Industry News

Can Apple Overcome Past Tablet Troubles?

In a recent New York Times piece, Brad Stone and Ashlee Vance lent some much needed perspective about Apple’s maybe-kind of-sort of-impending Tablet. Depending on which vague rumor or piece of conjecture you decide to believe, the Apple Tablet will either “redefine print,” “bridge the gap between laptops and iPhones,” or save the planet from a catastrophic asteroid strike.

OK, so I made up that last possibility. Still, the level of hyperbolic publicity surrounding the device is astounding. While I don’t question the claim that Apple has revolutionized both the cell phone and mp3 player markets, I’m not yet willing to award them another success by default. As Stone and Vance point out, tablet devices have been attempted before and the results have been middling to put it kindly. (more…)

This Week In Social Media – October 23, 2009

iePlexus “Week in Social Media” October 23, 2009 from iePlexus on Vimeo.

iePlexus “Week in Social Media” October 23, 2009 from iePlexus on Vimeo.

-The Web 2.0 Summit took place this week in San Francisco. Some of the biggest news from the event came out on Wednesday.  Both Microsoft and Google announced they would be teaming up with Twitterto bring real-time search updates to the search engines.  Microsoft’s Qi Lu first announced that Bing.comwould be getting get the real time twitter searchs updates, up on their site, which happened just minutes after the announcement.  Twitter’s blog said that they want to make twitter a search tool to help find people what they need in current time. Surprisingly, just a few hours after Microsoft’s big announcement, Google announced they would also be teaming up with Twitter to bring real-time search.  Neither of the companies would release the financial terms of their deals but are expected to bring more traffic to the search engine sites. There are also rumors the sites are trying to team up with Facebook as well. To watch the announcement’s in their entirety, visit Web 2.0 Summit’s website. (more…)

Retailers Gearing Up For Holiday’s With Social Media

The National Retail Federation (NRF) released a survey this morning which stated that more online retailers are gearing up for the upcoming holiday season, and will be using social media too attract consumers.  This comes after the NRF reported on Tuesday, that they anticipate holiday shoppers to spend about 3.2% less than they spent last year, averaging about $682 a person.

The new survey said that over 47% of online retailers who were polled stated they would be increasing the use of their social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, realizing that shoppers are continuously on those sites, and that using these tools could be more effective.  Just over 60% said they have created or beefed up the companies Facebook page, while 59% have done that with Twitter.  And 66% of online retailers have added and improved on their company blog. (more…)

Microsoft’s Bing.com Teams Up With Twitter

Qi Lu, Microsoft’s Online Services President, announced at the Web 2.0 Summit today, that Microsoft’s new engine, Bing, has stuck a non-exclusive deal with Twitter.  The deal is an important one because it will be the first search engine to bring in real-time updates.  It is also important because there have been reports that Google, Bing’s biggest competitor, has been in talks with the social networking site, and hasn’t been able to come up with a contract.  Many Internet users are saying that this is a “big-blow” for Google.

Twitter updates have been available for search on Bing for quite awhile now, but today will be the first time, Bing users will be able search keywords and watch real-time tweets from Bing’s website.  Lu also said that this will open up many opportunities for future business deals among business’s world wide.    (more…)

Twitter’s Growth Slowing But Not For Long

Evan Williams, one of the co-founders of Twitter, was one of highlighted opening sessions at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Fransisco, Tuesday.  And Williams, revealed that he believes Twitter’s future will be bright with some of the new changes coming to the site.  

John Battelle, from Federated Media Publishing, hosted the chat and tried to get Williams to spill Twitter’s marketing revenue model to see if the site would eventually turn into a revenue-churning business.  Although Williams wouldn’t really answer the question, he did go onto say, “It’s not like we are spending our days looking under couch cushions for the elusive revenue model. Obviously, we are thinking about it.” (more…)

Report States Online Marketing Video’s On The Rise

Turn Here, an Online Video Production, Advertising and Distribution company, released the results of a recent survey about companies using Online Video’s for marketing.  The company surveyed 116 companies, which ranged from Fortune 500 companies, to PR and digital agencies, and traditional regional based companies.

Overall the report states that video through the web is increasingly becoming an important online marketing tool to reach out to clients.  83.5% of those surveyed have said they are already using some sort of online video marketing.  Companies however were split when it came to what type videos they produce.  Roughly 57.3% said they have created branded videos, content produced for companies to showcase their products or services, while 38.7% have created editorial content for their website.  (more…)

Google Wave Makes an Early Splash

Just a few years ago, the word “tweet” probably meant very little to you. It was nothing more than the onomatopoeic sound a bird makes. Of course these days millions of people are logging onto the social-networking juggernaut Twitter and voicing their thoughts instantly via tweet.

Could the word “wave” take on similar cultural currency? It will if Google has anything to say about it. In fact, the company aims to replace e-mail and instant-messaging in one fell swoop. On its Google Wave preview page, Google defines a wave as “equal parts conversation and document.” For the time being, the search giant’s stab at combining e-mail with chat and live documents is still in its testing phase. It’s being offered on an invitation-only basis, and so far the reviews from testers have been mixed. (more…)

Hollywood Banning Social Media

We have all had it happen at one time or another, where we post something that we shouldn’t have and later regret.  Although it hasn’t happened yet many film studios are working on banning the use of social media sites all together to the cast of their films, so that no details of projects will be released.

Dreamworks, which is known most specifically for their computer-animated films, is the first studio to announce that they are currently working on new contracts for Mike Myers & Cameron Diaz, who are scheduled to reprise their roles in the next Shriek saga, which will ban the use of social media sites.   The new contract will state that that the actors will be forbidden from posting any information on any Internet sites. (more…)

Google Getting Off The Streets & Onto The Sidewalk

With Google Maps, you are able to drive through streets in 14 different countries, explore the moon, mars, and even views from the Hubble telescope.  They are currently working on getting street views up in 24 more countries and hope to have them up and running within the next year.  In the mean time, Google is thinking ahead and taking it’s map feature to the next level.  By using the Google Trike, you’ll now be able to explore sidewalks, park trails, university campuses, theme parks, zoos, golf courses, and boardwalks across the globe,  just to name a few.

(more…)

Say What? There’s An App For That

Going from Twitter to Digg to your best friend’s blog and searching for what’s happening and trying to keep up with the latest gossip can be quite challenging. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some search tool that would search all the social media sites and let you know what’s happening with topics I was curious about? Well now there’s an app for that. iCrossing, a digital media agency released an application for iPhones on Monday called “Say What?.” The app is easiestly described as a search engine for social media sites and finds the most recent postings for that topic.

The app is actually very user friendly and simple to use. Let’s say you want to know the latest news or gossip on a certain celebrity. Let’s take Taylor Swift for example. You open the app, and up pop’s the search menu, where you’ll type in “Taylor Swift” and then hit search. Within a matter of a few seconds, a list of the latest tweets, diggs, blogs, and comments in forums that have Taylor Swift in their text appears. The app is broken down into the four social media categories where you can go further and not only read more of what that user or blog is saying but also find other tweets, diggs, etc on the same topic, Taylor Swift in our case. If you want to actually read the blog or see more tweets from a certain user that shows up on the search, Say What? actually links you to that person’s page. (more…)