user. Test accounts can’t interact with real users, and they can’t interact with public content, such as a post on a Page. Test users will only have test privileges for the app, and they can’t be converted to non-test accounts.

Given these improvements in how Facebook handles app testing, the company plans to disable all old test accounts and its developer test network by the end of the year.

What do you think of Facebook’s new test user tools? Will they make developing apps easier for you?

Reviews: Facebook, test

More About: apps, developers, facebook, facebook apps

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The Two Reasons News Corp. Joined Hulu

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 06:43 PM PST


Peter Chernin, the former President and COO of News Corp., says he had two things in mind when he helped start Hulu: DVRs and piracy.

On stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Chernin was asked by New York Magazine’s John Heilemann about his role in creating Hulu and why he steered Fox to co-create it in the first place.

From the Hulu blog, here is a good explanation of Chernin’s role in starting Hulu:

“For those who aren't aware, Peter Chernin, along with Jeff Zucker (CEO of NBC/Universal), are the two most important reasons why Hulu exists. Hulu, or to be precise, NewCo., started as a handshake agreement between those two leaders. Peter and Jeff became the nucleus of what was to become Hulu's Board of Directors.”

“Going in, I had two things in mind,” Chernin stated. Primarily, he was focused on competing with DVRs. The problem, he elaborated, is that DVRs time-shifts content and, more importantly, lets users fast-forward through commercials, which account for the vast bulk of TV revenue.

“The DVR is a fairly negative development for content creators,” he stated emphatically.

The second reason why he got so involved with Hulu was to combat piracy. Instead of taking the music industry’s approach to piracy (suing the users), he offered a new method of fighting piracy. “You fix it by offering them a clean, easy-to-use, reliable service at an appropriate price,” Chernin said to the applause of the audience.

Chernin is still bullish on the company he helped start. He says there is huge, pent-up demand for video advertising on the web. Hulu, he mentioned, gets double the CPMs of broadcast television because it has much lower ad load; you can’t fast-forward through the ads; and it offers an active, “lean forward” experience rather than a passive, “lean back” experience. Hulu ads are also among the best-testing ads in terms of recall.

Three years ago, few believed Hulu could really succeed as a business model, but as its CEO revealed last week, it will make $240 million in revenue this year and now has 30 million users and 352 advertising clients. We’d say that Chernin’s vision has been vindicated.

Reviews: Hulu

More About: Chernin, hulu, netflix, ONLINE VIDEO, Peter Chernin

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Roku Gets Hulu Plus Support [CONTEST]

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 06:07 PM PST


Today, Roku came through on a promise to update its software and bring Hulu Plus support to all of its devices.

Earlier today, Hulu Plus officially left its testing phase and lowered its pricing to $7.99 per month. As we’ve reported, a ton of different devices, including the PlayStation 3, Roku, TiVo Premeire, the Xbox 360 and Vizio TVs and Blu-ray players would soon be getting Hulu Plus.

Whether you are using one of the new XDS units or an older model, you can now enjoy Hulu Plus content on the big(ger) screen. We took a few minutes to play with the Hulu Plus implementation on Roku, and we were impressed.

Roku has kept the interface pretty consistent with the standard Hulu UI, making it easy to browse through content and manage your queue. You can easily add shows to your queue or start watching them automatically.

The video quality was very good; it looked great on our TV set and was responsive to playback controls. You can scan through content by browsing by title, genre or your own queue.

The interface isn’t quite as snappy or inventive as Roku’s new Netflix app; but it’s here, and it’s on TV.

The Roku HD starts at just $59.99, making it one of the cheapest ways to get Hulu Plus content on your TV.

Roku XDS Giveaway

To celebrate Roku adding Hulu Plus, we’re giving away 25 Roku XDS media streaming devices. The XDS is Roku’s flagship product, with support for full 1080p HD video and built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi. It allows you to stream everything from video content on Netflix to our streaming music from MOG – oh, and Hulu Plus, too.

How to Enter the Contest:

  • Tell us what media you’d stream on the Roku XDS
  • Tweet your answer with a link to this post and using #mashroku OR
  • Submit your answer in the comments below and like this post on Facebook OR
  • Submit your answer to the Mashable HQ Tumblr

Submit your answer by Friday, Nov. 19 at 12 p.m. ET. Please use your real identity in the submission so we can contact you via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook to let you know you’ve won. We’ll announce the winners next week after the contest closes. At this time, the contest is limited to U.S. residents 18 and older.

[Hulu Plus hands-on demo by Christina Warren]

Reviews: Blu, Facebook, Twitter

More About: hulu plus, MOG, netflix, roku, roku xds

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Twitter Calculates Reputation Scores for Each User

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 05:33 PM PST


Ever wonder how Twitter determines which users to suggest in the Who to Follow section?

Federated Media’s John Battelle posed this question to Twitter co-founder Evan Williams at the Web 2.0 Summit. Part of the answer, according to Williams, is that the company calculates a reputation score for every user.

While Williams — who recently stepped down as Twitter’s CEO to focus on product — did not disclose specifics, he did share that each Twitter user has a reputation score, which the company uses internally as part of its Who to Follow formula. That score may eventually become part of Twitter’s public-facing features, says Williams.

Reputation scores, and influence in particular, have become trendy subject matters in today’s social media world. Startup Klout has developed an entire business around scoring social influence. A Twitter user’s Klout score, for instance, could determine whether he or she gets special treatment from an airline or hotel.

Apparently, Twitter has wrestled with the notion of making its internal version of reputation scores public for some time now. Should it do so — and we hope it will — Twitter could shake up the newly forming market around influence.

Reviews: Twitter

More About: evan williams, influence, klout, reputation, twitter

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Twitter’s Evan Williams on the State of Twitter [LIVE]

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 04:56 PM PST


What does Twitter co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams think of Facebook? Where is its business model going? What is next for one of the web’s hottest companies?

Twitter co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams is on taking the stage here at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. We expect him to discuss the state of Twitter, its competition with Facebook, its growing suite of ad products, its new analytics platform and more.

Here are my live notes from his conversation with Federated Media CEO John Battelle:

Live Notes: Evan Williams

All times are in Pacific Standard Time.

4:55 PM: Williams: Our biggest challenge is that there’s been way too much demand for of ads. That’s why Twitter’s ramping up its sales team.

4:57: Williams is discussing Promoted Trends and some of the advertising campaigns brands the company is initiating.

4:58: Twitter’s co-founder is discussing “resonance,” the algorithm the company uses to figure out whether a promoted tweet or trend stays up based on engagement and other metrics.

4:59: “Twitter’s always been big for events.” Someone bought a promoted trend for #w2s to target the audience here.

5:00: Battelle: Can you say you have a strong revenue model? Williams: The numbers look good. We’re optimistic what it means for our business. We also know we’re at the very beginning of this.

5:01: Williams is discussing the partnership it announced today with Gnip surrounding its firehose of data. The people that want the firehose are people looking at trends. The point was never about making money, he says, but about distribution of tweets, which he thinks is a good thing.

5:03: Battelle, regarding the relationship between Facebook and Twitter: “Can we all just get along?” Will we see Twitter’s firehose on Facebook? Williams responds that he should’ve asked Zuckerberg that yesterday, and he’s frustrated by the tense relationship between Twitter and Facebook.

5:06: Battelle brings up his move from CEO to product head, as well as New Twitter. “What have you learned from that?”

Williams starts with New Twitter. For a long time, they weren’t improving the product he says because they had to focus on scaling. This year, they had the breathing room to build a team to redesign Twitter. Williams wanted to push it further to add new functionality and focus on discovering new content.

Regarding his role change, he said, “This is my fourth role at Twitter.” He’s changed it based on what Twitter needed.

5:09: Battelle: Was it a difficult decision? Did you have nostalgia? Williams: I had to think hard about stepping down as CEO, but I also had to think hard about taking the role of CEO in the first place.

5:10: Williams: “We have a reputation score with every user.” We speculate that if Twitter ever makes those scores public, many social media analytics startups (such as Klout) will suffer as a result.

5:13: Battelle brings up the developer ecosystem question. How can developers know if Twitter will launch something in their vertical? Williams: We’ve screwed up a lot of that. We didn’t set out to be a platform company. We just thought the API would be neat. That’s different than a platform though — you need to really think it through. There’s often tension between platform providers and developers.

5:14: Twitter is a “Model T” type of product — a very basic service that became wildly popular.

5:15: Williams is discussing how Twitter couldn’t be a modern mobile company without its own apps.

5:16: Battelle: “Are photos safe?” Williams: “I don’t know.” He says photos made the consumption experience better. Twitter wants to create a better photo experience, but the company hasn’t determined what that is.

5:18: Investor Chris Dixon recently criticized Twitter for “nuking its ecosystem” by launching products that compete with third party developers. Williams’ primary response was that he’s not going to make the product worse because developers get angry. He also says he doesn’t think Twitter isn’t a fully baked platform yet, but aspires it to be one.

5:24: “I’ve been working on lowering the barrier to publishing for most of my career.” He says it’s a net positive overall.

5:27: An audience member asks if Twitter is working on other languages. Evan Williams says yes, Twitter will roll out more languages by the end of the year.

5:29: Williams is asked about Hope140 and social good. He speaks about Twitter’s Fledgling Wine and the company’s philanthropic efforts. Oh, and go buy some of the Twitter wine for the holidays, he says.

5:31: Williams was asked about secondary markets for Twitter’s stock. He says they weren’t fully prepared for it, not all that happy about it.

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

More About: ev, evan williams, live, twitter, twitter analytics

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Netflix CEO: Long-Form Video Isn’t Meant for Mobile (or iPads)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 04:50 PM PST


Netflix recently released mobile applications for iPhone and iPad. In a panel discussion at the Web 2.0 Summit, CEO Reed Hastings said the impact of these apps on business has been “very little.”

Hastings resolutely believes that consumers are primarily uninterested in streaming long-form video content from Netflix or any other service on their mobile devices. People prefer to watch video on big screens, he argues.

Hastings went on to share that gaming consoles, including PlayStation 3 and Xbox, have had a huge impact on Netflix’s subscriber base and business; but the iPad specifically and mobile app in general haven’t moved the needle. Mac computers, however, have a much larger impact.

Co-panelist and media mogul Peter Chernin agrees with Hastings’s view point, but only as it pertains to the U.S. market. Outside the U.S., Chernin believes that long-form video content will find a more prominent home on mobile devices, because tablets will be in high demand in markets where PCs in the home are less common.

Hastings also has some strong opinions on Internet-connected televisions and Google TV. He predicts that this holiday season, one-third of televisions purchased will have IP built in. That ratio, he believes, will double by the following holiday season. By the end of 2012, he projects that nearly all purchased television sets will be connected to the Internet.

Twitter and Facebook will not profit from this boom in IP TVs, Hastings says. He calls these social and information networks a “mismatch” with the big screen. Twitter would disagree.

Reviews: Facebook, Internet, Twitter

More About: google tv, Mobile 2.0, netflix, video streaming

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5 Invaluable Marketing Lessons from an Epic Campaign for… Cream Cheese?

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 04:02 PM PST

RWoP

Asking kitchen-savvy women to not only invent their own dishes, but also shoot, edit and upload videos to a contest website seems like a recipe for disaster. But when Kraft invited women to do just that in its latest online promotional campaign for Philadelphia Cream Cheese, it got about 5,600 more responses than the 400 it set as its goal. With Paula Deen at its helm, what was intended to be a one-year campaign blossomed into a thriving social network of more than 30,000 women.

“When it was all laid on the table, I couldn’t believe the opportunity. I had to pass on an ‘attagirl’ or a boost to more women out there,” explained Paula Deen at a recent promotional luncheon.

When someone seated at a nearby table reminded Deen that the campaign has also been successful in selling more cream cheese, she looked sarcastically surprised. “It did? I hadn’t even thought of that!” she said.

The truth is that the The Real Women of Philadelphia helped sell quite a bit more cream cheese — 5% more, as of August. As a branded social network, The Real Women of Philadelphia is about as successful as the cream-cheese-infused French Apple Cake that swept the dessert video competition. These four aspects contributed to the campaign’s sweet success:

1. Leverage an Existing Community

Instead of building a network from scratch, the campaign aligned itself with a personality that already had a large following. “This has been kind of like a marriage made in heaven,” Deen explained. “…Philadelphia Cream Cheese has always been a part of my refrigerator.”

There are arguably few personalities who could represent cream cheese with more gusto, and Paula Deen’s large fan base was likely to already be cooking with cream cheese. By advertising the Real Women of Philadelphia campaign on Paula Deen’s website and having Paula Deen star in ads on other media, Kraft was able to reach an existing community of the women it wanted to speak to. EQAL, the company that beat out companies like ABC and Yahoo for the opportunity to produce the campaign in partnership with Digitas, referred to Paula Deen’s role as the “igniter.”

2. Create a Reason for Users to Create Content

Even with Paula Deen as an ambassador, it’s hard to imagine that the campaign would have had much success as, let’s say, a social network feature on the Philadelphia Cream Cheese website. The competitive aspect was and is crucial to the success. For the first iteration of the contest, women submitted instructional videos about their invented cream cheese recipes. Sixteen finalists were chosen and flown to Atlanta for a live competition, hosted by Paula Deen, that determined the four women who would become “hosts” for the next iteration of the competition and win $25,000. Currently these four hosts are accepting submissions for the cookbook that Kraft will create using 80 of the best recipes from the community, recipes from the four hosts, and Paula Deen recipes. Every day the hosts choose a winning recipe from the community, which earns its author $500.

Because women have invested themselves in creating content for these contests, they feel more ownership of the site and are more likely to visit frequently. Greg Goodfried, the co-founder and COO of EQAL, says that it’s important to have some motive for people to create content on a branded social network. This motive doesn’t necessarily need to be a competition, but it needs to be strong enough to spark the community.

3. Focus on Community Content, Not Your Content

Between videos of Paula Deen and vidoes starring the four hosts, the EQAL team has produced more than 50 videos for the site. But they are careful to keep the spotlight on the user-generated content. During the initial competition, for instance, the homepage featured select submissions. One main feature of the site is a gallery of community recipe submissions, and the team will post especially impressive contributions from the community on the LoveMyPhilly Facebook and Twitter accounts.

"There was a really great sense that the content people were sending in was the main attraction and made them feel like stars, and it made people thoroughly engaged,” Goodfried says.

4. Step Aside

Spotlight

When Kraft launched the campaign, the company wasn’t sure what to expect.

"I think originally we thought that they would talk a lot about food, a lot about the competition,” Goodfried says. “[We thought] there might be a little bit of competitive component to it, and they would just all be excited about the opportunity to win.”

When the women started talking about their personal lives, it surprised the community’s architects. At one point, a woman mentioned that she couldn’t afford a dress for her daughter’s school dance. Other women in the community offered to ship their own grown daughters’ dresses to her. One woman offered to make a dress. Another woman who wasn’t sure how to use a video editing program mailed her raw video submission to another member of the community who had volunteered to edit it.

Instead of trying to divert these discussions back toward cream cheese, EQAL decided to let the community shape the site. When the managers saw the conversations shaping around individuals lives, they added a weekly “spotlight” post in which they profile a community member that has been nominated or shared something interesting on the site. When forum topics popped up that were unrelated to Kraft, cheese, or food, they let them be. The tools on the site allowed women to create a robust profile, privately message each other, and participate in whatever way they wanted. By letting the members shape the community, Kraft was able to build a stronger one.

"These incredible personal connections that extended beyond food, beyond cooking, beyond anything related to the competition just occurred,” Goodfried says. “There are substantial numbers of women that we have talked to that have way more friends on Real Women of Philadelphia than they have on Facebook.”

5. Play a Supportive Role, Not a Director’s Role

Support

If the creators of the social network can make it richer by getting out of the way, what are they supposed to do once the site launches?

In this case, they spent a lot of time helping women participate by fielding questions about editing and uploading videos. After a couple of weeks, other women in the community started answering these kinds of questions in the forums. But the role of the managers remained supportive.

“The only reason we build these sites is to encourage people to come to them to make content and submit content,” Goodfried says. “It's not one-way where we're just publishing things and people are coming and consuming it. We're trying to start this spark of a conversation, this spark of community, and then encourage the community to be engaged.”

More Marketing Resources from Mashable:

- 10 Killer Tips for Creating a Branded YouTube Channel
- 5 Tips for Creating Non-Profit Online Communities
- 13 Branded Mobile Apps That Got It Right
- Top 5 Enterprises Using Social Media
- HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Page

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

More About: Branded Community, branded social network, branding, create a social network, eqal, Kraft, List, Lists, MARKETING, Paula Deen, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Real Women of Philadelphia, social media marketing, social network

For more Business coverage:

“Angry Birds” Dethroned: “Smurfs’ Village” Now Top-Grossing Game on iPhone

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 02:57 PM PST


Capcom’s Smurfs’ Village has officially topped Angry Birds as the iPhone’s top-grossing game. Its rise to the top hasn’t been without some controversy, though.

Smurfs’ Village is a game where you control a group of smurfs (yes, those popular miniature blue creatures made popular by the comic and the 1980s cartoon) in order to build a functional village. You can grow crops, build houses, play mini-games and visit your friends’ villages, among other activities. If we had to compare it to another popular game, it would be FarmVille.

One thing that separates it from other top-grossing games though is its price: free. The game costs nothing to download. But the game is indeed the iPhone’s top-grossing app, so where does it make its money?

The answer: in-game purchases. One of the game’s main currencies is the “smurfberry,” which helps speed up activities in the game. Instead of waiting 12 hours to grow watermelons, you can grow them instantly by using one of these berries. Of course, the best way to get your hands on one is to purchase them.

They’re not cheap, either; it costs $4.99 to buy 50 berries, $11.99 to buy 150 berries and a whopping $59.99 to buy a wheelbarrow of 1,000 smurfberries.

While those are some eye-popping prices for an iPhone game, that’s not exactly what’s causing controversy. As Pocket Gamer speculates, a likely reason that Smurfs’ Village has risen to the top is because children are making unwanted smurfberry purchases through the app. As long as someone has used his or her username and password on the iPhone, the user doesn’t have to type it in again for the next 15 minutes to make purchases. With many children impatiently playing this game, they’re likely turning to easy-to-complete in-app purchases of Smurfberries to fuel their village-building obsession.

It’s unclear how many purchases in Smurfs’ Village are inadvertent, but the result is still the same: Capcom’s new game is the new king of the iPhone gaming world. Sorry, Angry Birds.

Reviews: Angry Birds

More About: angry birds, gaming, iOS, iphone, iPhone gaming, Surfs' Village

For more Mobile coverage:

Work for Mashable and Other Great Companies [Job Listings]

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 02:40 PM PST


If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.

But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable's job boards are a place for socially savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space and beyond. Have a look at what's good and new on our job boards:

Mashable Job Postings

Ad Ops Manager at Mashable in New York, NY.

VP Product at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.

Front End Web Developer at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.

UI Designer at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.

Business & Marketing Editor at Mashable in New York, NY.

Weekend Editor at Mashable in New York, NY.

VP of Sales at Mashable in New York, NY.

Events Content Coordinator at Mashable in New York, NY.

Events Manager at Mashable in New York, NY.

Ruby on Rails Developer at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.

Mashable Job Board Listings

Associate Director, Business Development at Luminosity Marketing in New York, NY.

Web Manager at Family Office Exchange in Chicago, IL.

Director of Engineering at Synacor in Los Angeles, CA.

Social Game Designer at Arkadium in New York, NY.

Manager, Regulatory Review at Digitas Health in New York, NY.

Social Media Manager at Great Reunions in Garden Grove, CA.

Online Marketing Associate Manager at Demand Media in Santa Monica, CA.

Web Product Manager at PlumWillow in New York, NY.

French Speaking Web Developer at a leading skincare company in New York, NY.

Developer/Programmer at Swell Dwell in Agoura Hills, CA.

Manager of Data Analytics at Lookout in San Francisco, CA.

Front End Web Developer at Draftfcb in Seattle, WA.

Integration Developer at Workday in Pleasanton, CA.

Vice President, Social Media Technology at MTV Networks in New York, NY.

Head of Integrated Marketing at Playfish in San Francisco, CA.

Manager, Regulatory Review at Digitas Health in New York, NY.

Intern at TheStreet in New York, NY.

Editor/Office Coordinator at Obikosh in New York, NY.

Coordinator, MTV Public Affairs at MTV Networks in New York, NY.

Search Engine Marketing Manager at The Advertising Checking Bureau, Inc. in Tempe, AZ.

Account Supervisor (Digital) at VML in New York, NY.

Inside Sales Representative at Buddy Media in New York, NY.

Senior ASP.NET Developer at IgoUgo in New York, NY.

Social Engagement Strategist at OLSON in Minneapolis, MN.

Interactive Project Manager at in .

Account Director at M80 in New York, NY.

Audience Development & Distribution at Driver Digital in New York, NY.

Direct Response Advertising Review Analyst at Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program in New York, NY.

Manager Audience Development at Maker Studios in Los Angeles, CA.

Marketing Associate at Manhattan GMAT in New York, NY.

Senior Account Planner at Campfire in New York, NY.

Online Marketing Associate at Manhattan GMAT in New York, NY.

Marketing Associate at Manhattan GMAT in New York, NY.

Social Media Sales Consultant at Meltwater Buzz in Mountain View, CA.

Sr. Perl Developer at Media Temple in Culver City, CA.

Director, Marketing at Media Chaperone in Chicago, IL.

Social Media Sales Consultant at Meltwater Buzz in New York, NY.

Partner Account Manager at Constant Contact in San Francisco, CA.

Director, Online Development at American Express Publishing in New York, NY.

Interactive Account Manager at Food & Wine Magazine in New York, NY.

Sr. Account Supervisor at Edelman in Los Angeles, CA.

PR – Account Supervisor at Edelman in Los Angeles, CA.

Regional Sales Manager for NYC at Widgetbox, Inc. in San Francisco, CA.

Sr Analyst, Search Engine Marketing at Digitas in Chicago, IL.

Digital Sales Account Executive at AMP Agency in Boston, MA.

Manager, Social Media at TheStreet in New York, NY.

Senior Media Relations Account Executive at PMK*BNC in West Hollywood, CA.

Communications Intern at Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, DC.

Associate Director at Digitas in Boston, MA.

Digital Community Supervisor at Weber Shandwick in Chicago, IL.

Digital Community Supervisor at Weber Shandwick in New York, NY.

Senior Account Executive at Weber Shandwick in San Francisco, CA.

Senior Marketing Manager at Buddy Media in New York, NY.

Mashable’s Job Board has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at here.

Find a Web 2.0 Job with Mashable

Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($99 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, YinYang

Reviews: Mashable, iStockphoto

For more Social Media coverage:

LinkedIn CEO: Yahoo Isn’t Over

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 02:28 PM PST


Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn and a former executive vice president of Yahoo, says that Yahoo isn’t over and that the digital media company of the future has yet to emerge.

During a conversation with Federated Media CEO John Battelle on stage at San Francisco’s Web 2.0 Summit Wednesday, Weiner was asked his opinion of Yahoo and whether it has any chance of making a comeback. His immediate response was that Yahoo isn’t done yet by any means.

“The companies that created the most value and disruption are the ones that created the most relevancy,” he said. He said that Yahoo was first to do this by rolling out the Internet directory, which helped users browse the web, but noted that it didn’t scale. That opened up an opportunity for Google, whose machine-based algorithms did scale in massive way.

“Yahoo has some very interesting building blocks,” Weiner told Battelle. He said that outsourcing search to Bing made sense for Yahoo. He thinks that the company still has the “incredible opportunity” to revolutionize the browsing experience by enabling subjective-based queries. He noted three things that he believes will have an impact on how we interact with the web: the social operating system, the machine system and the curation/editorial system. Weiner mentioned that Yahoo is amazing at curating editorial content.

The LinkedIn CEO’s final note to the audience on the subject was that he believes the digital media company of the future will integrate these three competencies in a way that maximizes the browsing and digital media experience. He says he believes the company that will lead that charge has yet to emerge.

Reviews: Bing, Google, Internet, Yahoo!

More About: facebook, Jeff Weiner, linkedin, Yahoo

For more Tech coverage:

New Mashable Awards Category: “Best Social Media Customer Service”

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 01:50 PM PST

Mashable Awards Image

As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re announcing the final four nomination categories. This is “Best Social Media Customer Service” supported by BlackBerry. Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

Support Keyboard ImageThe Mashable Awards is hitting full stride with less than two weeks before the first nomination period ends. In preparation we’ve added the final four nomination categories, including “Best Social Media Customer Service,” supported by BlackBerry. We’re thrilled to add the “Best Social Media Customer Service” category to the awards and look forward to your nominations and selections.

With more and more consumers on social networks, companies are finding new and creative ways to integrate Social Media Customer Service. They’re using innovative tools to launch and improve customer engagement strategies on the web. Social media is giving companies a chance to reinvent their consumer connections, and this Mashable Awards category is honoring those that have hit it out of the park. Whether you’re a customer who has experienced great customer service through social media or a company recognizing top-notch engagement efforts, nominate your favorites for the Mashable Awards!

Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:

Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications, including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)
Time: 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. PT
Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas
Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations
Socialize: Facebook, Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

Register for Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage (Las Vegas - 2011 International CES convention) [Ticketed Event] in Las Vegas, NV on Eventbrite

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, Goldmund

Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Internet, Mashable, Twitter, iStockphoto

More About: blackberry, customer service, mashable awards, mashable awards 2010, social media customer service

For more Social Media coverage:

Why You Need to Upgrade Your Router This Holiday Season

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 01:41 PM PST

Mashable 10 Logo

This post is part of the Mashable 10, Mashable’s gift guide of the 10 hottest gadgets that will be on everyone’s wish list this holiday season. We’ll be publishing one new post each weekday until November 26.

Netgear Router Gift ImageAs the holiday season draws near, a bevy of new gadgets — from smartphones, to tablets, to set-top boxes, to video game consoles are all waiting in the wings to be gifted to lucky recipients. Most of these gadgets — indeed a growing number of electronics in general — are equipped with built-in Wi-Fi.

Because Wi-Fi is becoming such an integral part of our connected lives, the next item for the Mashable 10 is a wireless router. We know, we know, you already have a router. That doesn’t change the fact that the world of wireless technology is advancing, and if it’s been a while since you last purchased or upgraded your router, it might be time to do so.

There are literally scores of wireless routers on the market, but our current favorite is Netgear’s RangeMax WNDR3700 Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit router. The WNDR3700 retails for $149.99 and it’s consistently rated as one of the fastest wireless routers on the market.

Beyond just speed, the WNDR3700 also works with old equipment and new stuff, can support simultaneous dual-bands, and even lets you create guest networks for friends or visitors. The WNDR3700 also supports DLNA and is great for streaming HD video.

Simultaneous Dual-Band: Worth the Upgrade

Now that it’s a certified standard, we’re finally seeing more and more devices shipping with 802.11n support. 802.11n is much faster than its predecessor, 802.11g, but it really does best when operating at 5GHz, rather than the standard 2.4GHz that most wireless devices and routers use. This is because the 5GHz band is less congested and has fewer overlapping channels and less radio interference.

For home users, the problem with adopting 802.11n for your home network has been that in order to get the best speed, you need to have a 5GHz network. OK, so your laptop and desktop support the network — but what about your iPhone or Android device? What about the Xbox? What about your set-top box?

The solution is to use a simultaneous dual-band router like the WNDR3700. This means that you can have a network running at 2.4GHz to handle all of your phones, older computers, set-top boxes and other wireless devices, while also maintaining a 5GHz 802.11n network for your faster and newer components. Devices that can use both will automatically select whatever band is most appropriate.

It’s a great way to make sure that you can still connect with all of your old devices, while still supporting the newer and faster gadgets of the future.

In many setups, using dual-bands will also reduce interference, which can mean you get better range too.

Easy Network Sharing, Guest Access

Another feature we really like about the WNDR3700 is that it supports Netgear’s ReadyShare. That means you can plug a USB hard drive into the router and easily access that drive from your various networked devices. It’s not quite a NAS (network-attached storage) solution, but it’s a nice feature.

With tools like Firesheep on the loose, it is flat-out dumb to leave your home network without a password. However, how annoying is it to have to pull out the 24 character jumble of letters and numbers every time a friend or colleague comes over and wants some access?

This is where Netgear’s guest network feature becomes super useful. You can create separate network names and separate security and access restrictions for people who just need to connect briefly.

We think the WNDR3700 is a great way to make your home network more robust and keep it ready for all the new gadgets and devices you adopt for years to come. When was the last time you upgraded your router? Let us know in the comments.

Reviews: Android, Mashable

More About: gadgets, mashable 10, netgear, tech, wi-fi, wireless n, wireless networking, wireless routers, wndr3700

For more Tech coverage:

FCC Chairman: Google and Verizon Slowed Down Net Neutrality

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 01:15 PM PST


At the Web 2.0 Summit Wednesday in San Francisco, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski talked about the ongoing debate over net neutrality. While remarking that recent court decisions had hurt the commission’s plans to adopt sensible policies, Genachowski noted that the proposal issued by Google and Verizon “slowed down some processes” for finding a resolution.

This isn’t a total surprise, as the FCC hasn’t hidden the fact that it doesn’t agree with everything that Google and Verizon have proposed. The commission released a public notice back in September taking issue with two aspects of the Google-Verizon proposal.

Genachowski conceded that it was ultimately positive that two companies like Google and Verizon were willing to work together to try to help unwrinkle the policy quagmire that is net neutrality, but he seemed to take issue with the way the proposal was approached.

The FCC isn’t the only group that has criticized aspects of the Google-Verizon proposal, and in truth, that seems to be part of the problem. Beyond any genuine policy questions or disagreements the commission may have with the proposal, its mere existence made the already muddled and confusing debate regarding net neutrality that much less clear.

The FCC chairman makes a valid point; it is harder to move beyond the discussion phase and progress into actual policy if new arguments keep getting added to the discussion. Having said that, we don’t think the FCC is in a position to lecture any other company or entity for talking too much and taking too little action.

Reviews: Google

More About: fcc, Google, net neutrality, public policy, verizon, W2S2010

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Twitter’s Official Analytics Product Has Arrived

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 01:07 PM PST


Twitter has started inviting a select group of users to test a new analytics product, Mashable has learned. Such a product has been rumored for some time, and a Twitter executive said earlier this year that Analytics would debut by the end of 2010.

With Twitter Analytics, users will be able to see a plethora of data about their account; for example, information about which tweets are most successful, which tweets caused people to unfollow, and who the most influential users are that reply and retweet their messages.

In the images below, you can see how some of this data is charted. A bar graph over 6-hour increments shows you mentions, follows and unfollows, for example, and you can filter tweets by categories that are defined as “best,” “good,” and “all.”

In what will no doubt come as a blow to the third-party vendors that are already providing similar tools, we're hearing that the product will be free and that Twitter has no immediate plans to charge.

We're working to gather more information, but we may hear more about it later this afternoon, when Twitter's Evan Williams takes the stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Stay tuned.

Screenshots

[thanks @mongoosemetrics for the images]

Reviews: Twitter

More About: analytics, trending, twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

LinkedIn Adding a New Member Per Second

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 12:43 PM PST


Professional social networking site LinkedIn is now adding a new member every second, says CEO Jeff Weiner. The site now has 85 million members in total and is experiencing its fastest growth overseas.

Weiner just shared these remarkable figures with John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit. LinkedIn, Weiner says, “is fundamentally transforming the way people work.”

The site is also seeing upward of 60 million uniques per month, according to Weiner. This uniques metric means that a massive percentage of the site’s user base visits it each month, and serves to back up Weiner’s belief that LinkedIn is now instrumental to professional networking online.

Financially speaking, LinkedIn is seeing the most uptake with its Hiring Solutions product. The company was previously splitting revenue equally between ad sales and Hiring Solutions during 2009. In 2010, however, Hiring Solutions has become the company’s “largest and fastest growing business right now.”

LinkedIn continues to operate under the notion that users want to keep their professional networking separate from their personal social behaviors. Recently released tools, including the launch of a suite of features designed for brands, demonstrate this focused intent.

LinkedIn is estimated to be worth more than $2 billion.

Reviews: LinkedIn

More About: linkedin, social networking

For more Business coverage:

5 Technologies That Are Changing the Way We Drive

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 12:40 PM PST

The Smarter Products Series is supported by IBM. Find out more about how IBM is working to create a Smarter Planet.

car_1

When Henry Ford started manufacturing the first affordable car in 1908, people gawked at its two forward gears and 20-horsepower engine. Drivers had to crank the car before they started it, and the best way to check how much fuel they had was to dip a stick into the gas tank. Today, there are cars that drive themselves.

It’s likely that automotive innovation has just as far to go in the future as it has come since its inception in 1908. While we can’t predict what we’ll be driving (or will be driving itself) in 100 years, here’s a look at five of the technologies that are changing how we drive today.

1. In-Car Connectivity

An August report by market research firm IMS forecasted that the number of new vehicles with Internet access would grow from 1.1 million in 2009 to 6 million in 2017. Ford has undoubtedly been one of the leaders in innovation for this expected surge in in-car connectivity.

Ford Sync is a communications and entertainment system that is based on the Microsoft Auto platform, for example. The system connects with your mobile phone to facilitate hands-free calling and audible text messages. It connects with your MP3 player and allows you to operate it through voice commands. Sync AppLink will support third party apps starting this summer. And the next generation of Sync, MyFord Touch, will allow you to turn your car into a Wi-Fi hotspot by plugging in a USB mobile broadband modem.

A concept car with high-speed Internet access by the ng Connect Program gives an idea of how connected cars could change the way we drive in the future.

2. (Literal) Auto Pilot

Last month, Google announced that it was testing a car that drives itself. Google argues that, in the right circumstances, computers are better at driving than humans. As the only accident that occurred as of the announcement was caused by human error, the company might have a point.

It may be a while before we hand over the wheel to our cars completely, but some of us are happy to hand off the grueling task of parallel parking. The Lexus LS 460, released in 2006, was the first commercial vehicle to park with a mind of its own. Ford, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercury and Toyota followed with their own self-park features.

3. Sensitive Safety Features

city_safety

In the past year, multiple safety features based on cutting-edge technologies have been introduced.

Volvo’s City Safety technology uses an optical radar to measure speed and distance of any objects in front of the car. If it anticipates a collision, it brakes. The latest version detects pedestrians as well as vehicles.

Volvo isn’t the only car that gives its drivers a little bit of help in potentially dangerous situations. Mercedes-Benz’s attention-assist system can detect when drivers are starting to become drowsy and beeps loudly to alert them. It won’t stop the car from veering into the next lane, but it will make the driver aware that it might be time to pull over.

4. GPS

Wazey

The rise of consumer GPS started sometime around 2000, when the army stopped intentionally fuzzing the signals from the 24-satellite network that makes GPS possible. Navigation systems have been edging out paper maps for in-car navigation ever since.

The iPhone 3G was not the first mobile phone to incorporate GPS, but it did make it much more accessible for navigation app developers. Affordable turn-by-turn navigation apps give everybody GPS and have helped keep our eyes on the road rather than searching through directions.

Innovative driving applications like Waze use GPS to crowdsource real-time traffic data, which might do more to keep our eyes off the road and on our phone, but can give us the information that will change our routes.

5. Electric Cars

electric_pump

The rise of the hybrid did a lot for fuel efficiency, but as electronic cars become more viable, they will drastically change everyday habits of drivers. According to the LA Times, every major automaker plans to release some sort of electronic or plug-in vehicle in the next several years.

It might not be long before drivers are looking for a place to plug in rather than a gas pump. A bevy of big companies are developing mobile charging stations to accommodate electric vehicle enthusiasts. New York City’s first station is free, but how will future stations charge you for your charge? How will we handle the added strain on the grid? These are just a few questions we have to answer before electric vehicles can become a feasible alternative to gas-guzzling autos.

Which innovative technologies are you keyed into that are changing the way we drive? Let us know in the comments below.

Series Supported by IBM

The Smarter Products Series is supported by IBM. Find out more about how IBM is working to create a Smarter Planet.

More Tech Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Innovative Websites That Could Reshape the News
- 10 Comfortable Lap Desks for Cozy Computing
- 5 MP3 Players for Pumping Up Your Workouts
- 12 Tech Toys for a Geeked-Out Wedding
- Online Behavior Tracking and Privacy: 7 Worst Case Scenarios

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mevans

Reviews: Google, Internet, iStockphoto

More About: Automotive industry, cars, ford sync, Smarter Products Series, technology, waze

For more Tech coverage:

The Problem That Keeps the FCC Chairman Up at Night

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 12:25 PM PST


FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says it isn’t current U.S. broadband penetration that keeps him up at night, but the fact that the world’s remaining superpower ranks dead last for the deployment of new broadband connections.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski sat down with New York Magazine’s John Heilemann at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco to discuss broadband, wireless spectrum, mobile, net neutrality and more. At one point during the 45-minute conversation, Genachowski said that what keeps him up at night is a study of 40 industrial countries measuring them on metrics like competitiveness and innovative capacity. One of the metrics measured is broadband.

Out of the 40 countries in the study, Genachowski said the U.S. ranked sixth for broadband penetration (other studies say that the U.S. ranks even lower). He said that while the U.S. could be a lot worse than sixth, it’s definitely not good enough.

However, that’s not what keeps him up at night. What scares him is that the U.S. ranked 40th on how fast it is improving new broadband deployment. That’s right: The U.S. is dead last in its efforts to create new penetration for broadband. There were audible gasps in the room when he mentioned that statistic.

Mashable has been tracking the FCC’s efforts to increase broadband adoption in the U.S. The government organization released a report last year stating that 78% of U.S. residents are Internet users, but only 65% are broadband adopters for a variety of reasons — the biggest one being cost.

If the U.S. is to maintain its role as a center for technological innovation and as an economic superpower, 65% broadband adoption simply isn’t good enough, and Genachowski clearly knows that. Unfortunately, if the study he cited is accurate, then the U.S. had better prepare itself for a serious shake-up in the technological and economic rankings.

Reviews: Internet, Mashable

More About: fcc, Julius Genachowski, W2S2010, Web 2.0 Smmit

For more Tech coverage:

Google Docs Editing Goes Mobile

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 12:18 PM PST

Google announced Wednesday morning that it has begun rolling out mobile editing for Google Docs. The update isn’t yet available for everyone, but it should be available to all over the next few days.

To date, only Google Docs spreadsheets have supported mobile editing. When the the update hits, all Google Docs documents will be editable on devices running Android 2.2 (and higher) and iOS 3.0+.

We’ve not been able to test it out yet, but Google has released a little video — as seen above — showcasing the new mobile editing capabilities of Google Docs.

Reviews: Android, Google, Google Docs

More About: google docs, Mobile 2.0

For more Mobile coverage:

DailyBooth CEO: Faces Are the Future of Photos

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 12:09 PM PST


Popular photo-sharing service DailyBooth builds applications for web and mobile that encourage users to snap photos with front-facing cameras to capture their faces at various moments in time. It’s this face-driven ideology that CEO Brian Pokorny believes makes his company best poised to capitalize on what he says is a fact: Today’s youth prefer to communicate with faces.

In a presentation at the Web 2.0 Summit, Pokorny pointed to Apple’s iPhone 4 and its front and back-facing cameras as revolutionizing mobile photo publishing on the web. The two types of cameras, and how they’re used in photo-sharing mobile applications, represent huge philosophical differences, he argues.

Pokorny used one simple slide to illustrate his point, as seen below. In the center of the slide is the iPhone 4. To the left, Pokorny lists buzz-worthy photo applications designed as back-camera applications: TwitPic, Path, Instagram, Picplz. DailyBooth sits to the right as the primary application serving the front-camera crowd, in Pokorny’s mind.

Pokorny then made the point that the crop of applications building object-driven experiences around the back camera appeals to users over the age of 25, while his application — which focuses on faces, not objects — appeals to youngsters under the age of 25. The not-so-subtle point is that these trendy applications are missing the mark. They are the past; DailyBooth is the future — at least according to Pokorny.

Pokorny’s biased conclusion is especially interesting considering that Picplz just closed a sizable $5 million round of funding, Instagram is on fire and Path believes that its approach to private photo sharing is the future. The theory that faces are the future of photo sharing is one that challenges the core purpose of these applications.

Image courtesy of DailyBooth, BrianP

Reviews: DailyBooth, Twitpic, instagram

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Mark Zuckerberg on the State of Facebook [VIDEO]

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 11:40 AM PST

In an in-depth interview with Tim O'Reilly and Federated Media's John Battelle on Tuesday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered up a number of intriguing sound bites about the state of what has become the third-highest valued Internet company in the U.S.

In addition to revealing that Facebook has 250 million daily active users, Zuckerberg touched on his company's increasing competition with Google, its plethora of recent product launches including this week's Messages debut, and the ongoing privacy issues surrounding the company.

In case you missed it, the entire interview is embedded above.

Reviews: Facebook, Google, Internet

More About: facebook, mark zuckerberg

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Sharp’s 3D Smartphones Coming to U.S. in 2011

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 11:16 AM PST


Two of Sharp’s glasses-free 3D Android handsets were recently announced for the Japanese market, but at least one of them is coming to the U.S., China and India in 2011, the company has revealed.

It’s not clear exactly which of these handsets will be coming to the U.S., but both are equally interesting, as the promise of glasses-free 3D on a smartphone is what separates these devices from the myriad of Android handsets out there.

Even without the 3D, the Galapagos 003SH and 005SH have very powerful specifications, with Android 2.2, 1GHz Snapdragon CPUs and a 3.8-inch 3D-capable display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution. The difference between them is a full QWERTY keyboard on the 005SH, which it trades for a 8-megapixel camera, slightly worse than the 9.6-megapixel model on the 003SH.

[Mainichi Daily News via Gizmodo]

Reviews: Android

More About: 3D, android, Sharp, smartphones

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