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What is a social network?
Simply put, a social network is a group of things connected to other things via specific interdependencies or relationships.  In the language of science, the things connected together are called “nodes,” and the relationships that bind nodes together are called “ties” or “edges”.  Both are theoretically limitless; a network can consist of an infinite number of nodes connected together by an infinite number, and an infinite arrangement, of ties or edges.

In the context of an online social network, nodes are generally individuals—real people, in other words—bound together by ties or edges that represent specific relationships with real-world analogues, like friendship, common interests, common desires, and the like.  A node, in this sense, consists of an online profile created by an individual.  The profile contains information specific to that individual—his or her name, age, sex, locality, interests, etc.—and this information drives the connections he or she makes with other individuals via the information contained in their profiles.

When one individual connects with another individual (when one node connects to another via a tie or edge), that individual is then connected, virtually, to all the connections the other individual has made with other individuals, thereby extending the virtual network even further.   In this fashion, the extent, or reach, of an online social network is theoretically bounded only by the limits of online technology.

What is social networking?

Social networking is the activity that takes place within a social network.  Just as the activity that takes place within a real-world network or community of like-minded people is bound only by the limits of real-world interactivity between human beings, the social activity that takes place within an online social network is bound only by the limits of the features, functionality, and technology available online.  At present, most online social networks provide a baseline functionality that allow nodes, or individuals, to:

• Find each other
• Establish ties or edges with other nodes (individuals)
• Communicate with each other asynchronously (i.e., mail, messages, or status updates) or in real-time (i.e., chat)
• Share information with each other (i.e., pictures, video, interesting links)
• Interact with each other (i.e., play online games)
• Build sub-communities or groups based on a common interest (i.e., fans of a certain music group, fans of a certain baseball team, or fans of a certain product)

What are some common online social networking features?

At present, many online social networks contain features similar or analogous to those listed below:

Chat

Chat (or instant messaging) is a means for individuals to communicate with each other in real-time, typically via an exchange of text-based messages.  In a typical chat scenario, an individual notices that another individual is online and available to chat; he or she sends that individual a text message, and the individual responds or chooses not to respond to the message.  If the individual chooses not to respond, the message is not delivered, and can eventually be discarded by the sender.

Mail/Messaging

Mail/messaging is a means for individuals to communicate with each other asynchronously via an exchange of text-based messages.  Analogous to the email paradigm, in a typical mail/messaging scenario, an individual sends a message to another individual.  The message is then stored in the recipient individual’s “inbox,” to be read by that individual and his or her convenience.  Unlike email, however, the entire exchange takes place within the boundaries of the online social network’s interface; no email addresses or messaging protocols are utilized.

Blogs

Blogs are static or semi-dynamic web spaces created by individuals who wish to share their thoughts, opinions, or impressions with the greater web community.  While blogs can and certainly do exist outside of the constraints of a typical online social network, the physical nodes within an online social network mirror or mimic blogs in that both provide an individual with the online real estate to share their thoughts, opinions, or impressions with a greater community.  Further, just as blogs in the greater sense provide functionality that allows blog readers to leave comments on specific blogs, so do many of the physical nodes within an online social network.

Feeds

Feeds are methods by which new or updated content is distributed to content consumers via aggregators, or applications which gather web content from disparate sources into a single place for easier viewing.  In a basic feed scenario, a content provider syndicates his or her web content so that consumers of the content can subscribe to it (i.e., “subscribe to the feed”).  Aggregators, when instructed, then poll subscribed feeds to discover new or updated content.  When new or updated content is found, the aggregator makes the content consumer aware of it programmatically.  Like blogs, while feeds can and certainly do exist outside of online social networks, many online social networks offer aggregator tools so that individuals can see, quickly and at a glance, new content created by individuals with whom they have a tie or edge.

Status Updates

Status updates provide individuals with the means to broadcast their current status to those individuals with whom they have a tie or edge.  Typically, status updates answer the question “what are you doing now?”,  or “where are you now?”, and consist of no more than two or three lines of text that may or may not include an active hyperlink.  Not only do many online social networks provide status update functionality, it is the sole raison d’être for Twitter, an extremely popular online social network.

Events

Events provide individuals with the means to plan and organize online or real-life events with the individuals with whom they have a tie or an edge.  In a typical event scenario, an individual creates an event, invites other individuals to attend, and performs other event planning tasks.  Those individuals who accept the event invitation can then participate in the online event space itself by adding comments, interacting with others attending the event, etc.

Online Media Sharing

Many online social networks provide individuals with the tools to share photos, videos, and music with those individuals with whom they have a tie or edge.  In a typical media sharing scenario, an individual uploads a photo, video, or music file to his or her online profile—in other words, the media file becomes part of the individual’s online node.  The media is then accessible to those individuals with whom the individual shares a tie or an edge.  Further, the individual who uploads the media file to his or her profile can tag it with descriptive text, so it can be found more easily via search by those individuals with whom he or she shares a tie or an edge.

Why is social networking important for business?

Social networking is important marketing tool for business.  Again, the real-world/virtual world analogue rings true; in the real world, social networks provide a rich environment for word-of-mouth marketing campaigns—the online world is no different.  In fact, online social networks provide a sort of Garden of Eden environment for word-of-mouth marketing campaigns, because online social networks have several distinct advantages over other environments or audiences, including immediacy, ubiquity, cost effectiveness, and trust.

Immediacy

In the online world, events can take place at incredible speeds, bounded, once again, only by technology.  For businesses, this makes just-in-time advertising possible, allowing businesses to react proactively to rapidly changing market conditions.

Ubiquity

Thanks to advances in communication technology, including 3G networks, the robustness of online Web 2.0 technology can be found in many handheld mobile devices, allowing individuals to remain connected to each other virtually anywhere they can connect to a communications network.  This breakthrough has allowed many individuals to stay connected to the virtual world even away from their desktop or laptop computers.  For businesses, this means an ever-increasing audience and an ever-increasing marketplace.

Cost Effectiveness

The standard feature set for most online social networks is free.  For businesses, this provides the ability to influence evangelists, early adaptors, or brand-champions to promote business-friendly messages for little or no cost.

Trust

The underlying current of a social network, both in real-life or online, is trust.  To connect with each other, individuals, or nodes, self-identify; the trust between them is therefore implicit, otherwise the tie or edge would have never been established.  For businesses, this means an online social network is not only a potential marketplace or audience for its message, but a marketplace or audience built implicitly on trust, where each individual constitutes a “trusted advisor,” of sorts, to the other individuals in the network.  And as real world experience has long since proved, no one is a bigger evangelist for a product or service than a satisfied customer, or a well-respected trend setter within a group of trusting peers.

It’s been a while since there has been much talk about AOL.  Instant messaging used to be the biggest thing but now it’s a time of social networks, and AOL is trying to build awareness of their site.  They have had their social networking site Bebo.com sine 2005, which has been most popular in the UK.  Now they’re looking to increase traffic by bringing the top social networking sites together on their homepage.  AOL executives announced Thursday they will be rolling out a new homepage over the next couple weeks.  It will include tabs for AIM, Bebo, MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook for now so users will be able to see highlights from each website, i.e. news feeds, updates, and in-boxes.  Users will have the capability to click through to the websites to view the entire application. 

AOL executive, James Clark told CNET News, “These are just the launch partners, and more social-networking and messaging services will be added to the lineup over time.”

There has been talk about search engines and websites creating a landing page for all social networks – a place users can go, log-into one site and have the ability to access all of their profiles on the internet.  We’ll see if AOL is the first that catches on.

I’m curious to see how the log-ins will work.  Will users have to log into each site individually?  Will their AOL log-in give them access to all four applications?  We’ll just have to wait and see what they roll out and if it’s enough to keep up with the new era of social networking.

Almost every news story I read lately has something to do with the downturn the economy has taken over the past months.  I’ve been trying to stay away these topics for just that reason – everyone’s talking about it and to be quite honest it’s depressing.  I know it’s the reality but if everyone else is talking about it then I don’t have to.  But today a story struck me and it’s not only about the mess the economy is in but about how it is changing consumer behaviors and teaching us to use a new technology.  The trend had begun, but it is catching on more quickly than expected because everyone is pinching pennies wherever they can.

This new trend is cutting back on cable, saving consumers anywhere from $40 to $100 a month.  Some of you are wondering how you could live without TV and your favorite shows.  The internet is how.  ABC.com was the first network to post full episodes of their shows on their website in 2006, reported the New York Times.  Today, some shows are viewed more via the internet and websites like Hulu and YouTube than watched live on TV.  There are a couple reasons this trend is catching on so fast.  First, it’s FREE!  You are required to watch short advertisements (approximately 2 minutes verses 8 minutes on cable television within a 30 minute show) but it’s still free.  And second, there are fewer advertisements than cable television.  You aren’t able to fast forward through commercials like with TiVo or DVR, but you also aren’t paying $60 a month.

What do these trends of canceling cable to watch prime time shows online and fast forwarding through commercials mean for advertisers? – A move towards online advertising.  Companies are shifting away from spending thousands and sometimes millions of dollars on TV ads because they aren’t reaching their customers.  Instead they are saving some coin and turning to online advertising.  This can be defined in many different ways, explains Paul Martino, CEO of Aggregate Knowledge in an interview with TechNewsWorld.com.  Martino broke it down to Rich media, video, and traditional display.  He is seeing more companies spending ad dollars on online videos and says to look out for display ads. 

“And in many ways there are clear leaders with a very good offering there, and the space that hasn’t had a lot of innovation is around display, around dynamic creatives, around personalized ads, around telling the story in a way that they used to be able to do on television.”

The move towards the internet seems like a win-win for everyone.  The consumer spends less but still has the entertainment they want at their fingertips, companies are paying less for advertising and their market is actually viewing their ads, but what about the cable companies?  I heard they’re going to wireless service…

Crushed by the worsening economy, mall owners are seeing revenues decline due to rampant retail store-closings nationwide.  With tenancy rates nearing all-time lows, the Wall Street Journal reports that one industry’s misery is another industry’s gain: a new breed of upstart advertising companies is now utilizing that vacant retail space to sell advertising.

The concept, though simple, is quite novel.  Have empty store windows?  A company like WindowGain can set up a bunch of projectors inside a store to shine advertising images on the windows in six to 10-second bursts.  Or a company like Inwindow Outdoor will stretch vinyl advertising overlays over those windows.  For the right to do these things, the companies pay a flat monthly rate of anywhere between $1,000 and $8,500, depending on the ad’s size and the foot traffic that goes by the ad.  In some instances, mall owners can even reap 10 to 30 percent of the rates advertisers pay to place their ads in the malls.

While this sort of arrangement doesn’t make up for the lack of retailers who could otherwise occupy the space, it gives mall owners a way to earn something on space that would otherwise go to waste.  A downside, however, is that mall owners typically want shorter contracts for these advertisements—in case a retailer might come along and need the space—while advertisers usually want the security of a month or two month contract.

But even this is not the end; it seems like every flat surface in a mall is up for grabs.  According to the Wall Street Journal, mall owner Glimcher Realty Trust allows advertisers to place ads on the tables of its food courts.  Stand in place at a mall long enough, and someone’s liable to slap an ad on you.

Gomez held a webinar called ‘8 Ways to Improve Your Web Experience’ for its customers.  The presentation reviewed methods and ideas in which their customers can utilize the information they receive from Gomez to increase their success.

Gomez highlighted the following best practices in their webinar:

1.       Benchmark Against the Best

Measure your site’s performance against industry competitors and web leaders.  Don’t keep a narrow focus on your industry alone.  A non-competitor could have an idea that would improve your user experience.  This is one reason Gomez is able to help their customers be so successful – they are the common denominator among companies globally.  If they see a method working for one customer in the car industry for example, they may suggest it to another who is in banking.

2.       Use Benchmark Results to Improve

Don’t just compare yourself to others.  Use that information to better yourself and your users’ experiences.  Business and IT teams should work together and both review the information found to deliver faster and more consistent UX.  Use the results to know where you stand compared to your competitors and to protect your brand.

3.       Perform Visual Testing of All Key Browser/OS Combinations

What exactly are your users experiencing and how is that affecting your bottom line?  It is important to use all combinations of browsers and operating systems in testing because those factors could drive your customers to the competitor.  Until you know exactly what they are seeing and experiencing at your site there is no way of knowing whether they are having a positive experience or not.

4.       Know How the Latest Browsers Impact Your Existing Applications

This didn’t used to be an issue but it seems like a new browser is coming out every day.  A couple years ago it was safe to assume the majority of your users were viewing your site in Internet Explorer.  Today there are other options such as Firefox and Safari and multiple versions of each brand.  Is the UX consistent throughout?

5.       Apply a Comprehensive Testing Methodology

Conduct synthetic and real transaction testing.  Find out exactly what your customers are seeing and what they might possibly experience before they do.   You need to know the next play before it happens to stay on top of your business.  Apply new features when volumes are low to see how it plays out before you negatively affect your brand.

6.       Analyze Actual Experiences By User Profile

Find out what customers are actually experiencing and how that differs across the board.  Why are there differences? 

7.       Connect Web Performance to Business Results

The web performance your customers experience directly affects your business results.  User experience leads to user behavior which leads to business results.  This information directly affects your bottom line so if you think this is a waste of time, rethink it.

8.       Foster Business and IT Alignment Around Unified Metrics for Total Online SuccessAlthough there may be different business units within your company they are still the same company working for one cause – to serve your customers and drive business.  Therefore, they need to speak the same language.  Teach IT what the business department does and vice versa.  Less work will be created and the line of business can focus on what’s important to them, customer satisfaction.

In a chilling story reported by the Wall Street Journal on October 21, 2008, Kentucky judge Thomas Wingate seized the web addresses of over 140 internet gambling sites earlier in the week.  According to Wingate, the gambling sites were “virtual keys” that provided the citizens of his state with the ability to play online versions of gambling devices such as slot machines and roulette wheels, which are illegal in Kentucky.  Even though none of the sites are located in Kentucky, or operate technical equipment located within the state, since the sites regularly accept bets from Kentuckians and process payments from banks located there, Wingate felt he had standing to make the seizure.

“Seizing” the sites means that the entity that registered the sites cannot transfer the address to a different registrar, even if the address owner requests it.  This means the gambling sites can still remain active while under the Kentucky seizure.  Kentucky could issue a forfeiture order, which means the sites would become state property and be forced to comply with the judge’s orders, but the court has said it will lift its seizure if the sites implement technology that would prevent users in Kentucky from accessing their sites.

While you may think of the internet as a brave new frontier, sites are often forced to adhere to laws in the localities in which they do business.  In 2000, for example, a French court forced Yahoo! to ban the sale of Nazi paraphernalia, even though Yahoo was based entirely in the United States.

According to eWeek’s Joe Wilcox, maybe.

His logic may make good business sense.  Nearly a year ago, Microsoft tried to take over Yahoo by offering $31 a share in a deal worth $44 .6 billion.  Today, with Yahoo trading just over $11 a share, that $31 per share offer seems incredibly generous.

Wilcox opposed the deal at $31 a share, figuring the cost wasn’t worth the integration headaches necessary to gain search share and other assets.  But with shares of Yahoo now selling relatively cheap, the deal might make sense.  Plus, Google has fallen on hard times as well; its stock price has dropped 60% and there are growing concerns about its advertising market.

Currently, Microsoft has 8.3% of the search market; acquiring Yahoo would give the company 27.9%.

The iPhone has proven to be the turning point for some start-up software companies since Apple released its iTunes App Store in July, reports Businessweek.  One example being Shazam, a London mobile music software maker which allows the user to hold a phone to a radio and tell you the name and artist of the song being played.  The software will then point you to an online music store to purchase the song.  In the four years Shazam was in business prior to the App Store being released, the app was being used three to five times over the course of a cell phone life span.  In the ten weeks Shazam has been available on iTunes Apps, the program has been used two to three times a week!  It’s incredible how the creation of an application can boost revenue for companies on such a dramatic scale. 

AdMob, a mobile advertising company is another example of how iTunes App Store has spiked business for companies.  In August AdMob was serving about 35 million ads on the iPhone.  In September that number jumped to about 103 million.  If you have an online application that isn’t being sold on iTunes Apps my question to you is, why not?!

This spike in business is being referred to as an “iPhone bump”.  I’m curious to see if and how Apple and the iPhone will change consumers’ buying habits and the way we complete online tasks.  

Consumers reluctant to pay a premium for Earth-friendly products may soon get a lift.  According to Ad Age, Arm & Hammer Essentials, a new line of “green” cleansers, not only are environment-friendly, they’re 25% less expensive than other similar cleaning products.

How do they do it?  Arm & Hammer removed the water from three of its cleaning products—a multi-surface cleaner, a glass spray, and a degreaser—and packaged the dry components in envelopes.  Two envelopes are packaged with a re-usable spray bottle; consumers can then re-constitute the dry ingredients with their own water and fill the re-usable bottle.  Combined, the package uses 85% less plastic and 80% less packaging than conventional household cleaners.

Backing the Arm & Hammer Essentials launch is retail giant Wal-Mart, which features the line on a walmart.com microsite.  According to the microsite, the packaging from cleaning products is a major source of pollution for local landfills.  Consumers, therefore, can choose an Essentials product and keep much of that packaging out of the local dump.

Thus far, environmentally-friendly household products haven’t been adopted as widely by consumers as they could be, often because they are more expensive than their less-environmentally-friendly counterparts.  By adding “cheaper” to the value proposition, Arm & Hammer may have a real winner on its hands.  Less damage to the planet and less damage to your wallet?  That’s a winning proposition.

Well, not quite.  But it did set into motion the events that led up to her arrest.

As CNN reports, the 43-year-old Japanese woman was despondent after being “divorced” by her “virtual husband” in the online interactive game Maple Story.  The online game is very popular in Japan; players create avatars that represent their virtual selves, and then engage in online relationships and social activities.

The virtual divorce came as a shock to the woman.  Growing angry, she used her former online husband’s log in information to gain access to his account and “kill” his online character.  The former husband complained to police when he logged into the game, only to find his beloved character dead.

That’s how she ran afoul of Japanese law—illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data.  If convicted, the woman could face a prison term of up to five years, or a fine up to $5,000.

Sad as this is, virtual lives have a way of spilling into the real world and causing trouble.  As Sergeant Phil Esterhaus used to say on Hill Street Blues:  “Be careful out there.”

AT&T is to Apple’s iPhone as T-Mobile is to Google’s G1.  We have all heard about the iPhone by now and know that if you want it you have must have AT&T as your wireless service provider.  This was a smart business move on AT&T as 2.4 million iPhones were sold in Q3.  If you’ve been watching their stock, you’re probably disagreeing with me.  AT&T has had to pay their royalties to Apple but AT&T expects to see the payout over the span of the next two years since new users are required to sign a two-year contract.

When Google announced they would be releasing a smart phone, they too paired with a wireless provider, T-Moblie. 

If you’re wondering why these companies are limiting their users to a single carrier it has to do with the network requirements the devices demand.  Partnering with a single network has allowed features such as visual voicemail.  Also, if any changes need to be made between the phone company and service provider, it will be much easier to make these adjustments with a single company as opposed to multiple carriers.

Consumers have different opinions on whether this was a good decision or not for Apple and Google.  I think most opinions are based on geographic areas.  For example in New England, AT&T is not the carrier of choice, but further south it is.  I wonder if we will see a trend with the popularity of the iPhone over the G1 based on where you go around the world.

Proving once again his campaign is tapped into today’s volksgeist, the Obama 2008 campaign has confirmed that they indeed advertising on the Xbox 360 racing game “Burnout Paradise”.

Gigaom confirmed the rumors were true via Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications for Electronic Arts, the game’s producer.  According to Rockwood, EA is willing to accept advertising placements from all credible political candidates.  She is, however, quick to point out that the advertisements do not reflect the political opinions of EA or its development teams.

The ad is done up as a highway billboard, featuring a picture of Obama next to the headline “Early Voting Has Begun,” and promoting a website called voteforchange.com.

The words ‘video games’ and ‘girls’ typically don’t end up in the same sentence.  In most cases we think of the target market for video games to be males (for sure) and typically teenagers – sometimes older males who have not yet socially matured – and probably never will.  However, this is not the reality of the industry.  There are many females out there who enjoy playing video games.  The stereotype ops to spend money on clothes and fashion as opposed to the latest video game console, but that doesn’t mean girls don’t like to play too and that the trend can’t change.

Kimberly Unger, CEO of Bushi-go, a mobile and handheld games developer startup explains why males may have been the focus for gaming companies for so long.  “It is easy, safe, fast, and a guaranteed money maker to target the 18 to 34 year old audience.  The female market is harder to quantify, harder to guarantee and from a business standpoint a much riskier thing to rely on.”

Sure, there have been games made targeted at the female gender, but that is largely outweighed by those made for males, which may not be the smartest business decision if you look at the numbers.  TechNewsWorld.com reports 40 percent of all gamers are women and that women over the age of 18 represent twice that of the gamer population, than do boys age 17 and older.  The Nintendo Wii has largely changed who and how games are played.  The Wii has made gaming more social and has piqued the interest of not only women but other generations as well.

Are women all that different from men?  Studies have shown that the biggest different between male and female gamers is that men spend more time in a single sitting playing than females.  That’s no surprise or a good reason to rule women out.

So where is the trend of video games going?  Jud Leedom Tyler, a network engineer at Red Storm Entertainment believes companies need to focus on what interests people and how trends are changing.  “We need to focus on areas of interest.  Many of [women’s] interests are shared by men.  If we look at what interests people could be served by gaming, then we would get further faster.”

According to Ad Age, due to the current financial crisis, raising money for an ad-supported web business is going to be tough for anyone who can’t demonstrate a clear, relatively quick path to profitability.  On a growth pace of 20% to 30% per year since 2003, online advertising spending rates will drop into the low double digits or high single digits this year, predicts Ad Age, and what money will be spent on online advertising will be spent on known brands and entities, and proven strategies such as search.

This may leave some Web 2.0 companies holding the bag.  Even though many of these companies revolutionized the way people communicate, absent ad-based revenues, the path to profitability may prove elusive.  And in tough economic times, those signing the advertising checks will be less willing to experiment with social media and nebulous internet concepts.

That doesn’t mean the bell is tolling for Web 2.0, but it does mean that the mindsets of those on Web 2.0’s bleeding edge might need to scale back a little bit.  It’s one thing to play around with new concepts and features for free; it’s another thing altogether when one has to pay for them.  People are always going to be willing to pay—via a subscription model, perhaps—for tools they find really useful or productive.

Hoping to wring every last possible dollar out of YouTube, Google’s immensely popular video sharing site, the company has introduced video search ads to the site.  The move comes as search traffic on YouTube vaulted over Yahoo to earn the number two position, behind only Google itself, the undisputed heavyweight in the realm of search.

Video search ads on YouTube work essentially the same way as search ads on Google.  Prospective advertisers buy their search terms—though not through the AdWords system—and when users search for them, a thumbnail sketch and a link provided by the advertiser is displayed under a promoted videos heading.  The links point to the advertiser’s channel on YouTube, and YouTube gets paid on a cost-per-click basis.

According to Wired, YouTube received nearly 2.6 billion searches in August 2008, beating Yahoo’s 2.4 billion.  However, as Wired and AdAge are quick to point out, video searches aren’t as easily commoditized as text searches.  People performing text searches are looking for information and looking to make purchases, whereas people performing video searches are primarily looking to be entertained.

One of the more useful aspects of a social network is its ability to transmit a common body of knowledge to its participants smoothly and evenly.  Just as a rising tide benefits all ships, a robust exchange of information in a social network benefits all—so much so, in fact, that companies are now turning to social networking to provide employee training.

According to Ad Age, earlier this month media advertising conglomerate Group M launched a training site called mspace, a riff on MySpace.  However, instead of a formal instructor-led training program, mspace is fueled by content provided by Group M staffers.  Not all staffers, presumably, because the system is persona-based:  broken down into 10 types of knowledge experts within the Group M community.  Behind each persona is a real Group M staffer who’s expert in that particular persona.  Personas deliver lessons in their areas of expertise via video, audio, and games; some learning content is even delivered by podcast.

So far, Group M is very pleased with the initiative.  As quoted in Ad Age, John Montgomery, COO of Group M Interaction, claims it  would have taken an inordinate amount of time to provide the same degree of training to the number of people who’ve used mspace thus far.  “You’d be lucky to get 20 people in a room at the same time,” said Montgomery, “and then you’d be boring them with PowerPoint slides.”

A nanotechnology that may change the way planes and cars are designed was discovered inadvertently when scientist Harry Kroto joined researchers at Rice in efforts to create the same conditions that exist on a star, reports Yahoo.  The motivation behind this experiment was to discover how carbon is made, since stars are the only source of this essential building block.   The experiment went as planned except there was an extra character – a molecule with 60 carbon atoms shaped like a soccer ball which became known as “buckyballs”. 

In a separate effort Japanese physicist Sumio Iijima developed a tube-shaped variation.  Once again by mistake researchers at Smalley’s laboratory found the tubes would stick together when combined with a liquid suspension and filtered through mesh, producing buckypaper. 

Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets are stacked together.  To the contrary of what comes to mind when you think paper, buckypaper conducts electricity like copper and disperses heat like steel. 

So far the carbon nanotubes have only been used in the construction of products like tennis rackets and bicycles, but are envisioned to create cars and planes.  One of the problems now is the cost, but Florida State researchers are working on manufacturing techniques that will make it competitive with similar products.

Given its digital nature, and the technology used to broadcast and receive data, the web is inherently measurable.  On the web there is no passive audience; everyone leaves some sort of footprint here or there.  And savvy business professionals know how to read the tea leaves—the web analytics—in order to craft successful business strategies.

But web analytics aren’t just for business.  According to the Wall Street Journal, political advisors are using web analytics to gauge, measure, and predict political performance and even influence elections.
The new stats for the new digital millennium?  Facebook supporters.  Blog mentions.  View rates for videos on YouTube.  Search types and search rates on search engines.  Comments—both tenor and amount—on sites that allow users to comment on content.

But as with all statistics, one must remember that correlation does not imply causation.  Does a video view rate really imply direct support for a particular candidate?  Probably not.  But according to some professors, the number of Facebook supporters may imply the sort of more involved support that helps win caucuses.  Professor Christine Williams of Bentley University, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal, discovered that Facebook support may correspond to caucus performance, because becoming a Facebook supporter involves the same sort of motivation or commitment one might make when supporting a candidate in a caucus, which requires one to make a physical commitment.  During the Iowa Democrat caucuses of 2008, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) bested all other candidates in Facebook support and blog mentions, and he handily beat Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY).

Instead of hard conclusions, perhaps, web analytics are best used to discover and identify trends.  Number of Google searchers, for example, may be a good indicator of relative strength; the more buzz a candidate generates, the more people may be inspired to learn more about the candidate via a search engine like Google.  According to Nate Silver, founder of fivethirtyeight.com, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal, a paucity of Google searches for Rudy Giuliani suggested he wasn’t creating much of an online buzz, and this was a leading indicator of his inability to mount a successful campaign for the GOP nomination.

London doctors report an unknown rash they are seeing on people’s ears and cheeks as “mobile phone dermatitis”.  Doctors are unsure of any other explanation of the rash they are seeing on ears and cheeks, for those that talk on their phones incessantly.  So far they are blaming it on the nickel that is found in some cell phones, which is a common allergy.  Most breakouts will be attributed to jewelry and belts thouugh.

Imagine how frequent someone would have to use their cell phone in order to create a rash.  Do we really need to be connected every second? 

The only other serious health concern regarding cell phones was speculation on frequent use causing brain cancer, which research has proven to be false so far.  Too much of anything is bad, whether it’s beer, ice cream, or cell phones I guess it still holds true.

Aside from social networking, one of the core components to the whole Web 2.0 paradigm is video content.  Online users, remember, are a fickle bunch:  they’re not going to suffer through reams and reams of online text just so you can get your message across.  The easiest, and quickest way to make your point?  Video.

But video is not without its own inherent gotchas.  First, and foremost, video is expensive.  Sure, you can go at it on your own with a DIY sort of attitude, but you run the risk of producing a video that is decidedly amateurish . . . and a cheap, tacky video is not going to instill any confidence in your users, nor is it going to win you any new customers.

However, according to the Wall Street Journal, a new breed of video producers is now offering software and services that make professional, broadcast-quality videos affordable for most eBusinesses.  Firms like Jivox, PixelFish, and TurnHere Inc. now provide ways for smaller companies to create, deploy, and monitor online video content cheaply and effectively.

At PixelFish, for example, they don’t sell a one-size-fits all solution.  You can go the easy route and pick through a catalogue of PixelFish’s stock video in order to create a quick, on the fly spot that drives home your message while catering to a modest budget.  Or you can step up to a service that provides you with a custom television-like spot that delivers a definitive call to action for your customers.  From there, you can go a notch further and have PixelFish create a one to two minute video feature that profiles your company directly.  These higher-end videos are usually used for virtual tours and product demos.

Other firms, like Jivox, create video commercials for no charge.  Customers can customize items from a image, video, and audio library, choose a target audience and market region, determine a media budget, and then distribute the ad across a network of 600 local TV, newspaper, and weather sites.  Jivox gets paid according to the number of views each video generates.

Docstock.com is an online resource that allows users to download and share professional documents. The website contains useful information in areas such as legal,business, financial, technology, and educational.  Docstoc.com provides file storage at theirsite so users don’t need their personal computer to access their documents –instead, documents can be accessed from anywhere, anytime. 

In what appears to be a battle pitting a software David against a corporate Goliath, software developer Hottrix has sued brewing conglomerate Coors for copyright infringement to the tune of $12.5 million.  The infringement in question?  Hottrix claims Coors copied its $3 iBeer iPhone app and released it as iPint for free.

From Hottrix’s point of view, the iPint app, developed for Coors by Swedish firm Illusion Labs via the Beattie McGuiness Bungay advertising agency, essentially undercuts sales of their iBeer app by providing the same basic functionality for free.  Both iBeer and iPint do more or less the same thing:  turn the iPhone into a virtual “beer” users can drink by tilting their iPhone ninety degrees.  In other words, neither app is splitting the atom.

Jason Fisher, the attorney representing Hottrix, claims a video demonstrating the accelerometer technique Hottrix used to build the app appeared on YouTube in August 2007, which, according to Fisher, what inspired Coors to create a similar application.

Hottrix, a developer of app flash for portable devices, initially tried to come to a peaceful resolution with Coors.  Their efforts, however, were unsuccessful, so they petitioned Apple, and Apple eventually removed iPint from its American iTunes store, though iPint can still be downloaded overseas.

In a written statement, Coors claims it has done nothing wrong, and will defend themselves rigorously against the lawsuit.

How many times have you gotten to the gym, got on the treadmill and plugged in your settings, put your headphones on and realized your iPod was dead?  It completely ruins your workout and you end up running one mile instead of the three you planned because you are bored without your music.  Well worry no more.  A Japanese company, NTT has announced they found a way to charge portable technology devices just by walking.

The simple explanation as to how they made this possible is they took hydropower technology and put it into shoes.  A more in-depth answer is there’s a generator attached to water-filled soles.  When you step the pressure causes the water to spin the turbine and create power.

Currently, the shoes only generate 1.2 watts, which is enough to power an iPod.  Hideomi Tenma a spokesman said “The company is trying to improve the power-generating capacity to 3 watts, which is the amount of electricity to power a mobile phone”.  At this point in the development process the energy generating shoes aren’t able to store power but as long as you keep moving your electronic devices won’t die.

Look for consumer products such as the ‘hydro shoes’ containing generators in 2010.

Toyota’s Scion marquee extended its brand attributes—customization, originality, modification—further into the websphere  this week by entering into an eight-week sponsorship with Kongregate, a gamer site.  According to Ad Age, Scion will sponsor Kongregate’s new Labs section, which is geared towards helping wannabe videogame creators build their own videogame.

The site features eight tutorials offering a soup-to-nuts deconstruction of a Flash-based shooter game.  The tutorials are truly geared toward the utter novice, as the first tutorial describes how to download the trial version of Adobe Flash.

Scion-based content augments the series of tutorials, including Scion-based graphics, a mixer to add music to games, and a contest that awards cash prizes to the top three games built via the Labs tutorials.

Scion’s foray into videogames is a natural extension of its brand entertainment marketing strategy—especially its digital-based entertainment marketing strategy.  Since its inception, Scion has promoted itself using Scion Broadband (videos and films from wannabe directors), Scion A/V (for wannabe musicians), Scion City (an area inside Second Life), and Club Scion (a cyber-hanging for pre-teens on whyville.com).

According to the Wall Street Journal this week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) determined that a proposal to create a free, national wireless internet service would not interfere with the broadcast spectrums currently owned by telecommunications companies.  The determination, made in a report released last Friday, clears the way for the FCC to finalize rules to auction off airwaves for such a service by the middle of 2009.

Officials at T-Mobile USA, whose spectrum abuts the band proposed for this free wireless service, were less than pleased with the FCC report.  T-Mobile believes the report contains flaws and mischaracterizations, and suggests that the FCC should reconsider the proposal again before auctioning off the spectrum.

The winner of the auction would not have to provide all of its services for free.  Rather, the winner could provide faster WiFi service to customers willing to pay a premium, while offering free service to those willing to live with slower service.  Under the proposed agreement, however, whoever wins the spectrum would have to reach half the US population within four years, and 95% within a decade.

Monday, Aegis Mobility announced they have developed a software called DriveAssisT which holds your calls and text messages while you’re driving.  The software identifies the phone is moving at car speed using the phone’s GPS and sends the caller a message that the user they are trying to reach is driving and to leave a message.  If the message is urgent, they are given an option to leave a message that will be put through to the user immediately.  When the trip is complete the user will receive the messages they received while on the road.

41,059 is the number of people who died in car accidents last year.  7 percent of crashes and near-crashers were caused by drivers using cell phones while on the road, reported from the Boston Globe.  These numbers alone should be enough to put DriveAssisT in business.  Many states have already issued laws against talking on cell phones while driving such as Connecticut and New York.  Drivers are permitted to use hands-free devices in these states but studies have shown that it’s the distraction of talking on the phone and dialing that causes the majority of the accidents, not having one hand on the wheel. 

DriveAssisT will work with phones that use Windows Mobile software through the mobile carrier.  Aegis is hoping to release the software early next year, probably charging $10 or $20 a month per family but no deals have been made.  They are also planning on partnering with insurance companies.  National Mutual Insurance Co. has already stated they plan on giving members who use DriveAssisT a 3 percent discount.  We’ll see how many drivers decide to use the service.

Just in time for the holiday season, Apple plans to offer its MacBook notebook for $999.  The price drop was a partial nod to analysts who expected Apple to offer a lower-priced notebook in a challenging economy.

In addition to the lower-priced MacBook, Apple introduced an aluminum-clad version of the MacBook  with a glass display that will sell for $1,299, and upgraded versions of the MacBook air and MacBook Pro, which will sell for the same price as last year’s model:  $1,799 and $1,999, respectively.

Most interestingly, all new Apple notebooks will feature a new glass trackpad—sans button.  Apple removed the button to give the trackpad 39% more space, and made the entire trackpad itself a button.  Not surprisingly, users will be able to pinch and swipe the trackpad, a la the iPod Touch and iPhone.

Imagine being able to think up an email or a voicemail and shoot it over to someone else.  That’s right, no device, no gadget, nothing at all except your brain.  You think it up and shoot it over—instantly—using nothing more than your dome.  Sounds fairly implausible, right?  But believe it or not, according to MSNBC, the US Army is actually working on this sort of thing as we speak.

Known as “synthetic telepathy,” the research is being performed at the University of California, Irvine, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland.  Even though it sounds entirely futuristic, synthetic telepathy not exactly new.  As early as the 1960s, a researcher was able to strap an electroencephalograph (EEG) machine to his head and transmit messages in Morse Code using his brain’s alpha waves.  And EEG machines that enable you to manipulate virtual objects by thought alone are available on the market already.

EEG machines, however, have one large drawback:  they can only locate a signal within the brain down to a margin of error from one to two centimeters.  While that sort of accuracy on a GPS machine would be stupendous, in brain terms, it’s not so hot.  According to Mike D’Zmura, the lead scientist on the project, a distance of two centimeters in the brain’s auditory context is the difference between high notes and low notes.

But there’s more than one way to skin a cat.  Scientists are also exploring other technologies, like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to map brain activity.  With an accurate map, machines will be able to use context, as in language context, to help determine what people really mean—the difference between “see” and “sea,” perhaps.

Aside from military applications, synthetic telepathy would be huge in the marketplace—everything from gaming to helping sick people who can’t communicate via paper or voice.  Even for the lowly writer:  imagine a world where you could think up prose on the fly and email it to yourself later on, or send yourself a voice mail of it?

Forget about Kerouac and his stream-of-consciousness writing:  if a thing such as synthetic telepathy ever comes to pass, all bets are off.

Ever have one too many during happy hour, come home to check your email and send a message you regret sending the next morning?  Gmail is working on a technology called Goggles that can you protect you from these mistakes.  The idea is you have to solve a few easy math problems before logging into your email.  If you are in a state of mind that can multiply five by two, then you are granted permission to access your email.  But if you solve the problem incorrectly, Gmail Goggles will protect you from writing something you would normally think twice about.

The term Goggles comes from the tem beer goggles, when too many drinks make something look desirable that wouldn’t normally be if we were sober.

Will this work?  I’ sure most people can complete simple multiplication and still make poor decisions, regardless of their alcohol consumption.  But I see how Goggles could save some from making poor email decisions.  Nothing good happens past midnight, right?

Planning an outing with a group of friends and looking for a way to split the cost so no one ends up holding the bag?  In the near future, there may be a way you can do it electronically.

According to Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe, recent Boston College graduates Rich Aberman and Bill Clerico are working on something called WePay, a service whereby a group of people planning an outing—say, a four-day trip to Las Vegas—can pool their resources and then split the cost evenly—and electronically.  The service may be offered as both a stand-alone application or an application via widgets on social networking pages.

The way it works is fairly simple.  You set up your group, and each member of your group contributes money into their WePay account via check or credit card.  According to their site, WePay never touches the money itself; all deposits are placed directly into an FDIC-insured partner bank, and the money itself is controlled by the administrator of your group.  The administrator pays the group’s tab via WePay—either electronically or by check—and when it comes time for each member of the group to make good on their share, a notification appears in the “My Bills” section of their WePay account.  Though WePay can’t ensure the members of a group make good on their debt, they certainly can provide the wherewithal for you to ride heard on the deadbeats.

WePay is currently in a private alpha phase, and hopes to have a public beta in early 2009.

We don’t ask for a manager anymore – we tell our network.  Word of mouth is the best type of marketing.  As the saying goes, one happy customer will tell two friends, but one upset customer will tell ten friends.  Due to social networking that number ten can be increased exponentially to hundreds.  Companies are realizing this trend.  So what are they doing about it?  Stalking their customers and providing immediate customer service to turn their negative experience into a positive one.

The newest trend is with a company called Twitter.com which is a micro blogging website.  Twitter allows its users to update their current status and know what their friends, family, and co-workers are doing in real-time.  An example of this was published in BusinessWeek when an editor spotted William Shattner boarding JetBlue and made a comment about it on Twitter.  “JetBlue terminal, William Shatner waiting in pinstripe suit and shades to board flight to Burbank.  Why’s he flying JetBlue?  Free, maybe?”  Within ten seconds the editor received an email that JetBlue was monitoring him.

This may seem like a violation of privacy, but JetBlue isn’t the only company to adopt this form of customer service.  Other big names such as Comcast, Dell, and Kodak are monitoring what their customers are saying about them and responding in real-time.  It is extremely important with today’s market not only to increase your customer base, but to keep your current customers happy so they don’t go to the competitor.

Some companies such as Zappos.com, an online retailer for shoes, clothing, and accessories, have their CEOs updating their status on Twitter multiple times a day to keep the communication open between them and their customers.  Anything from what he’s having for lunch to news about the company.  Most companies are using Twitter as their ears and have employees assigned to monitoring what is said about them and responding.  So the next time you have a problem with a service you’re using, make a comment on Twitter and you’ll get a response back faster than you can get through to customer service.

Researchers at Boston University’s Photonics Center are experimenting with sending information between two computers using variations of light.

“The technique used is to flash the light on and off, or modulate the light, to transmit data,” said Thomas Little, the engineering professor leading the experiments, as quoted by Hiawatha Bray in The Boston Globe.  The variations in light can be picked up by an electronic eye, but not the human eye.

Currently the system can transmit data in the ream of thousands of bits at dial-up modem speeds.  But Little believes the system could be capable of transmitting millions of bits of data per second in a few years.  The system also uses a fraction of the power of systems that use radio signals, like WiFi networking, and may be more private, as the light won’t be able walls or doors.

The system uses LEDs, which have the capacity to respond to fluctuations in power immediately, enabling them to flicker on and off millions of times per second.  They use 85% less electricity than normal light bulbs of an equivalent brightness.

Little’s experiments are part of a five year, $18.5 million research project on LED smart lighting funded by the National Science Foundation.

Ever try logging into a website but you can’t remember your username and password?  You try fifteen different combinations from your library and you’re still unable to log onto the website.  What’s your next step?  You click the link “forget your password” or you move onto another site.  The majority of users will go to another site.

Imagine that was your website the user was trying to log into.  They don’t click the help link because they don’t want to deal with the hassle of going to their email to reset up their account.  They never return to your site.  That’s a lost customer, and over a password.

Now there’s a concept called OpenID that many large companies such as AOL and Microsoft are using or in the process of implementing at their websites.  This technology allows the user to have one username and password for all the websites they visit frequently.  This is a win-win for the user and the website in the sense that the user only needs to remember one username and password, and the website will be less likely to see a decrease in their traffic.  Also, the overhead costs of helpdesk dealing with log-in problems should decrease significantly.

The biggest downside to OpenID so far is the fear of confidentiality.  Some experts are concerned this idea will make it easier for hackers to track which websites users are visiting.  The other concern is that fake websites will be created very similar to the ones users frequent giving hackers the ability to obtain their username and password.  This information will now get the hacker into many different sites as opposed to only one.

Interested in getting a universal username and password?  You may already have one.  If you have an account with AOL or Yahoo those are considered OpenID’s.  If not you can go to sites like ClaimID.com or MyOpenID.com to set one up.

Want to implement this at your website?  You can find more information at OpenID.net about how the technology works.

Another benefit is there is no cost associated with the technology.  Brad Fitzpatrick, the founder of OpenID  said, “Nobody should own this. Nobody’s planning on making any money from this. The goal is to release every part of this under the most liberal licenses possible, so there’s no money or licensing or registering required to play. It benefits the community as a whole if something like this exists, and we’re all a part of the community.”

Back in the dark ages of personal computing, we walked five miles uphill to school, ate shards of broken glass with our thin, watery gruel, and bought our computer software in big, chunky boxes that contained anywhere from one to five hundred and forty three installation disks.  And those were floppy disks, too—not your fancy CDs.  And that’s the way we liked it.

So don’t complain to me about the frustrations of installing software via the internet.  Slow download times?  Hell—we alter kakers had to drive to the mall before we could even think of installing anything.  Too many steps in the online installation process?  Have you ever seen one of those 150-page installation manuals from 1990s?  Even the worst installation experience today has to be better than the average installation process of yesteryear, yes?

You’d think so—however, if you do, you’d be wrong.  Software client application installations still have high abandonment rates, but until now, it was very difficult for software developers to determine where, exactly, potential users were abandoning the installation process.  Here now to untangle this mess comes Kampyle, an Israeli analytics company that now offers software developers the ability to discover where and why users abandon the installation process.

The concept behind Kampyle’s service offering is pretty simple.  They put an application on top of your existing installation or uninstallation process.  If a user abandons an installation, or uninstalls your product, Kampyle’s application fires off a browser window, asking the user to provide feedback.  If the user agrees to provide feedback, the app opens a form, giving the user a simple mechanism to sound off.

Kampyle then aggregates the feedback it receives and reports to you in customizable business dashboards so you can use the feedback to improve your processes. According to TechCrunch, the service has amassed 3,000 customers since its debut five months ago.

Not bad, eh?  You have to be able to measure and quantify before you can improve, and Kampyle is giving you a way to do precisely that.

For those of you out there still hesitant to make the switch from a PC to a Mac, VMWare’s Fusion 2.0 now makes it easier than ever before to run Windows XP and Windows Visa on a Mac.  With this free upgrade from version 1.0, Fusion allows you to run Windows programs right alongside Mac programs, as if there weren’t two separate operating systems installed on your Mac.

Fusion 2.0 allows Mac users to run Windows in three ways:  the entire Windows desktop within a single Mac “window” alongside your Mac apps; Windows apps in their own windows, absent the Windows desktop, running alongside Mac apps; and the Windows desktop as a whole, hiding the Mac operating system entirely.  When running Windows apps alongside Mac apps, users can do common things like cut and paste between the two applications, even though the applications are running in different operating systems.  Fusion 2.0 also “mirrors” standard Mac and Windows folders:  your Mac pictures folder, for example, holds the same files as your Windows “My Pictures” folder.

As with the Mac’s Time Machine feature, Fusion users can take multiple “snapshots” of their Windows operating system in case they need to revert back to more stable versions of the operating system at any point in time.  Users can also customize keyboard commands so that the same combinations of keys have the same functions in both the Mac and Windows operating systems.

However, Fusion still has its drawbacks.  It can’t, for example, run the 3-D visual effects utilized by Windows Vista.  And Fusion offers a one year free subscription to Windows security software . . . cold comfort, perhaps, considering that security risk is one of the many reasons PC users switch to Macs in the first place.

Imagine a flexible material—a plastic—you could use to build portable devices, architectural material, and even fabric.  Now imagine that same flexible material has the ability to turn light—any sort of light—into energy.  Energy that you could use immediately, energy that you could store for use later.  A pipe dream, right?

Wrong.

Konarka, headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts, has developed precisely that sort of material.  Dubbed Power Plastic™, the stuff represents a new breed of coatable, flexible, plastic photovoltaic cells that are lightweight, versatile, and inexpensive.  Potential applications for Power Plastic seem limitless: portable devices like MP3 players and mobile phones that can supply their own power; roofing, siding, and window material that can supply household power, even handbags or clothes that could supply power for a variety of different purposes—who knows what.

Led by a board of directors and a management group that includes two Nobel Prize winners, Konarka is partnered with Chevron, Eastman Chemical, Siemens, and Textronics, among others.    Earlier this month, the company opened the world’s largest roll-to-roll thin film solar manufacturing facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  With the potential to produce over a gigawatt of flexible plastic solar modules per year, the New Bedford manufacturing facility is poised to help Konarka commercialize and mass produce its revolutionary new product.

So heads up:  in the near future, that mobile phone you buy might just be able to power itself.

Technology is a wonderful tool – when you know how to use it!  We’ve all had that experience of purchasing a new program because it will solve all of our problems – financial, organization, ect.  But what happens when we get the software home, load it on our computer, and sit there for hours on end trying to figure out how to use it?  The last thing I want to do when I’m frustrated is call a helpdesk, be placed on hold, and troubleshoot with someone who can hardly speak English.  Was it worth spending the money on the new program to make your life easier?

Now there’s a solution – a technology that has been available to companies for IT helpdesk solutions is now available for consumers.  This program enables a user at a different location to have control over your desktop to walk you through the steps of the task you’re trying to accomplish.  Rather than contacting the support line for the manufacturer, call your big brother or grandchild and ask them to show you how to use a new program.

In order for this technology solution to work, both users need CrossLoop which can be downloaded at no cost at www.CrossLoop.com.  The person whom is seeking help must press a share tab and follow the process, sharing a code with the helper to ensure the act is mutual.  The user can interact and seek help from a family member or friend that is tech-savvy, or request help from a geek from CrossLoop’s database.  These people receive a small fee but are not employed by CrossLoop so the quality of the individual is based on the ratings of others.  The idea is great but who knows who may be on the other end and what their motives are.  It’s scary to think you are giving a stranger access to all documents on your computer.  On the other hand, it would be much easier explaining to Grandma how to check her email rather than simply over the phone.

Proving once again their campaign is tapped into the zeitgeist, the Obama ’08 campaign last week launched an iPhone app that turns the ubiquitous iPhone into a campaign tool.  Already, the Obama ’08 app is the ninth most popular free app available from the iTunes app store.

The Obama ’08 app uses the iPhone’s GPS to allow users to find the nearest Obama campaign headquarters and listings for nearby campaign events.  Users can also see their contacts organized by key battleground states—ones in key battleground states appear up top, while those in more staid, settled states stay at the bottom.  Anonymously, the app tracks the number of calls the user makes through this interface—presuming, perhaps that the user is reaching out to these specific contacts to “make an impact quickly” in Obama’s quest for the White House.

How one would make an “impact quickly,” however, is open to interpretation, and faulty measurement, perhaps, by the Obama campaign.  For example, how would dialing your aunt in Ohio make a quick impact, if you’re only calling her up to talk about the Indians’ dismal season?

Perhaps the most useful feature of the Obama ’08 app is an encyclopedia, more or less, of Obama’s positions on each of the major issues this election cycle.  This gives Obama supporters the ability to cite Obama’s position on any issue—invaluable ammunition, say, during those lunchtime debates with McCain partisans.

The McCain campaign does not offer a similar iPhone app.

Early this week eBay announced it will be laying off 1,000 employees, cutting several hundred temporary workers, and reducing open positions.  These moves, made to make eBay’s organization simpler, improve its cost structure, and strengthen its competitiveness, reduces its global workforce by 10%.  At the same time, however, eBay announced that it acquired Bill Me Later, a US-based company that grants eBay’s customers instant online credit.

Instant online credit?  Do we really want to be talking about instant online credit these days?

But Bill Me Later may be a different animal altogether.  Currently used on over 700 sites, including the Apple Store, Walmart.com, and ToysRus.com, Bill Me Later uses a host of different algorithms to extend instant online credit for specific purchases—not for a line of credit.  Prospective customers enter their date of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security Number, and Bill Me Later performs an instant credit check.  The company claims it can provide a yea or nay answer within three seconds.

So, instead of offering instant online lines of credits, Bill Me Later offers instant online credit for a specific purchase.  But what about repeat Bill Me Later customers?  Don’t the repeated credit checks damage a customer’s credit rating?  If they do, eventually that’s going to come back and haunt the user when he or she needs to apply for a more substantial loan—a mortgage, say.  Another verboten word in these troubled economic times.

No matter what the Tampa Bay Rays do in the 2008 playoffs—and as of now, they’re set to take on the Boston Red Sox later this week for the American League Pennant, without question, 2008 was perhaps the most pivotal year in the franchise’s brief 10-year history.  Why?  Because from 1998 to 2007, the Rays finished last in the American League East every single year except for once, in 2004, when they finished fourth (out of five teams).  This year?  The Rays finished first, beating the second place Red Sox by two full games.

Could it have been their marketing makeover that put them over?

In 2006, former Goldman Sachs managing partner Stuart Sternberg purchased the struggling franchise—then known as the Devil Rays—and installed former Procter & Gamble brand manager Darcy Raymond as the Ray’s Vice President of Branding and Fan Experience.  Under Raymond’s watch, the team changed its name from the Devil Rays to the Rays (the former a nickname for the manta ray, the latter, according to Sternberg, “a beacon that radiates throughout Tampa Bay and across the entire state of Florida”), changed their color scheme from green to blue, and instituted a list of “customer touch points” to make sure the game experience is fun for the fans.

These touch points are no laughing matter.  Rays executives constantly monitor and measure them to gauge customer satisfaction.  According to Raymond, as quoted in Ad Age, “It’s a lot like what P&G does with brand-equity models.  We know when our cleaning scores dip or when our security wasn’t helpful enough.”

Of course, all these initiatives would amount to little if the Rays didn’t play well on the field.  This year, with the addition of former Mets pitcher Scott Kazmir and the emergence of third baseman Evan Longoria, the Rays made—in one year, no less—a last-to-first transformation worthy of legend.  Once the perennial doormats of the American League East, this year Tampa Bay wrested the division title from both the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees—teams with a combined payroll of nearly a third of a billion dollars.

Tampa Bay’s payroll?  A modest $48 million, or, on average, less than the cost of two years of Alex Rodriguez’s service as the Yankee third baseman.

On the commercial side of things, however, the Rays still have a long way to go.  Despite their rags to riches story, their home attendance ranked 26th out of MLB’s 30 teams.  Rays executives point to a one-year lag for “worst to first” teams to explain this phenomenon; it takes time for the locals to hop on the bandwagon.  Also, the Rays’ home field—Tropicana Field—deserves part of the blame.  In addition to being renowned throughout Major League Baseball as one of the worst places to play the game—its awful artificial playing surface and in-play ceiling catwalks, for example—its location isn’t convenient to Tampa Bay or Orlando.

Here, again, the Rays’ executives’ passion for metrics will serve them well.  By tracking enough negative metrics for the Tropicana Field experience, they’ll have enough hard evidence to support, perhaps, the construction of a ballpark worthy of an AL East contender.

As the world gets smaller due to technology and ebusinesspractices, do we need to be worried about security and confidentiality?  Many of the online companies assure us theyare secure, yet the Wall Street Journal reports there has been an investigationof TOM-Skype, a China-based version of Skype. Skype has made it possible for people in various locations to meet andhave conversations via video phone or text messaging.  There is evidence that maybe we need to bemore cautious about what we say and where on the internet. 

Researchers have found a system that logs users’conversations and messages, in some instances containing political content.  Is this something we need to worry about inthe US?  Maybe.  Although TOM-Skype is based out of China,which has been reported to be “one of the world’s most extensive efforts tocensor and monitor information on the internet,” if any member of aconversation was using the TOM version of Skype, there is evidence to believethe conversation could be documented.  Andwho’s to say our government isn’t watching and we haven’t found any evidence ofit yet?  This could be the caseespecially since Jennifer Caukin, a spokeswoman for Skype reported changes inthe filters have been changed “without our knowledge or consent and we areextremely concerned.  We deeply apologizefor the breach of privacy on TOM’s servers in China and we are urgently addressingthis situation with TOM.”  Who reallyknows how long they’ve been listening?

The publicity of this event has pushed an effort to establishan industry code of conduct, but who’s to say that will really make adifference?  Robert Deibert, director ofCitizen Lab at the University of Toronto who conducted the research said, “If acompany as well known as Skype can’t be trusted, then who can you trust?”

In the end we never really know who is watching andwhen.  I think it would be safe to sayalways be cautious when it comes to online applications.  Hackers are proving they can get in almostanywhere and you don’t know until evidence surfaces.

As Robert Burns wrote, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” and in the world of online business, this old axiom rings especially true.  To ensure your best-laid online business plans do not go awry, you need a proper web analytics program to help you ride herd on your business metrics and beat your competition.

Luckily for you, the Internet is awash in measurable data; much of it real time data.  For web-based businesses, collecting data is not difficult—but reams of raw data does not a proper web analytics program make.  Generally speaking, a good web analytics program—one that helps you succeed online—consists of five elements.  You must collect the right business data; you must present it in a meaningful way; you must analyze it properly; you must use the data to optimize your business strategies; and you must use the data to innovate—continually.

Only Measure What You Can Use
The Internet is a sea of information; with that information comes enough raw data to fill the sea several times over.  Because so much data is available—at your fingertips, no less—it’s difficult to make sense of it all.  Moreover, often it’s difficult to determine if you collected the right data in the first place.

To avoid data overload, begin by focusing on Key Performance Indicators (KPI)—those metrics that measure impact on your key business objectives.  Then, narrow the scope even further:  focus only on those KPIs that give you actionable information.  Information you cannot act upon will not help you grow your business.

Once you determine the KPIs that give you the best actionable information, establish measurable business goals.  With good, measurable metrics and clearly articulated business goals, you should be able to see how you’re doing by measuring your performance against those goals—and current performance versus past performance—at any point in time.

Report Your Findings—Clearly and Succinctly
Business does not occur in a vacuum; you will not achieve your business goals without help from others.  So don’t keep the valuable business intelligence you gather to yourself—report it to others, often, so that everyone on your team stays on the same page.

When you report your findings, don’t be ambiguous—leave nothing open to interpretation.  The best tool for reporting business intelligence is the business dashboard—a simple, easy to read, easy to understand visual data display, often in real time.  The best business dashboards present data comparatively, as standalone data is rarely useful.

Your business dashboards should make extensive use of filters and alerts.  Filters help ensure your reporting contains relevant, actionable data in the proper context.  Alerts—email alerts, text message alerts, and others—help ensure information is pushed out to those who need it automatically, whenever they need it, so immediate action can be taken.

Analyze Your Findings
You went through the time and trouble to collect this valuable information, now make it work for you by analyzing it.  More specifically, analyze it in the proper context—as compared to your Return on Investment (ROI).

Successful online businesses are able to gauge the ROI of each and every business initiative.  This allows them to reallocate investment dollars and realign business tactics quickly and accurately.  With the proper metrics, and the best reporting tools—business dashboards—you should be able to tell, at a glance, how a particular investment, like an advertising campaign or a special promotion, is affecting your ROI.  Moreover, you should be able to determine the value of specific online content in meeting your ROI.

Make Use of Your Analysis
One of the best attributes of doing business online is the ability to make on-the-fly adjustments to your business tactics for little cost.  Use your analysis to make cut-and-dried business decisions, but don’t be afraid to test in order to find out what works and what does not.  To be successful, you must use your analysis to test, and then optimize, every element of your business program.

Multivariate testing, in which one or more components of your site are tested in a live environment, can help you attribute gains or losses in your key metrics to the proper variables.  Generally speaking, you should test a small portion of your incoming traffic by directing them to the changes you wish to test, while minimizing the risk to the remaining incoming traffic by directing them to the “control” portion of your site.  Of those being tested, most of your efforts should be geared towards trying to “beat” the control group by improving existing variables.

Don’t Rest on Your Laurels
While a vigorous testing program can help you determine what works and doesn’t work now, it can also direct you towards what may work—and what may not work—in the future.  Remember, the online world is evolving rapidly; what resonates with your users now might not resonate with them tomorrow.

To ensure your business remains viable for the long term, you must be willing to embrace risk.  But don’t just take shots in the dark; use the data you gathered and the analysis you performed to inform the risk you are willing to take.  Think about the thin