Results

AOL has been struggling to update their various web sites since changing their revenue strategy last year. In an effort to attract more advertisers, they have made major changes to a number of their vertical sites, including Money & Finance, News, Sports, Health, Food, Music, Games, and Moviefone. The redesign has been paying off in terms of traffic, but will visits turn into advertising?

In the past year, AOL’s visits grew by 15% to 56.6 million uniques, much more successful than the first quarter of 2007. A recent AOL press release attributes the elevated visits directly to the new sites. “Our strong growth is a direct result of rebuilding each and every one of our vertical web sites over the past 12 months with the goal of providing consumers highly relevant and rich experiences that focus on key passion points which in turn provide tremendous value to our advertising partners,” Executive Vice President Bill Wilson said. Some of the sites are even on the top of industry for their categories.

In addition to content reprogramming on AOL-branded sites, the company has launched new websites which do not use the AOL name. A blog-style news site called Switched focuses on technology, with entertaining stories like “Six Ways to Break Up Over Your Computer or Cell Phone” and “Geek’s Girlfriend Finds Linux Harder to Use Than Windows” appealing to hip, young techies. Another site reaches out to hip hop fans specifically, but has content appealing to African-American audiences in general. BlackVoices allows users to create personal profiles, browse news and entertainment stories, and connect with others who share their interests. The site was purposefully distanced from the AOL name because, as Wilson told the Wall Street Journal, “”If I call a hip-hop site AOL Hip Hop that just won’t resonate with consumers.”

AOL has also worked toward search engine optimization to attract advertisers and draw visitors. With the strength of their first quarter numbers, AOL’s web advertising unit Platform-A announced an auction-style market for online display and video ads. Ad firms who want exposure on AOL’s sites will be able to big on available space both on AOL-branded sites and on other networks connected to Platform-A.

The strategy may pay off for AOL, as web advertising is gaining popularity and becoming more diverse. Many marketers are turning to the web as a sort of “pre-game” for television or print advertising, and they’re using the vast internet landscape to gather data and conduct consumer surveys before launching products in mainstream markets. AOL’s sites are well positioned to take advantage of this trend. They act as portal sites to shuffle users from an interesting news story to a slideshow to a funny video, etc. It’s easy to get pleasantly lost in one of AOL’s many sites, and they’re betting that advertisers will help grow their audience and their revenue.

The wires are buzzing this week as Microsoft is reportedly experimenting with subscription-based versions of their productivity and security software packages. The new pricing plan, code-named “Albany”, is currently in private beta, and no announcement has yet been made as to when a wide release is scheduled. Albany will combine many of the tools that Microsoft users access on a daily basis, and the subscription will ensure that they always have the latest version without going through the headache of installing and updating software.

Albany will include Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (a combo of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote), Windows Live OneCare (an anti-virus tool), Live Mail, Messenger, and Photo Gallery. It will also automatically install a shortcut to Office Live Workspace in users toolbars, which give access to on-demand versions of the Office tools. This combination is meant to appeal to users who aren’t satisfied with licensing agreements, which are not only expensive but also force users who want new versions to buy new licenses.

A Microsoft press release explains how the idea for Albany came about: “We asked consumers what they needed and wanted most on their PC, and the overwhelming response was that they primarily want productivity and security software. Consumers also expressed frustration at having to spend time and effort installing different types of software, keeping current on new versions and getting their computers set up.” The subscription plan eliminates this frustration by providing automatically updating software for a regular fee. Albany customers will always get the new software releases as they’re launched without paying more - it’s included as part of their subscription.

Reviews and reaction to Albany, as is customary for all Microsoft products, is mixed. One CNET blogger writes, “Seriously, this is pointless junk. The only real value is to Microsoft who get to see usage patterns and understand how on-demand software is consumed.” A bit harsh, but it is likely a perk of the venture that was not lost on Microsoft executives. A ReadWriteWeb article is considerably more forgiving: “Even though Albany won’t be a true web office offering, it is a likely low-cost alternative to Google Docs that lives on a user’s PC — something that is still more comfortable and familiar to many mainstream users.” Microsoft is clearly testing the SaaS waters before committing to any big move, and it seems this may hurt their chances in the eyes of some while helping hold on to more traditional customers.

While the plan for Albany falls short of a true Software as a Service model, it resembles the pricing and updating philosophies of companies like Salesforce.com and Google, both of whom are edging into Microsoft’s productivity software market. Salesforce.com tends to target businesses with customer relationship management (CRM) tools, while Google has been directly threatening Office with their online document, spreadsheet, and presentation applications. Microsoft’s Office Life is a nod to the SaaS trend, though it has yet to catch on with core customers in the business sector. As Albany moves towards a firm launch date, Microsoft’s competitors will be watching closely to see how users react to the packaged subscription model.

A new website aims to compete with YouTube by offering premium quality music videos. The Santa Monica, CA based start-up is PluggedIn Media, and their strategy is decidedly different from Google’s “homemade” video site. PluggedIn is firmly within the parameters of Web 2.0, using personalized profiles, blogs, WIKIs, and sharing features to lure young internet users. The site differs from its trendy peers by rejecting user-generated content. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Are laughing babies and disturbing rants really what keeps YouTube raking in the revenue, or is it sponsored content and professional videos like those that PluggedIn will feature?

The site’s founders are betting that premium content will translate into advertising dollars. Investors from Overbrook Entertainment, a film/TV production company owned by Will Smith and Lassiter, are backing PluggedIn and they may expand content beyond music videos, though plans are unclear at this point. PluggedIn has also forged relationships with three of the largest music companies. Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, EMI, and Sony BMG will all provide videos of their artists in exchange for a share of advertising revenue. A fourth company, Warner Music Group, has released a few of its videos for the site’s launch and could possibly enter into a deal in the future.

PluggedIn’s user interface is easy to navigate and sleekly designed. The quality of the videos is unmatched by competitive sites, and they keep their quality when enlarged to full-screen. Flash player is required, of course, though the videos have an annoying habit of “following” you as you scroll down for additional content. Users can read reviews of songs, biographies of artists, see other fans of their favorites, and find merchandise and concert tickets. The non-video content will be pulled from artists’ web pages, Wikipedia pages, and even Amazon’s MP3 music store and iTunes, where users can buy the songs.

CEO of PluggedIN Jeffrey Somers told the Wall Street Journal that professional video, “seems to be what people engage with the most.” Indeed, some of YouTube’s most popular videos are those uploaded by recording companies. Rihanna’s video for her hit song “Umbrella” has received over 37 million views on YouTube. By contrast, PluggedIn’s identical video has been viewed just 387 times since being added in January. They have some ground to make up if they’re going to rival YouTube, but the web video market is ready for professional content.

As the success of Mog and iLike (social networking sites for music fans) have shown, there is no single site that is all things to all music fans. For example, YouTube hosts dozens of old videos of John Denver in live performances, while PluggedIn has none. The latter site, however has a detailed biography of the country singer and links to buy his classic albums.While PluggedIn may well take some viewers away from YouTube’s grainy music videos and create a new community online, the marketplace is plenty big enough for both sites.

As the popularity of interactive web applications continues to set the standard, the tools developers use to create RIAs (rich internet applications) are increasingly functional and sophisticated. Some focus more on graphics and animation, while some are directed at businesses breaking into the web world with Software as a Service applications. Two of the main competitors in this market are Adobe, a veteran of RIA development, and Microsoft, which has recently expanded its offerings to RIA developers. Smaller companies, such as Curl and Mozilla, have also embraced the interactivity trend with development tools that have garnered praise. These four players each have something different to offer developers, and their tools are likely to inspire others as RIAs hit the mainstream.

Adobe is by far the largest and best-known company to RIA developers. Flash is the bedrock of their new AIR platform, which stands for Adobe Integrated Runtime. AIR strikes a compromise between online applications and desktop functionality, giving developers the tools to build web applications that run in a desktop environment, sans browser. The tool set was tested throughout 2007 and became available in a 1.0 version in late February 2008. It’s compatible with Windows and Macintosh operating systems, with Linux support in beta. Applications built in AIR require users to download a small run-time (similar to Flash sites), and these apps utilize many familiar tools for RIA developers.

Users of AIR can utilize Flex Builder, Dreamweaver, Flash, and even HTML and AJAX. There is no single, limiting protocol for creating AIR applications. One concern, however, is security. Since AIR apps run in a desktop environment, they do interact on some level with the operating system, though Adobe has tried to limit this as much as possible. Despite the risks of a hybrid model, AIR has many of the benefits of web applications with the stability of desktop programs. AIR will enable RIA developers to keep the sleekness and beauty Flex and Flash while still bringing the power of the web cloud to desktop apps. These hybrid programs could bypass the limitations of web browsers, allowing offline functionality while still maintaining the speed and data processing skills of purely web-based applications.

Microsoft has taken aim at Adobe with their recently released Silverlight 2.0, which aims to combine animation and graphic tools with better data processing, making it appeal to enterprise users. The browser plug-in, a direct competitor with Flash, allows web-based applications to be developed with animation, vector graphics, and video/audio playback capabilities. The new 2.0 version, released in March, supports .NET languages and development tools. This means that content can be coded in a myriad of languages, including some dynamic languages like Ruby and Python. Future plans for Silverlight also include offline functionality, putting the Microsoft development kit in more direct competition with Adobe AIR.

Another development option for businesses with an RIA focus is Curl, which has been a player in this arena for many years. Curl is more business-focused, helping developers create applications specifically for enterprise use. The platform is a stand-alone tool that integrates seamlessly with business data systems and applications. It supports Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and has also reached out to developers through open-source projects. While not focused on heavy animation or interactivity, Curl does allow developers to create solid data charts and graphics.

Lastly, Mozilla, the open source company best known for their Firefox browser, has created a tool called Prism which allows RIAs to run in a desktop environment. While not a suite of development tools, Prism essentially lets developers turn any web application into an independent entity, pulling it onto the desktop. This is helpful because it allows users to tweak and run apps outside of a browser window. It is extremely simple, and requires no new technology or special knowledge. Developers can use all their favorite tools, then deliver the finished product as a desktop program through Prism. It is based on the same model as Firefox 3.0, but it is a considerably simpler version to help developers focus on the app itself.

As web-based software becomes the industry standard, more and more developers will turn to RIA-building tools such as AIR, Silverlight, Curl, and Prism. These technologies will also likely expand their reach into the enterprise market, making it easier and more convenient for businesses to create their own SaaS applications and integrate them with existing tools. Business users are more sophisticated than ever, and they will demand the kind of functionality and beauty that RIAs offer.

Hot on the heels of Yahoo!’s better-than-expected earnings report, the search company has revealed new plans that will change their social networking strategy. Instead of continuing to pursue Yahoo! 360° as a social networking spot, Yahoo! will open its platforms to external developers, allowing users to unify their various services and choose from third-party applications to create complete profiles. This will give Yahoo! users just one location for all their functions, including email, calendars, news, photo storage, and instant messaging. With Microsoft’s takeover offer looming, this strategy may help Yahoo! redefine their services for the new generation of internet users.

PC World has reported this development from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco Thursday, where Ari Balogh, Yahoo’s chief technology officer gave a keynote address. Balogh said, “”It is rewiring Yahoo from the inside out, across all of our properties, to fundamentally open up those Web services and provide a consistent development model, a consistent deployment and consumer experience as well.” If all goes well, the strategy has the potential to unite hundreds of millions of people who use Yahoo!’s email and messaging services in a social setting. It could potentially give Yahoo! the boost they need to compete with social networking giants like MySpace and Facebook, both of which are open to outside developers creating applications for use within their sites.

Yahoo!’s APIs (application programming interfaces) have been available to developers on a limited basis in the past, but this move is much more broad, and will hopefully create a streamlined process like that provided to third-party Facebook developers. With Yahoo!’s recent acquisitions of Flickr (photo sharing site), Del.icio.us (social bookmarking site), and Upcoming (calendar sharing site), the combination of services into a single dashboard could be quite appealing to users. Third-party applications could include anything from games, blogging tools, file sharing, and a variety of other popular social networking tools. As Balogh said in his address, “We are not building another social network. We are building social into everything we do.”

The first piece of Yahoo!’s puzzle that will be opened up to developers is Search Monkey, which will give outsiders a look at their search technology. Users and developers will be able to customize and tweak search results, as well as applying SEO techniques to bump them up in Yahoo!’s rankings. A senior researcher at Forrester told the BBC, “My hat goes off to Yahoo that they have been able to execute this in a very difficult and stressful time for them on a strategy that I think is potentially very interesting.” Indeed, with Microsoft’s deadline for their takeover offer looming, Yahoo! has shown no signs of slowing their progress.

Their earnings report released earlier this week shows a 9 percent increase in revenues and an 11 percent increase in profits over last year’s first quarter. Yahoo! executives no doubt hoped this news would solicit a higher offer from Microsoft, but the software giant has not backed down. Tomorrow will be the deadline for Yahoo! to begin talks, and Microsoft has threatened to go hostile if an agreement is not reached. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has indicated that the offer may be taken directly to Yahoo! shareholders, bypassing the company’s management.

We all love an underdog, and many in the technology community are rooting for Yahoo!. The new social networking strategy will likely win them even more fans, and potentially give them the bargaining chip they’ve been looking for.

In an unexpected twist, yesterday’s earnings report from Apple shows that the Silicon Valley giant is still very much dependent on its Macintosh products for revenue. As the Wall Street Journal is reporting, “Apple said it sold 51% more Macs in the quarter than a year earlier, with that revenue jumping 54% to $3.49 billion from $2.27 billion, about 47% of Apple’s total revenue.” The findings are especially significant when viewed in light of recent economic woes, as most consumer electronics companies are expected to perform poorly during a slump. Apple, however, has somehow managed to make their revenues rise against all expectations.

The other surprising thing about Apple’s earnings report is the fact that its Macintosh products are still its most significant source of profits. According to an Apple press release, “Apple shipped 2,289,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter.” iPod sales, which were also strong, represent just 8 percent revenue growth for the company. Analysts have speculated that the strong Macintosh performance may be due to a saturation of the music player market. Apple COO Tim Cook refuted this claim recently, saying “For last quarter [Q1 2008] in the U.S., 40 percent of iPods sold were sold to people who did not own an iPod. In thinking about this number, this doesn’t feel like a saturated market to us.”

Other industry watchers have given Microsoft the credit for Apple’s big earnings. More and more companies, my employer included, are switching to Macs in the enterprise setting due to problems with Vista. Just six percent of businesses have adopted Vista, and the recent service pack release has been less than well-received. By contrast, Apple’s OS X saw a business share of 4.3 percent in 2007, putting it in very close competition with Vista.

Part of the reason this movement is occurring is due to the nature of software compatibility these days. Software as a Service (SaaS) companies are gaining popularity, and many business users and individuals alike are turning online for their word processing, spreadsheet creation, photo editing, email management, and even database management tools. Major players in the SaaS market, like Salesforce.com, Google, and Adobe are taking customers away from their MS Office Suites and onto the web. In a way, this means that a browser is really the most important piece of your operating system. Vista’s annoying quirks are too big to ignore, so even business users who would usually need Office are looking for alternatives.

However, it’s unfair to Apple’s careful brand to say that Vista’s failure is the only reason for their success. Their entertaining ads and friendly image, while much more directed at consumers than businesses, draw a clear connection between Apple and creativity. Their innovations in user interface, with both the iPod and the iPhone, have set the gold standard which all others aim to emulate. It seems to be paying off nicely, as their 2nd quarter earnings have surprised the entire industry.

In our everyday lives, both online and in the physical world, we all present different versions of ourselves to others. People speak differently to their friends, a clerk at the grocery store, their boss, or a bartender at their favorite pub. These different personas, which are the focus of consumer behaviorists and analysts, have made a smooth transition to the online world. A version of you, complete with avatar and login name, will be vastly different on LinkedIn vs. Facebook, or Mog vs. World of Warcraft. So how can businesses coagulate all these different personas into a profile of one single customer? They may not have to.

Researchers at Gartner have coined the term Generation V (for virtual) to describe these consumers. They have created different imprints of their personalities on many different Web 2.0 sites, and marketers are struggling to identify with and appeal to them. As Baseline Magazine recently wrote, “Unlike previous demographic containers like baby boomer and Gen X, Generation V is not defined by age, gender or geography. Instead it is based on achievements, accomplishments, and a growing preference for digital media when it comes to learning and sharing.” These online personalities are not necessarily fake; they do belong to real consumers, and they do reflect real needs, desires, and behaviors.

One of the problems with multiple personas, however, is that they reflect a desire for anonymity in a web world that is increasingly open. Active online personas often say and do things online that they would never do in a real world setting. A good example of this can be found in vitriolic blogging and commenting. As blog Identity 2.0 points out, “With respect to comments on a blog…Since it takes a sequence of good behavior to build a positive reputation, there is a cost to that reputation, that good netizens will want to preserve if having a good reputation provides additional value.” While you might be circumspect and thoughtful when commenting on the election at the Huffington Post, you might let loose at Perezhilton.com with foul language about the actions of some drunk starlet. In both cases, you are essentially anonymous, but the setting influences your online actions, just as it would in the real world.

So how can businesses target both OrcSlayer21 and Bluegrass4Ever, particularly if they’re the same person? Adam Sarner, the Gartner researcher who coined the term Generation V, suggests to Baseline that marketers reach out to them individually. “We need to recognize that people have a different set of desires while on Amazon.com or Second Life,” he says.Gartner recommends targeting individual online personas in ways that appeal to the reputation and personality they’ve created for themselves. Sell to the personas, not to the people behind them.

The way to do this, according to Sarner, is to examine your product’s place in the customers priorities and needs, just the way you would for an offline consumer profile. People have vastly different desires for different products or services on theirwishlists, and marketers have yet to fully exploit this. For example, OrcSlayer21 and Bluegrass4Ever would likely find value in both new PC games and the latest Allison Krauss CD from Amazon.com. Amazon could send email flyers and targeted messages to each persona, even though they represent the same person. The same strategy could work for a single product, which might appeal to different aspects of a consumer’s personality.

The bottom line is that personas are not flat, simple organisms. They never were in real world situations, and they are even less so online, where it is so easy to segment one’s personality for different activities. Businesses who use consumer profiles will need to expand their strategies to appeal to every aspect of the customer. In an increasingly competitive online marketplace, there is room for all of our multiple personalities, and all the products and services that we crave. A marketing plan that capitalizes on this diversity will be successful.

Scott Adams’ popular workplace comic strip, Dilbert, has undergone a Web 2.0 makeover. The new Dilbert.com hosts a blog, features flash displays of newly color strips, and invites readers to outwit Adams by creating their own punch lines for favorite strips. Some industry watchers are speculating that the Web 2.0 flavor is an attempt for the popular strip to survive the waning popularity of print media, but fans don’t seem to think this is necessary. Indeed, user comments on the beta site are very critical of the upgrade, despite the chance to participate in Dilbert’s anti-Utopian office culture.

Adams told technology blog Machinist that he’s always considered his readers to be active participants in his content decisions for Dilbert. “People e-mail me with ideas, I draw the comic, they hang the comic on a wall,” he says. This trend towards user-generated content is at the center of Web 2.0 culture, and it makes sense for even traditional entertainment offerings like comics to capitalize on it. Dilbert.com has embraced this through what they call “mashups”, which will allow readers to create their own versions of Dilbert cartoons. The first feature to be added will let users insert their own captions into the final frame of the strip. The mashup function will expand in May to allow users to caption the entire cartoon, or allow them to write the first frame and pass it to friends to fill in the rest.

I added my twist to this strip:

Though the process was fun, the user interface leaves much to be desired, which I suspect is the reason behind the readers’ revolt. First of all, the new site required users to run Flash to look at every strip, and many have complained that this feature slows down their machines. Archived strips were hard to find, and it seems some readers are on the verge of revolt. One says, “I just registered to tell you, that the new layout sucks big time! Lose the layout or lose your readers!” Another user jokes, “Which of the Dilbert characters is responsible for this?”

While some people will grimace and groan at the smallest change in their routine (Dilbert readers may be particularly prone to this, I suspect), the users’ problems with Dilbert’s Web 2.0 makeover seem justified in their disappointment. The user interface of the new site is abysmal, and fancy new features are not what readers want. It seems like some basic usability testing could have prevented this backlash, and hopefully the site’s developers are reading the user comments and taking copious notes. More isn’t always better; better is better. A little less emphasis on trendy techniques and more consumer research could have made for a smooth, controversy-free launch.

That being said, I still find myself exploring the hard-to-navigate archives in search of the perfect strip with which to prank my boss and coworkers. On that account, the new site is a brilliant example of the power of user-generated content. Die-hard Dilbert fans get the opportunity to step into his cubicle hell (and out of their own), and that just may save Adams’ his online readers.

Today is the 39th annual celebration of Earth Day, a “holiday” created in 1970 to increase awareness for environmental protection. People around the world will plant trees, conserve electricity and water, stop driving, and make changes to their habits today in an effort to reduce their impact on our planet. Businesses have also taken note of Earth Day, and many of them have enacted policies or planned special activities for today. Companies in many industries are going green not only to improve their green policies, but also to attract employees and customers who care about the environment.

As the L.A. Daily News is reporting, Anheuser-Busch has Earth Day festivities planned at many of their 12 facilities around the country. Employees will telecommute, carpool, and use alternative transportation this week, as well as participate in tree planting and conservation exercises. Their website’s landing page takes visitors to a new section highlighting their involvement in green projects and their commitment to recycling and conservation. As their Employee Involvement section says, “Through these efforts, we hope to foster a community that has a desire to give back in order to preserve the environment around us. At Anheuser-Busch, we realize that we don’t just work in this world. We live in it.”

Another company working to improve their green quotient is Whole Foods, a grocer specializing in organic and healthy foods. Whole Foods vowed to end their use of plastic, disposable grocery bags by today. As a January press release explains, “Together with our shoppers, our gift to the planet this Earth Day will be reducing our environmental impact as we estimate we will keep 100 million new plastic grocery bags out of our environment between Earth Day and the end of this year alone.” Whole Foods is not the only grocery chain to make an Earth Day commitment. Safeway is converting many of its California locations to solar power. They also buy electricity for their stores from wind projects around the country, making them the 3rd largest retail purchaser of renewable energy. In honor of Earth Day, Safeway added two more store locations to their growing solar grid.

Businesses in other industries are also doing their part to participate in Earth Day. On the media front, The Weather Channel’s eco-friendly imprint Forecast Earth is carrying special programming to help viewers understand the global climate crisis. Their campaign, called “Help Make Every Day Earth Day”, gives viewers (and readers of their website) the opportunity to create videos and blog pieces about green issues. Users can submit their own content to share their ideas and strategies for going green. One video highlights the founder of Eco Envelopes, Ann DeLaVergne, whose company reduces the waste caused by reply envelopes. The Weather Channel has a massive audience, and therefore a massive platform with which to make an positive environmental impact. Their willingness to feature green content, and their ability to motivate viewers to do the same, represents the power that Earth Day has to change people’s minds.

Companies who make efforts to become more eco-friendly are not just becoming more responsible, but they are also influencing their customers and employees. Not only are customers looking for green options, but job seekers are become more conscious of their employer’s actions. As a recent Environmental News Network article points out, “A majority of U.S. workers (64 percent) say that their decision to work for a company or purchase its products are “strongly” or “somewhat” influenced by a company’s environmental practices or polices.” Indeed, as a new generation of green young people enter the workforce, a company’s ability to attract them through environmental responsibility may become a major factor for recruiters.

Environmental responsibility is not just an individual value anymore. Businesses around the world are taking up the pledge to honor Earth Day by improving their green policies. These businesses are well-positioned to have a competitive advantage as consumers and employees reward those who go green.

A new trend in SaaS applications has emerged in the online storage realm. Everyone from USAToday to CNN Money is recommending that everyday internet users engage in some form of off site document backup. One promising player in the on demand storage market is Mozy, which caters to businesses and individual users alike. Founded in 2005 in Utah’s burgeoning high tech market, they are owned by information storage company EMC. Mozy offers an enormous amount of online storage space for reasonable prices, charging as little as $4.95 a month for home users and different pricing structures for businesses. They even offer a free version with a 2 GB limit.

Mozy’s storage philosophy is composed of three tenets:

• You shouldn’t have to think about backup.

Backup should be set up once, and then work automatically

• Your files should be encrypted.

Your backup files should be encrypted and stored in a secure, remote location that’s only accessible to you — from anywhere.

• Your backups should be smart.

Your backup system should be smart enough to only back up data that’s not already been backed up, only back up parts of a file that have changed, and be able to back up open and locked files.

Mozy runs on a hybrid system, with backup done automatically using an installed software. Their website is quick to ensure users of the safety of their documents, offering layers of encryption and automatic backup for locked/open files and even Outlook folders. MozyPro and Mozy Enterprise, as the business versions are called, are even marketed to the health care industry, assuring HIPPA compliance with record storage by meeting encryption, security, and transfer requirements set by law.

Mozy’s success is partially due to their hands-off approach to backup. People want storage and backup to be automatic, like virus protection software. No one wants to spend hours figuring out which documents or files have changed, which need to be unlocked then relocked for backup, and how to use a complicated software tool. This service takes these tasks out of the hands of the user, and their software automatically locates and backs up files that have changed. Their testimonials from customers all point to the “lazy” factor, with one Jörn from Germany writing, “Mozy is great for lazy guys like me. My important files are updated, and I don’t do anything.” Their website also humorously points out alternatives to online storage, suggesting that the uninterested “Burn a new CD or DVD every Sunday night and store it at your brother-in-law’s office” or “Buy a $200 external hard drive and hope your office doesn’t burn down.”

Industry experts expect to see a growth in the popularity of online and on demand storage solutions. Both business users and home users are seeing the value of off-site storage for disaster recovery, and the prices for services like Mozy are competitive.

America’s popular spoof news source, The Onion, has launched a web video version of their popular newspaper and website. Onion News Network (ONN) is reaching out to readers with high quality video clips that mimic the style and tone of a popular cable news channel. The site will likely be wildly popular with procrastinating college students and bored wage slaves alike, a target demographic who tend to get their real news online as well. The ONN website takes parody to the next level and reflects the growing popularity of online video.

ONN features news clips, generally about two minutes in length, which poke fun at everything from the 2008 Elections to immigration reform. One clip, headlined in classic journalistic fashion, is called “Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results of 2008 Election Early”. The deadpan anchor interviews an official from Diebold (manufacturer of electronic voting machines), as well as getting reactions from people on the street. The hilariously played Diebold official apologizes, saying “This country is based on the fantasy that the government is the voice of the people. Going through the motions of voting… is central to our culture.” One woman on the street complains about the leak, arguing, “If you can’t trust your shadowy overlords to keep a secret, what is the purpose, really, of voting in a puppet democracy?”

The videos are produced and styled to look very realistic, even promoting a fake TV show called “Scarlet” at the beginning of each clip. This gives them an air of legitimacy that reflects very badly on our mainstream TV news. Indeed, this week ABC has been roundly criticized for their handling of the Democratic debate in Pennsylvania, where the focus of questioning was on sniper fire comments and flap lapel pins instead of on issues. ONN’s mockery of the election process calls attention to the media’s inability to reflect the views and desires of middle America. The success of fake news outfits like The Daily Show and The Onion suggest that people have very little faith in the “talking heads” on television, and ONN’s website takes advantage of the shift towards online “infotainment”.

The New York Times has run a very insightful piece about the value of The Onion and its place in online video circles. “ONN has dialed down the corny, fun reworkings of platitudes (“Hotcake Sales Brisk”) that continue to have a place in The Onion’s print and online newspaper. Instead, the series tries to dramatize the more complex and newsy headlines.” This focus on skewering and twisting actual events lends itself extremely well to the YouTube generation. The largest video site online is full of remakes and spoofs of commercials, music videos, and movies, many of which are more popular than their original incarnations. ONN takes this trend and runs with it, even featuring fake anchor biographies. The lead anchor, generically named Brandon Armstrong, is praised as “a five-time recipient of the DuPont Award for Outstanding Coverage of the Dupont Corporation,” an obvious dig at the credibility of journalists and news outfits with ties to corporate interests.

In my brief exploration, I ran across a hilarious parody of an FDA recall on “piping hot” pot pies with crusts of “a flaky consistency and a golden brown color”. The actor stumbles along in typical bureaucratic doublespeak, with a backdrop of blue curtains and flanked by American flags. He deadpans, “We’re instructing all U.S. citizens in possession of one or more pot pies to send those pot pies to FDA headquarters, attention FDA Panel conference room.”

The Onion’s ONN website is likely to stand out in a growing crowd of video sites on the web. Their timely reflection of the public’s general distaste for network news, coupled with a format that entertains and informs, will win over viewers who previously had to subsist on YouTube’s low quality and amateurishness. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see parodies of ONN showing up on YouTube’s “most popular” page.

The 2008 presidential candidates are taking a page out of the marketing book in trying to win voters. They are employing a strategy, called microtargeting, that is usually reserved for consumer profiling and customer segmentation. The process involves finding out which factors, values, and behaviors are common to groups of consumers (or voters) and using this information reach out to the undecided in upcoming elections. While the practice is common in the business world, microtargeting is lately being applied to politics, notably by Barack Obama’s campaign. Will microtargeting give candidates the edge they need to win over the country’s finicky voters?

Microtargeting is made possible by huge databases of consumer information, like those used by major corporations to track consumer spending and retail habits. Analysts look at the habits of groups to see where they might overlap with other groups. For example, let’s say that people who attend professional basketball games might also be likely to drink Pepsi (not necessarily so, just a random example). Marketers could then use this information to place Pepsi advertising at NBA stadiums or during March Madness broadcasts. Politicians can use similar data points to target undecided voters with messages that appeal directly to them. For example, if consumer surveys were to show that viewers of America’s Next Top Model were strongly right-leaning (again, random example) Republican politicians might have better luck with their advertising dollars on that station.

The process of microtargeting is painstaking, and it is usually carried out by powerful Washington organizations or by campaign volunteers. Voter surveys help not only identify which voters are possible supporters, but also helps candidates decide which of their messages is the most likely to mobilize them come election day. If a survey reveals that residents in a certain district are losing jobs due to employers outsourcing jobs overseas, political candidates can craft messages of reassurance and promise to address the issue if elected. This specific message, aimed at specific people, has the potential to motivate voters who might otherwise stay home.

One powerful microtargeting firm in Washington is TargetPoint Consultants. As their website puts it, “Our MicroTargeting is a virtual search and rescue mission, connecting campaigns and corporations with the voters and customers they need.” They use not only tailor-made surveys to gather information, but they also draw upon existing databases of consumer information available online and through marketers. These microtargeting agencies use everything from credit scores, real estate records, web surfing habits, and magazine subscriptions to reach voters who might identify with their candidate. Some of the information they’ve unearthed is surprisingly detailed. For example, as the Washington Post reported during the Bush/Kerry contest in 2004, drinkers of Coors and bourbon tend to vote Republican, while those who consume brandy and cognac lean towards the Democratic party. This kind of data gives a much more complete picture of potential customers and voters based on more than simply geography and socio-economics.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama has tapped the expertise of Strategic Telemetry, a microtargeting firm which worked with the Kerry campaign previously. Their website advises candidates to, “Focus dollars and time spent on persuasion phones, mail, door-knocking, radio and television on the voters most likely to be undecided.” This gives candidates not only the edge needed to reach those all important undecided voters, but also helps control campaign spending by using the resources where they can accomplish the most. Obama has been notably reaching out to young voters, who are historically unlikely to turn out at all. Many analysts have attributed his success to his online presence at sites like Facebook and MySpace, where young, Democratic voters are active and receptive.

While customer segmentation has been around for years in marketing circles, this type of profiling is beginning to take a strong hold in political circles. Strategists are taking lessons from the business world and applying them to the voting public, and it seems to be paying off for many candidates. Now that candidates are reaching out to voters with personal, specific messages, will they also begin keeping those targeted campaign promises? Here’s hoping (with a glass of bourbon in one hand and cognac in the other) that their targeted messages are more than just a marketing strategy.

There have been many failed attempts by mobile companies to make the elusive “iPhone killer,” a mythical touchscreen device that can compete with the friendly interface and cult popularity of Apple’s phone. Because of AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple, the iPhone is bringing in revenue for just one mobile carrier, and rivals like Verizon and Sprint are working with top manufacturers to develop competitive phones. Here are some of the potential contenders that will be hitting shelves soon.

Finnish giant Nokia is said to be developing a touch screen phone for release sometime in the summer of 2008. As Businessweek recently reported, “That has left wireless aficionados to troll through Nokia patent applications for clues. One of them describes a phone that can sense motion without actually being touched, so a user might, for example, tilt the device to scroll down a Web page.” This is pure speculation, of course, but it would certainly give new meaning to the term “smart phone”. Perhaps a more realistic version of this iPhone competitor is the recently announced Nokia Tube, which was demonstrated at the Evans Data Developer conference. Photos show the Tube to be almost a clone of the iPhone’s sleek design, though the name suggests that it is aimed at multimedia buffs who want to check out the latest YouTube hits on their phones.

Sony-Ericsson has also jumped into the touchscreen smart phone market with their recent unveiling of the XPERIA X1, the first Sony-Ericsson device to utilize Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system. The XPERIA X1 has a unique interface which includes both tappable graphics (which they’re calling “XPERIA panels”) and traditional buttons to access the phone’s many features. The XPERIA X1 will be somewhat of a hybrid touchscreen, as it also includes a QWERTY keyboard which folds out for easy typing. This is a nod to business users, who tend to rely on typing functionality for emails, and who haven’t been as enthusiastic about the iPhone for that reason.

Sprint has also been pushing for an “iPhone killer” for its network, and they’ve worked closely with Samsung to develop the Instinct, which should be available in June 2008. Samsung and Sprint tapped engineers at Berlin’s Iconmobile Group for software development, striving for a balance between simplicity and function in the phone’s user interface. The resulting platform is slated to integrate with a number of top applications including TeleNav GPS software. The Instinct also has Bluetooth 2.0 capability, a more natural-feeling keyboard, radio and TV streaming, and a camera/camcorder combo. Initial reviews of this phone are very promising.

Smart phone users are important customers for mobile providers. They spend more than the average cell phone user, since their daily activities include web surfing and emailing. For this reason, manufacturers and providers alike are eager to produce a phone that can lure users away from Apple and AT&T. While many devices have more functionality or better stats than the iPhone, it has still managed to snag more than 25% of the U.S. smart phone market, despite being offered on only one mobile network. This year just may present consumers with a true “iPhone killer” that can compete with Apple’s innovative product.

In the two months since Microsoft first made an unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo!, much speculation has been circulating about how the deal will play out. The rumor mill is churning today, as several new developments have arisen. Yahoo! is allowing Google to post ads on its site, while Rupert Murdock’s Newscorp. is approaching Microsoft about a possible joint offer for the beleaguered internet search company. How will this all play out? It seems that every one in the industry has an opinion, and the news coverage has been fast and furious.

First, BBC News is reporting that Google and Yahoo! have struck a deal to test a new advertising strategy together. For two weeks, they will share advertising space on the websites they operate. Google will be allowed to display ads on 3% of Yahoo! search results pages, in an attempt to thwart Microsoft’s takeover. The strategy could force Microsoft to pay more for Yahoo!, as shareholders and company executives have complained that the initial offer undervalued the company’s true worth. Indeed, Yahoo! shares rose 7% in reaction to the advertising plan. The experiment is temporary and not indicative of a permanent relationship with Google.

Yahoo!’s talks with AOL, however, are of a more substantial nature. As a recent Wall Street Journal article explains, “Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL are closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations, a move aimed at thwarting Microsoft Corp.’s effort to acquire Yahoo.” Time Warner would merge AOL’s web portal into Yahoo!, though not its ISP dial-up service. The deal would give Yahoo! some capital with which to buy back shares from investors, strengthening their position against Microsoft.

On the other side of the negotiation table, Microsoft and Newscorp. are rumored to be discussion a possible joint offer for Yahoo!. This deal could leave Yahoo! with no champions to help them escape Microsoft’s grasp. As the New York Times puts it, “The combination, which would join Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN and News Corporation’s MySpace, would create a behemoth that would upend the Internet landscape.” The possible deal between Microsoft and Newscorp. would give Ballmer the option of raising his offer for Yahoo! in the face of their rising share prices.

All these deals boggle the mind, and it’s very hard for consumers to know exactly how the various talks might affect them. Everyone likes an underdog, and it’s sad to see Yahoo! scrambling to raise their profile, but the business has been struggling for years in the face of stiff search competition. A deal with Microsoft, Newscorp., and Yahoo! would combine three of the most popular websites in the world. Microsoft has not yet announced its plans for Yahoo!’s brand should the deal proceed, but it seems clear that the executives at Yahoo! are desperate to avoid finding out. Most analysts agree that if Newscorp. and Microsoft make a joint offer, there’s little hope for Yahoo!’s continued resistance.

On-demand software has taken firm hold in the enterprise market. Businesses are turning to web-based applications for everyday activities, particularly when it comes to customer relationship management (CRM) tools. However, most businesses still rely on traditional software suites for document creation, collaboration, and sharing. While Google Apps and Adobe’s Buzzword are plenty functional for many small businesses, those with more complex needs are looking for enterprise-specific applications. Both SpringCM and Xythos offer unique SAAS document platforms designed with business needs in mind.

SpringCM offers a tool which is aimed at collaborative teams who want to create and share documents in an organized workflow. As their website puts it, “SpringCM makes document handling, workflow and collaboration, and business process management as painless as possible.” They’ve made frequent updates to the platform since its inception, now offering SpringCM 4.2. Some of the features they’ve introduced for business use include:

• Unique email address for each user (documents sent to the address are automatically added to the repository)
• Functionality for saving and reading documents within MS Office applications
• WebDAV folders for drag-and-drop access
• Multiple workflow function
• Diverse delivery options (email, PDF, fax, etc.)
• Advanced search capabilities
• Strong security parameters
• Customizable user interface

SpringCM’s offering has received accolades from industry experts, and it’s business-specific functions give it a leg-up in on-demand document creation. One especially useful feature is the ability to incorporate existing workflows into the application. For example, if an editorial team at a publishing company needed to review one document in specific phases (Editorial Director first, Editorial Assistant second, etc.), SpringCM would support the multiple steps in the project. It also allows any document to be saved as a template for future use. SpringCM offers free trial periods for exploration, and pricing is based on optional features and the number of users.

Another promising SAAS document application is offered by Xythos, which has developed an on-demand version of its popular Enterprise Document Management Suite. Xythos on Demand boasts a number of Web 2.0 features designed around business needs. They also offer potential customers a free trial period, with pricing based on number of users and storage needed. The application allows users to build WIKIs, manage workflow, access and collaborate on documents anywhere, share files securely, and subscribe to updates.

In an eWeek review, the last feature was especially impressive to testers: “All folders and content within Xythos on Demand can be subscribed to through an RSS feed…giving users notifications of changes to document repositories using the same feed-reading tools that they use for get updates from blogs and news sites.” This is a function I haven’t seen in any other web-based document app, and it makes perfect sense in a business setting. While many of us use RSS feeds to stay up-to-date on our friend’s blogs, the latest news, and industry publications, RSS feeds are beginning to make the jump into the enterprise world. Now, instead of walking into the proverbial bullpen to see how everyone is coming along, a team leader using Xythos can simply check his feed for a status update. This functionality has the potential to catch in in many different web-based applications.

Xythos’s offerings are geared towards an enterprise audience, and their website tries to assuage some of the common fears about outsourcing document hosting. They assure their clients, “All of your data in Xythos on Demand - your files, the metadata you put on the files, your user accounts - are only available to your organization. No one outside your organization has access to these.” This is in sharp contrast to Google Docs, where the Terms of Service pose a privacy concern for many companies. For example, Term 11.2 states, “You agree that this licence includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.”

Now that on-demand services are becoming accepted in businesses around the world, companies such as SpringCM and Xythos are stepping up to the plate to create tools specifically for enterprise use. Both offer a unique platform users with unique needs, and both are on the cutting edge of the SAAS movement.

Some employers are offering a new employee benefit to compliment traditional health care practices: a second opinion. Large companies such as Genzyme, J.B. Hunt, and EMC have teamed up with a new service called Best Doctors, which provides a second look at medical records to assess the accuracy of diagnoses and treatment plans. Best Doctors, which consists of a team of experts chosen by their peers, can evaluate the work of a primary care physician to ensure that patients are receiving the correct care. The Boston-based company has partnered with employer health plans and worker’s compensation carriers, and their service is changing the way companies look at health care.

The goal of Best Doctors is to “give our members the power to make informed medical decisions.” The company was founded in 1989 by a group of physicians at Harvard University School of Medicine, and it has expanded to include experts in all medical fields. They draw their consulting doctors from a pool of 50,000 top specialists from around the world, which is how they’re able to make the most accurate diagnoses and recommend the latest treatments. Peer surveys are used to recruit new doctors to their pool, using questions such as, “If you or a loved one needed a doctor in your specialty, to whom would you refer them?”

The Best Doctors service is meant to work side-by-side with employee health plans and physicians. As a recent press release explains, “When a patient calls Best Doctors, they are connected to a nurse who listens to all of their questions. Best Doctors compiles the patient’s medical information and selects an expert doctor from their database of 35,000 [now 50,000] physicians who is best qualified to assist the patient. The specialist examines the case and answers any questions posed by the patient. The findings are delivered to both the patient and their treating physician, so they can confidently choose the most appropriate next steps together.”

While it seems logical that a program which gives employees access to top medical experts might add cost to an insurance plan, Best Doctors suggests that correct treatment and diagnosis can save companies significant amounts of money. Indeed, having a specialist opinion from the start can cut down on mistakes and misdiagnoses, allowing patients to spend less time and money on expensive tests and inappropriate medications or treatments. Best Doctors “change rate” is astonishing. They change the initial diagnosis 22% of the time, and they modify the treatment plan for 61% percent of patients! On average, this adds up to $21,689 in savings by reducing unneeded medical costs.

Their website features testimonials from employers who have used the service. Stephen Wood, president of Insurers Administrative Corp, says “We’ve introduced Best Doctors as an added benefit that drives up quality of care. It really paid off. We’ve saved between $50,000 to $75,000 thanks to this program and maybe saved a life or two.” Indeed, as important as it is for employers to reduce the cost of providing health insurance to their workers, it can be even more important for employees to have the best possible medical care in case of serious illness. Hopefully, for the sake of the average worker, services like Best Doctors will become standard in employee benefits packages.

Many businesses are marketing to a new kind of customer, one who recycles religiously, eats organic/fair trade fruits and vegetables, and shops with their environmental impact in mind. This trend towards eco-friendly products is breaking out of the retail and manufacturing industries and spreading into unconventional sectors. Now, even insurance companies are “greenwashing” their home and auto policies, offering customers better rates or environmental incentives for sustainable rebuilding after a disaster. Money has always been a powerful motivator, and insurance policies are cashing in on consumers who want to be responsible in every aspect of their lives.

One way in which insurance companies are appealing to green buyers is through discounts for hybrid owners or those who limit their driving. Traveler’s, Farmers, and other auto insurance companies are offering up to 10% discounts on policies for hybrid vehicles. The theory is that hybrid owners are more conservative on the road and in the maintenance garage than, say, Hummer owners. As Evan Mills, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory told Businessweek, “Customers who buy hybrids tend to have a more conscientious profile.” So far, these policies are limited to a few companies, but the trend is expected to grow in coming years.

Many auto insurers are also offering discounts to green consumers who keep their mileage low. Customers of Progressive, GMAC, and Farmers in certain states receive discounts of 25% to 54% for driving less, depending on how many miles they log. The insurance companies use various technologies to track participant’s mileage, from GPS devices to small data-collecting devices that plug into the steering column of certain vehicles. Some consumers are limiting their driving for environmental reasons, though these types of policies equally benefit those who are doing so due to rising gas prices and other economic crunches.

Another trend in the insurance industry is policies which allow customers to rebuild using sustainable, eco-friendly materials and technology. Lexington Insurance, which is owned by AIG, will charge an extra 3% premium so homeowners or commercial owners can replace damaged property with energy-saving appliances, better insulation, and renewable or recycled materials. They also offer a product called LexElite Eco-Homeowner aimed at the growing number of households who actually generate their own electricity. As a recent press release explains, “If a homeowner’s alternative-energy system has a covered outage, LexElite Eco-Homeowner will protect the homeowner against lost income generated from selling surplus energy back to the local energy company and will cover the extra expenses incurred to purchase replacement electricity.”

While many insurance companies are going paperless, offsetting carbon emissions, and making donations to environmental organizations, the trend setters are now trying to pass these values along to consumers through competitive policies. These discounts could be the motivating force that convinces some drivers and homeowners to choose their purchases based on environmental impact. However, not everyone is convinced that an insurance policy is the appropriate place to make an impact. As Consumer Federation of America spokesman J. Robert Hunter told Businessweek, “”Rather than pay an extra 3% for something that may never happen, why not buy better insulation?” As Hunter suggests, these green insurance policies could simply be a marketing ploy that has no real ripple effect in our carbon emissions. Hopefully, though, the idea that buying “green” could save money might be the extra incentive that people need to push them towards environmental responsibility.

A new document creation service has hit the web, and it’s inspiring individuals and businesses to change the way they collaborate on documentation. LUNARR, founded in 2006 by entrepreneurs Toru Takasuka and Hideshi Hamaguchi, creates a virtual “back page” which includes all of the email communications, informal notes, and discussions that go in to perfecting any given document. This not only provides a real-time look at all the ideas surrounding a document, but also solves the versioning problems that so often plague offline documents. Takasuka and Hamaguchi are hoping to change the way teams collaborate with their unique interface and web-based service. LUNARR is well-positioned to join the ranks of SAAS companies making an impact not only on businesses, but on individual users as well.

Toru Takasuka is a well-known entrepreneur in Japan, having started a company called Cybozu which develops collaborative groupware for enterprise use. Cybozu was a resounding success, and it is still the top groupware company in Japan, surpassing IBM and Microsoft. Takasuka, however, was looking for a new challenge in a more dynamic and daring atmosphere, so he left his position at Cybozu in the spring of 2005.

Hideshi Hamaguchi is also a respected expert in his field, and his work concentrates on creative concept and strategy development. When Takasuka, his former colleague from Panasonic, told him he was venturing out from Cybozu on April Fool’s Day, Hamaguchi assumed it was a prank. “I asked Toru if he had a concept for his new company, and he said no. He just knew that the market was ready for something big and new, so we sat down and developed the concept together.” Their brainstorm produced the front page/back page strategy that became LUNARR, which was named for the two faces of the moon.

LUNARR’s founders drew inspiration from Japanese business philosophy and aesthetics. As Hamaguchi explains, “Japanese people rely on intuition for many business decisions, but Americans use logic for making decisions. The mixture of intuition and logic is totally different in the two cultures.” The back page concept reflects this mixed mode of decision-making, allowing teams to explore not only intuitive changes and whims, but also collect and analyze all the information about a project. The user interface is the essence of simplicity, which Hamaguchi compares to a traditional Japanese stone garden. “The general idea in web applications is ‘more is better’, but in Japanese culture, less is better…we kept subtracting features and design elements to reflect this minimalism.” Hamaguchi compares LUNARR’s clean interface, which is essentially a document with a dog-eared corner that flips to your back page, to Google’s miniamlist landing page. It’s the essence function without any distractions.

Takasuka and Hamaguchi hope to influence the very idea of document creation, though their goal is not to replace current technologies. “We want the dynamic and agile work styles seen with whiteboard note-taking, emails, and web conferences to continue, but we want people to slow down and change their work styles. You take your time and organize the front page, but then you’re able to flip and see the chaos, the additions, and your initial impressions,” says Hamaguchi. “LUNARR provides that relaxed mode of collaboration.” Because of their ambition to change the way people use documents, they are not using the beta launch to gather specific feedback about features for future releases. Takasuka and Hamaguchi see iterative methods as a means by which to improve an existing product, not a tool for innovation. “People do not know what they need from innovative companies. It’s our job to tell them.”

This confident, devil-may-care philosophy is also reflected in Takasuka’s marketing strategy for LUNARR. With Cybozu, he was on the cutting edge of web advertising, but he’s exploring what Hamaguchi describes as a “crazy approach” for this new venture. Since the internet market in the U.S. is saturated with conventional ads, LUNARR has rented an old-school billboard for a year off San Francisco’s Highway 101 near Oracle headquarters. The messages, handwritten and striking, will change every month. The area’s high concentration of tech workers has created a human network that Takasuka is confident will spread the word about his product.

LUNARR is one of the most promising SAAS applications which enables collaboration and vibrancy for any creative team. The service is in a free beta at the moment, though plans are in the works to develop a enterprise version and corresponding pricing structure. As Hamaguchi puts it, “We hope people will see their documents differently, not just a depository, but a work-in-progress, a living thing.”

With the recent proliferation of Software As A Service companies pushing out new applications, “traditional” software companies are trying to match their pace. Adobe Systems is no exception, and they’ve pleased Photoshop fans the world over with the announcement of Photoshop Express public beta, a free application for editing and storing up to 2 gigabytes of photos. An Adobe press release explains, “As the newest addition to the Photoshop family line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe’s best image editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience.” In return, the new online audience will provide feedback on Photoshop Express features, which Adobe promises will have increased functionality over time.

Photoshop Express will have only a small fraction of the features that the full version boasts, as it’s meant mostly for small fixes for casual photographers. It includes options such as cropping, auto retouching, hue and saturation filters, red eye removal, white balancing, and sharpness, but it won’t be powerful for professional use. It’s based on Flex technology, and closely resembles other recent Adobe SAAS product Buzzword, which offers users an attractive and flexible online word processor. In the brief time I spent tweaking and distorting a photo in Photoshop Express, the heavy use of Flash was evident, as the application seemed sluggish on my machine.

For a software company, Adobe is making big leaps in the SAAS world. As mentioned above, Adobe acquired Virtual Ubiquity and released Buzzword, which Talkibie featured in a previous article. Buzzword is a sleek, flexible word processor with significantly more features aimed at Adobe’s core base of designers. The user interface, which is very accessible, closely resembling that of Photoshop Express. Both apps are aimed at a wider audience than Adobe products normally encompass, and both attempt to bring web functionality and accessibility to high-end software.

In addition to Buzzword and Photoshop Express, Adobe has also released a version of their video editing product, Premier Express, for web-based use. It is currently in place on partner websites Remix MTV and Photobucket, so users can augment and destroy the latest offerings from their favorite artists. The Premier Express website promises on-demand video editing: “Mix and mash clips right in your browser for instant remixes, anytime.” Adobe is also working on a storage service called Share, which went live in beta just last week. Share gives user the ability to convert 5 documents to PDF, access your documents and collaborate online, post document links to wikis and blogs, and embed a Flash preview of documents on any website. This, coupled with Buzzword, could be a very powerful tool for enterprises and individual users alike. Share is currently free, but will likely include a pricing plan as it’s adopted by businesses.

As a recent article on ReadWriteWeb asks, “So the question that comes to mind is will these tools be meshed together as one single online suite accessible via a single sign on?” According to an Adobe official who spoke with ReadWriteWeb, it’s a highly likely possibility. Tying these online applications together in one suite could make them more attractive and convenient for enterprise use, a market where Adobe has always excelled. The combination of photo and video editing, storage, and documentation could be a powerful mix for creative groups, marketing teams, publishing houses, and a myriad of other business users. Adobe has carefully engineered the interface to reach audiences of all experience levels, making for a very accessible product group. Many experts and business minds will be carefully watching the development of these Adobe SAAS offerings as they expand features and gain new users.

With more and more people accessing the Internet these days for everything from shopping to social networking to medical consultations via live web feed, it’s no surprise that web crimes and scams are also on the rise. But just how bad is it getting? The Associated Press recently released an article stating that losses from online scams hit a record high in the last fiscal year. Even though there were fewer reported crimes, total losses across the board were estimated at about $240 million, which means higher losses than have ever been previously reported. John Hambrick, a spokesperson for the Internet Crime Complaint Center, attributes the losses to “new scheming techniques and generally more expensive electronic items being purchased online.” It certainly seems logical and likely. But with such a startling jump in apparent losses, what can be done to stop the scamming?

The best way of defending yourself is to be able to recognize a scam. While it’s probably true that there are many different scams in the online world, there are a few particular ones that you can easily recognize. According to the FBI, there are four extremely popular types of Internet scams. Though the individual cases may vary, the most popular scams out there (as of 2007) will generally fall into one of these categories. They are as follows:

PET SCAMS: Very few legitimate pet retailers will sell animals online due to varying state laws prohibiting it. Thoroughly research who you are buying a pet from if you chose to do in over the Internet. More often then not, those who claim to be selling these pets are running a scam and will run off with your money as soon as they get it. Also, the FBI warns to be careful if you yourself are trying to sell pets online. People have been conned out of money by scammers over-paying for the pet and requesting the seller to wire them back the difference, only to discover that the original check was bad. These types of crimes are on the rise, so Internet surfers need to be careful.

SECRET SHOPPERS: Most people have probably seen advertisements online to become a secret shopper, and while some of them are legitimate, many of these ads are the work of scammers. According to the FBI, this works similarly to the pet scam: “You’ve been hired via the Web to rate your experiences while shopping or dining. You’re paid by check and asked to wire a percentage of the money to a third party. Like the pet scam, the check is bad and you’re out the money you sent.” They also warn that many scammers will illegally use logos and images from legitimate companies in order to trick their victims, so it is important to be careful and astute.

ADOPTION/CHARITY FRAUDS: With this type of scam, potential victims are sent heart wrenching emails about children in need, and how an immediate donation is needed in order to help these poor children. The names of real charitable organizations are often use to give the claim a sense of legitimacy. When making these types of online donations, it is crucial that you do so at the official website and not through a random ad.

ROMANCE FRAUD: There are many potential pitfalls in the online dating scene, but there is a very serious type of scam present as well. Someone you meet in a chat room, and whom you’ve grown to like after talking with them online, says that he or she wants to meet up with you, but doesn’t have the money, and wonders if you will lend it. You wire the money for the trip. As the FBI warns, “Typically, that’s just the beginning—the person may end up in the hospital during the trip or get mugged and need more money, etc.” This only adds to the list of reasons why online dating can be risky.

Addressing the issue of the increase in online scams, FBI spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan had this to say: “The scammer tries to prey on victims who are kind of in tune with what’s going on in the world. The scam changes, but ultimately they’re preying on the good will of people.” As more and more people incorporate the use of the Internet into their daily lives, it becomes that much more vital for people know what to look out for when they are online. With the losses of Internet scams growing at such an alarming rate, educating the public on how to protect themselves and their bank accounts should be a top priority.

In today’s work-a-day world, most of us have multiple projects or tasks that we are working on simultaneously. Some handle multitasking well, and others struggle with it. That is why, under any circumstance, it is important to prioritize. The same is true of web development. However, corporate web developers have taken it one step further. A recent article in the New Hampshire Business Review discusses the hows and whys of prioritizing features and tasks within a web development cycle.

Any businesses developing a new site or conducting a redesign will end up with a long laundry list of changes, functionality, or new features to be added. Under these circumstances, “the challenge is not brainstorming new opportunities, but rather prioritizing all of the different options you have for upgrading or redesigning your site given your resources.” In order to maximize the usefulness of a website, each potential new feature must be carefully analyzed for its value to the company. Will the time it takes to complete each feature result in a better, more productive or more appealing site? The article suggests considering three specific factors when evaluating each change on your list:

CUSTOMER NEEDS: Customers should always be the first priority, since they determine the success of failure of a business or product. Correspondingly, any new features to a website should address their needs and desires. Thus, the first step in the prioritization process is to conduct research with actual users. This can be done by any number of means, including online surveys, focus groups, responses from promotional material, etc. Some corporations may even want to consider launching a beta website to show customers what the current plan is for the site. Based upon their reactions, a company will know if they are heading in the right direction.

BUSINESS VALUE: This has to do with assessing the bottom line. In this step, it is important to consider the following questions: What are you trying to accomplish internally? Will this feature help you accomplish that? Is this feature cost-effective? How will it increase the usability of the site? The answers to these questions will help to prioritize different features that a company may be considering. For example, suppose a company wants to reach out to new customers through a new product. What feature can be added to the website to promote this product among new users? How do current customers respond to this product? Does it gel with current branding, or will it confuse existing users? This stage is all about analyzing a potential new feature from a business perspective to ensure that money spent on a site will be worth it.

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS: This analysis is best done by the IT team in conjunction with real-world users. After the “customer research” phase, the relative technical cost of these features can be analyzed. However, this must go beyond the monetary cost. Other factors to consider include: the time it will take a tech team to develop these features, the amount of space these features will require on the website itself, what kind of maintenance will be needed, and how users with different levels of technical experience will use the features. This is a crucial consideration for any new site or upgrade.

This type of prioritization makes sense not only from a development standpoint, but also for the bottom line. After all, adding features that don’t meet customer needs, that are unwise from a business perspective, or that are unrealistic in terms of technological resources is a sure way to fail. Successful development teams carefully evaluate new features based on their potential to pay off in terms of user experience and financial success. By following the above protocol, any new website has a much better chance of success.

In a recent article, Talkibie reported on the increase in software and services that are jumping from the desktop to the web. Large, infrastructure-rich companies are enabling this change by allowing smaller web-based businesses to rent scalable portions of their massive computing clouds. Amazon, one of the largest web companies in the world, has taken this concept to the next level with their Web Services division. To coin a term, Amazon Web Services is making a mark in the Cloud As A Service (CAAS) industry, and their dedication to providing a good user experience is paying off.

Amazon has created this division as a way to leverage unused portions of their infrastructure. Their network is massive, designed to withstand peaks of activity, but it’s power is not needed consistently. By renting it out for reasonable rates to smaller companies, they are enabling their customers to enhance and scale applications that otherwise would be impossible (both financially and technologically). As their website puts it, “We innovate for you, so that you can innovate for your customers.”

One new service Amazon is offering is known as Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which provides web-scale computing capacity to help developers manage applications as they grow or decline in popularity. EC2 is in beta at the moment, but it works in conjunction with Amazon’s storage, database, and queuing services (code-named S3, Amazon DB, and SQS respectively). For developers, their website explains how to use EC2:

• Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) containing your applications, libraries, data and associated configuration settings. Or use pre-configured, templated images to get up and running immediately.
• Upload the AMI into Amazon S3. Amazon EC2 provides tools that make storing the AMI simple. Amazon S3 provides a safe, reliable and fast repository to store your images.
• Use Amazon EC2 web service to configure security and network access.
• Start, terminate, and monitor as many instances of your AMI as needed, using the web service APIs.
• Pay only for the resources that you actually consume, like instance-hours or data transfer.

The service is not for the casual user, as it takes a baseline of knowledge to scale and backup applications. As the last bullet suggests, Amazon is trying to keep their EC2 service affordable and appropriate to actual usage. This is also true for Simple Storage Service (S3), which allows storage and access to any amount of data through the web. Their huge infrastructure allows unlimited objects from 1 byte to 5 gigabytes to be held and retrieved using a unique developer-assigned key. Users can grant access to others on their team as well, enabling web-based collaboration.

Amazon Web Services has experienced a few outages, most notably this February. As TechCrunch notes, other startups (including Twitter) who rely on S3 or EC2 experienced problems as a result. No doubt as Amazon’s reliability will increase as they perfect their new role. Astoundingly, the bandwidth AWS customers use has now surpassed that used by all of Amazon’s global sites combined! If you’re measuring by bandwidth, that means that Amazon’s cloud tenants are now larger than Amazon’s retail customers.

As Amazon Web Service’s official blog notes, “There are any number of references on the Web to Amazon’s focus on being the ‘earth’s most customer centric company’.” For this reason, Amazon has opened the flood gates of user opinion, allowing developers to share their experiences with each new service as it’s unveiled. “I encourage each you [developers] to read the spec and send us your thoughts on whether the team’s work meets your needs…We’re serious about making certain our Web Services are the best on earth for you, the customer.” And that excellence, in turn, is passed on to the customers of businesses who benefit from Amazon’s cloud.

We are all familiar with the “get rich quick” schemes that have been around for years. Some prove successful, but most fall through. However, as the tech-savvy generation comes into their own, the next big money-making idea centers around website advertising. An article published by Business 2.0 Magazine describes a new phenomenon known as “traffic arbitrage.” This controversial practice is netting thousands of dollars a day for adept web developers. According to the article, “The concept is straightforward: Buy cheap traffic for your website from one search engine, get paid more for the ads streamed from another. Arbitrage is a major revenue source for some businesses.” The process is actually quite ingenious and surprisingly simple. Here are the step-by-step instructions describing how anyone could do this:

• Create your site, but don’t waste time or money buying an expensive domain name. It is unnecessary, because you can make the ads do all the work for you.
• Fill your site with ads from an ad host, like Google’s AdSense. Aligning your site with a popular search engine such as Google will greatly increase traffic flow.
• Place your own ads on Microsoft’s AdCenter. It’s cheaper than many competitors, and this will drive the traffic you want to your site.

After these three steps, all you have to do is bid for keywords and wait. Users will be drawn to the site, and many of them will also be drawn to the Google ads that have been placed there. The owners of the websites then cash in on the discrepancy between what they paid Microsoft and what Google is paying them. It seems like the perfect plan.

However, some web entrepreneurs have taken the idea a bit too far. In response, Google has been making efforts to block users who design sites for the pure purpose of traffic arbitrage, claiming that this diminishes the user experience. Generally speaking, the pitfalls here are obvious. A site created solely for the purpose of ad propagation is not going to be very popular, with high bounce rates and low return traffic. Users are very easily turned off by sites that offer a seemingly endless stream of clickable ads with little other content. It also seems like a bad business move; after all, the idea is to attract people to your site and keep them interested long enough to click on a select few ads. If the site is nothing but ads, what is there to attract the user?

Still, as is normally the case with a money-making scheme, this idea seems to be growing in popularity with many traffic arbitrage aficionados. As one enthusiastic blogger puts it, “I don’t know about you, but I do not know any businesses where you can make immediate and riskless [sic] profit, other than Traffic Arbitrage.” It certainly seems that, when pursued correctly, this idea certainly seems to work for many people. From all angles, the risks seem extremely low, and the potential payoffs seem almost unbelievable. After all, any venture that can earn yield thousands of dollars per day would be enticing to most people. As long as the web site creator is careful to make sure that the content of their site is not solely dedicated to ad space, it seems as though traffic arbitrage, however morally questionable some may deem it, is a very lucrative venture for up and coming entrepreneurs.

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Utah has drawn a solid correlation between widescreen displays and worker productivity. Analysts and industry experts have long suggested a connection between screen set-up and productivity, and the new study confirms this belief. As CIO.com has reported, “Organizations that upgrade their employees’ standard-format monitors to widescreen displays can realize productivity gains equivalent to 76 extra work days a year per worker, as well as annual cost savings of more than $8,000 per staff member…(That math assumes a staffer who makes $32,500 annually.)”

The research was funded by NEC, an industry leader in LED, plasma, and projection displays, and they’ve made a PDF of the study’s key findings available to the public. Ninety-six members of the University of Utah community, including faculty, staff, and students, performed varying tasks on different monitor set ups. The participants were broken up according to their level of comfort with technology (novice, intermediate, or advanced) to ensure the results would be compared appropriately. Researchers prepared different tasks to test spreadsheet and text editing performance, as well as taking into account monitor preferences. The study found that participants using a 24-inch widescreen monitor tested 52% faster than those using an 18-inch monitor. Also, those using a dual 20-inch set-up were 44% faster than those with 18-inch screens. Additional findings were:

• Large widescreen or dual-monitor configurations are better suited for work that involves multiple documents or applications.
• 24-inch widescreen displays are better suited for text editing than both single standard format (17-inch and 19-inch) and dual standard format (17-inch and 19-inch) monitor configurations.
• Dual-widescreen configurations in 22-inches or larger are better for spreadsheet editing than single widescreen or standard format displays.
• Net annual cost savings of using 24-inch widescreen monitors in place of standard format, 18-inch monitors, including electricity and monitor costs, is roughly $2.1 million a year for 250-employee companies and about $4.3 million for firms with 500 staffers.

The research also revealed that bigger is not necessarily better. Worker productivity started to fall when participants upgraded to a 26-inch screen, showing that more “real estate” is not the only key which allows users to complete tasks quickly and efficiently. The study also assumes a solid eight hour work block and focused on tasks that would benefit from larger, wider screens. While some graphic- or text-intensive tasks could be performed more readily on a wide screen or dual-monitor set-up, not all types of work are subject to the results of this study. The lead researcher at the University of Utah, Dr. James A. Anderson, says in an NEC press release, “large widescreen or dual-monitor configurations are recommended for use in any situation where multiple documents of information are an ordinary part of work.” Anderson found that the widescreen set-up was especially beneficial to workers whose tasks involved moving data between files, such as transferring information from a text document into a spreadsheet.

Reader comments on CIO.com’s article express skepticism about the findings. One reader remarks, “Has anyone every conducted a study of how many vendor-sponsored university studies (yes, from the supposed heartland of “scientific” research), whether by food, drug, or computer hardware companies, end up with published findings that are not favourable to the sponsor?” This is a valid concern for any study conducted on behalf of a commercial enterprise, but the results of the research are overwhelmingly homogeneous, which suggests the accuracy of the findings. Dr. Anderson assured the Wall Street Journal that the study was validated by the University of Utah’s research board and not simply a product of NEC’s PR department.

NEC, no doubt delighted at the outcome of the study, has launched a site to help businesses decide how to upgrade their monitors, and it includes a calculator to help CIOs determine their expected cost savings when switching to widescreen displays. The idea of widescreen monitors as a panacea for productivity problems is not what NEC or the University of Utah means to suggest. Dr. Anderson recommends that businesses take the time to match workers to the monitor set-up that best meets their needs. While they may not be a cure for the productivity ills of the work place, widescreen displays can help with repetitive, side-by-side, real-estate intensive tasks, allowing employees to perform their tasks more quickly and comfortably.

Tensions have been running high recently between Apple, Inc. and Adobe Systems, Inc. over the Internet browsing capabilities of the iPhone. Because the iPhone’s web browser is incompatible with Flash Player (the web video streaming technology produced by Adobe), iPhone users have been unable to access nearly all videos currently being streamed on the web. According to a recent article published by the Wall Street Journal, this has adversely affected Apple shares, as many analysts believe that the iPhone’s inability to stream videos is one of the most cited negative features that turn buyers away from the product. According to Apple, current versions of Flash Player are either too slow to be used with the iPhone or too inadequate to be used to access the Internet via the hand-held device. Some reports suggest that Flash drains too much battery life to be feasible for mobile internet use. To date, Apple has yet to incorporate a version of Flash into their iPhones.

This latest incident has added to the strain on the relationship between Apple and Adobe, two companies which at one time were very much reliant upon one another. However, in recent years, the two companies have a history of strained relations. As the Wall Street Journal article points out, “Several years ago, Adobe dropped support for Apple’s Macintosh computers and then introduced other software products that were only compatible with Microsoft Corp. software. Then, Apple made some product changes affecting the distribution of Adobe’s software products.” Given the mounting tensions between these two companies, it seems like the iPhone might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. Rumors have already begun circulating about Apple potentially contracting with another company to provide this web service (Sun Microsystems and their JavaFX platform being the front runner here), and there has also be speculation that A