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The Web 2.0 concept of social networking has become so ubiquitous that software is now being written specifically to account for it—including web browsers specially designed to accommodate such things as social networking sites, picture and video sharing sites, and blogs.  Perhaps the giant in this space is Flock, which in May 2008 received $15 million in a fourth round of private funding—led by investors like Fidelity Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Catamount Ventures, and Shasta Ventures.

Flock produces a web browser—also called Flock—that caters to users who keep constant tabs on social networking services like Twitter, Facebook, and Flicker, among others.  Built on top of Firefox 3.0, and available free for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Flock incorporates a sidebar, or elongated left-hand window pane, to track activity in the social networking sites to which you subscribe.  The activity in the sidebar is unrelated to the activity in the main browser window; in other words, no matter what you’re doing in the main browser window, the sidebar keeps you abreast of the comings and goings in the social networks that matter to you.  For instance, while you’re doing your online banking in the Flock main window, you’ll know the moment your aunt updates her profile picture on her Facebook page.

Flock also makes use of a media bar—a horizontal bar across the top of the browser for displaying pictures or videos from your friends on social networking sites.  Like the vertical sidebar, the action in the media bar is independent of the activity in the main browser window.  But that does not mean the bars and the main window are wholly separate from each other, however; to share content with the people in your sidebar, drag an image or block of text from the main window into the sidebar.  Or drag an image or text block to the sidebar’s web clipboard—it will stay there until you delete it.  Flock includes a native blog editor and a special page called My World, which consolidates your social networking updates, news feeds, photos, and videos.

While Flock is an interesting concept, and it does the things it advertises it does fairly well, it probably won’t become the web browser of choice for everyone, simply because many people don’t really need all the bells and whistles Flock offers.  Flock really doesn’t change the way you do things online, rather, it just puts much of the things you do online into one package.  As a result, that package is rather large, and at times can be quite cumbersome—especially all the vertical and horizontal scroll bars.  Flock’s user interface, for example, is a textbook example of clutter, with icons, tabs, browser bars, buttons, windows, search bars, and widgets everywhere.  If you’re easily distracted, or if you’re into clean design, you’re not going to find much to appreciate about Flock. But for all Flock offers, its user interface could be no other way—there’s simply no way to pack all that functionality into a simple interface.  But Flock did the best they could.

Just when you though junk mail was going the way of the horse and buggy, along comes another use for it.  Well, not another use for the junk mail exactly, but rather, another use for the database used to get that all-important junk mail delivered to you.

In an altogether outstanding example of mash-up technology at work, the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) has combined the information from Valassis Communications’ RedPlum direct mail operation with a Google map of New Orleans to keep track of the number of homes that actively receive the direct mail promos.  Since the RedPlum information tells the United States Postal Service (USPS) exactly where mail is being picked up, it can also be used to tell GNOCDC the locations in which people are there to receive mail.  In other words, GNOCDC can now tell exactly which areas of New Orleans have been repopulated.

What’s more, the USPS regularly updates and reports data about the number of addresses actively receiving mail.  It’s not so much that the USPS tracks housing and population movement; rather, they note at which addresses the mail is being picked up, and which addresses the mail is piling up.  Valassis is qualified to receive weekly updates to their database from the USPS, which allows them to enhance their database and make it that much more accurate.

GNOCDC mashed the raw data together with Google maps, using a color code to show population density for the entire city.  While the system is pretty impressive, it’s not exactly perfect.  Although it’s reasonable to assume that addresses receiving mail actively have people living at them, that doesn’t always turn out to be the case.  Landlords or neighbors, for example, may pick up the mail at a particular address, even though the quarters aren’t occupied.  Likewise, mail still isn’t being delivered to all areas of New Orleans—even though those areas are occupied.

Still, the mash-up allows community activists to see, at a glance, which areas of New Orleans are getting back on track, and which areas still need improvement.  GNOCDC’s innovative combination of cutting-edge technology and traditional data is making great strides to help the city of New Orleans get back on its feet.

Google officially threw its hat into the web browser ring this week when it introduced Chrome, a new open-source web browser designed to handle the next generation of web-based content and technology.  Chrome was available for download on Tuesday, September 2, 2008 for the Windows operating system, and Mac and Linux versions are in the works.

According to Google, Chrome was designed from the ground up for use in the Web 2.0 environment.  Prior to Chrome, according to Google, browsers were built primarily to render web pages, whereas Chrome was built primarily to handle applications, interactions, and collaborations—things like watching and uploading video, chatting, and playing web-based games.

What Google’s engineers came up with goes beyond mere window dressing—it goes code deep.  Instead of a single-threaded process paradigm, where the browser interacts with a web page which may contain JavaScript and plug-ins,  Chrome employs not a multi-threaded paradigm, but a multi-process paradigm, in which each process has its own memory and its own copy of the global data structures.  This means not only that one process isn’t reliant on another process to complete before it can begin, but one slow or stuck process doesn’t bring an entire interaction to a screeching halt—or worse, a catastrophic crash.  Additionally, Google’s engineers brought JavaScript to the forefront.  With Chrome, JavaScript now works on its own virtual machine.

Yet Google’s user interface designers didn’t forget entirely about the window dressing.  Chief among the immediately-noticeable differences between Chrome and other browsers, such as Safari or Firefox, is the way Chrome handles tabs.  In Chrome, tabs appear above the traditional browser address bar, not below it, and each comes with its own independent address bar.  You can also “tear” a tab from a Chrome window and place it elsewhere on your desktop as a new Chrome window; the content within that tab never changes.  Open a new tab altogether, and Chrome will display a three-by-three grid of the pages you visit the most, and a stack of the sites you searched the most.

The address bar—also known as a URL bar—also received a make-over.  Google engineers now refer to it as the “omnibox,” and for good measure.  Plainly put, since Chrome remembers the things you’ve searched for and the places you’ve visited, the omnibox is no longer just for URLs—rather, it serves as a search interface, of sorts.  Type a word or a phrase into the omnibox and Chrome serves up a smart search of the searches you’ve performed or the places you’ve been that match that phrase.

For those of you who might think this level of assisted browsing a bit Orwellian, Chrome offers a privacy mode called an “incognito window.”  Nothing that happens in the incognito window is logged on your computer, nor is any history saved.  When the incognito window is closed, the cookies it acquired are wiped out.

By launching Chrome, Google seems to be taking a direct shot at Microsoft, as the Redmond, WA company gets set to launch the latest version of Internet Explorer, its popular web browser.  And the latest version of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 8, seems itself to be a direct shot at Google.  One of IE8’s more intriguing features is what Microsoft calls InPrivate Browsing, a browsing mode that, like Google’s incognito window, does not retain browsing history, temporary internet files, form data, cookies, user names, or passwords.  But InPrivate Browsing takes cloak-and-dagger browsing to the next level:  it also prevents the sites you visit from sharing information about you with other sites  . . . sites like Google and Yahoo, for example, which serve up ad content based on your browsing activity and things other sites share about you.

Is this a direct shot at Google’s highly-successful business model?  Only time will tell which browser comes out on top, but with Internet Explorer currently enjoying 70-75% of the market, and browsers like Safari and Firefox making inroads on that figure every day, Google Chrome certainly has a lot of ground to cover before it can hope to achieve parity.

A new product is out in beta testing mode which could change the way we interact when browsing the internet.  As a person surfs the web, they find interesting content and want to share what they’ve found with a friend.  Using either e-mail or entering into a chat room, the web page could be forwarded via embedding a link in a message so that friends could find the page.  But once the web page is shared, any conversation about the content of the page has to be reserved for the next time people see each other.  Firefly hopes to change all that with their Flash overlay chat program which allows visitors viewing a web page to interact in real-time while navigating the same site.
 
The idea of Firefly is simple:  Allow users who are viewing the same content to chat about what they’re reading or viewing.

 
A web page administrator can embed Firefly into their site and visitors will see a simple tab which will tell them how many people are currently viewing the site and offer the chance to turn “On” Firefly.  By doing so, a thin Flash overlay appears over the web page and other viewers cursors can be seen as they move over the web page.  Simply by typing, a user creates a flash chat bubble that other viewers can see and respond to.  Cursors can be customize so that one viewer can be distinguished from another.  Instead of waiting for a comments log to be updated, users can respond to other users posts in real time.  In order to avoid clutter, the chat bubbles do fade over time.  For sites with large amounts of traffic, only the first 50 users will be able to interact.  The 51st Firefly user will enter a queue and as soon as a space becomes available, they are able to join in the chat.

As it stands now, Firefly has some great functionality.  For website creators, it gives their site a more communal feeling.  Much like having a remote technician “share” your computer with you to fix a problem, Firefly enabled websites offer shared web browsing with like-minded people.  You can share the website you are viewing using Firefly’s built in Twitter feed and invite friends to browse with you.  Cursors can be customized to reflect personal avatars for easier identification.  Running logs of Firefly conversations spanning more than a week’s time frame are available at the bottom of the page.  Groups of people can gather on a website and discuss the information presented in a conference like manner.  Website administrators are able to supervise the chat and warn or ban offensive users.  But the future potential of Firefly is what truly shines brightest.
 
Imagine website virtual tours enriched with the ability to discuss content on the fly.  Educators could use Firefly to lead classes through online content to discuss subject matter.  Instead of hard copy textbooks and lesson plans illustrated by chalkboard examples, teachers could gather students online at the Museum of Fine Arts website and tour the Egyptian wing.  The teacher’s cursor would hover over important images and highlight details of which students should take note.  Question and answer sessions would become more orderly.  Attentiveness and subject retention would improve for students.  Even if only used as a precursor to an actual museum tour, the ability to prepare students for the information in a more interactive fashion than pure lecture is invaluable.
 
For entrepreneurial sites, Firefly offers website owners the ability to take potential investors and customers through a more in-depth look at their product before making a trip out to meet in person.  If there is a particular question about a product, Firefly would allow participants to go directly to the image or video and hover over the item that required deeper analysis.  Whereas websites have typically been a static display allowing for one way communication from vendors to customers, Firefly could make the virtual storefront more of a two way conversation.
 
The public hears more and more about Web 2.0 technology.  As the internet evolves from a “look-only” technology to an interactive workspace, users can and will demand more from their web browsing experience.  Products like Firefly may seem like simplistic conversation tools, but sometimes the best ideas start off simple.  By allowing web page viewers to “buzz around”, Firefly may help raise the bar in baseline website functionality and light the way to a richer internet experience for everyone.

One of the hottest trends in mobile technology is location-based services. Smart phones can tell your friends and your application where you are. Applications like social networking tools, restaurant review sites, and blogging tools are all clamoring to use your location as a selling point. However, many people are wary of these broadcasts; while you might be fine with your best friend tracking you on a map, it might be a different story if your boss or parents were doing the same.

Yahoo! has found an answer to this problem which helps not only users but also the applications with location-based services. Fire Eagle is a free service which can help users choose what level of location information their applications can access. For example, you may want Wikinear, an application which shows you points of interest in your vicinity, to see your exact location. On the other hand, you may want Facebook’s mobile app to see only your city or ZIP code.

Yahoo! emphasizes the security in using Fire Eagle as a filter between various application and your location. “Fire Eagle allows you to share your locations with other sites and services safely through a secure server - you are always in control.” By assuring users that they are always able to pick and choose the level of service, Fire Eagle has the potential to attract a large following.

Fire Eagle has a good chance of being adopted and developed for a wide variety of mobile applications. In addition to being free for users, it’s also open to developers. That way, companies who launch applications that could benefit from location-based services can adapt the platform for their offerings. As Fire Eagle’s website explains, “By doing the heavy lifting for you and connecting you to a community of geo-developers, Fire Eagle makes it easier to build location-aware services.”

Depending on the detail of the application at hand, you may even be able to specify which online friends can see your location and which can’t. That way, if you’re meeting up with a group at an outdoor concert or festival, or just going for a jog, friends in the area can join you spontaneously. This type of functionality is likely to be a breakout success story in coming years, as mobile technology reaches an even broader audience.

Yahoo!’s Fire Eagle is available to any users and developers. The service currently exists on 50 applications, which are profiled on their website. As location-based services expand in number and features, look for more platforms like Fire Eagle in the future.

Proof positive that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing:  social networking is now available for your pets!  A great number of sites are available where owners can create web pages dedicated to their cats, dogs, or other animal companions.  These pet social networking sites, or “pet-working” sites, serve as a gathering place for like-minded folks who are fans of the domesticated species that occupy our homes and hearts.  The services are free since they are ad sponsored, like Facebook or MySpace, but advertisers have a bonus: they know their target audience is guaranteed on every page.  Pet-working seems to fill a niche-market that has everyone begging for more.

Heavily covered in an Associated Press article, pet-working sites are springing up all over the web.  Among the more prominent are Doggyspace, Catster, Dogster, and Youpet.  Some people take to writing entries in first person as if it were truly their pet at the keyboard.  Others simply post about their pet and share amusing stories as a pet owner.  It seems that there is no end to the number of people who want to share their pet with the world.  Pet-working sites have yet to register on a ComScore report for popularity, but membership numbers alone indicate that this market segment is ripe for manufacturers of pet products or items that pet owners buy more frequently than most consumers.
 
Pet-working sites like Catster, offer pet owners a chance to share stories and best practices.  Unlike generic social networking sites like MySpace or Friendster, pet-working sites are one stop shopping for those who are looking to meet other people who have a known common interest.  Grooming tips and tricks, dealing with medical conditions, and sharing information unique to specific breeds are all available to pet owners with the click of a mouse.  (Don’t tell the cat!)  There is even space to post videos of your pet performing amazing or goofy acts, as many members aren’t afraid to perform in front of a camera.  Overall, the area is a friendly environment for people to meet and talk without divulging too much about themselves, personally.
 
Nothing is free and pet-working sites are no exception.  However, most pet-working sites are funded by manufacturers like Purina, Arm & Hammer, and Eureka.  These companies are tapping into a social networking market bonanza.  While other advertisements on human social networking sites are hit or miss, pet-working sites are virtual control groups for marketing teams.  Test advertisements for known interest groups can be run before major media blitzes in more expensive venues like television and radio are released.  The average return on dollars spent for pet-working sites is sure to be higher than for spots in Facebook or MySpace and lack all the complexities of keyword searches or privacy infringement of spyware.
 
Pet-working isn’t really a new concept.  People have used their animals as a way to meet other people for a long time.  Pet-working is the electronic version of taking your puppy for a walk in the park.  Anyone who is interested in animals will stop and chat with you for a while as they pet and admire your dog.  For cat owners, the equivalent is, perhaps, noticing the stray hair on an outfit or recognizing the bit of catnip on a person’s sweater and sharing stories.  With the internet, those folks who may have been shy about putting their personal information out on the web in MySpace are able to live vicariously, and virtually, through their pet’s social networking site.  For advertisers, that’s the cat’s meow.

Say neocortex and most kids will tell you that’s a character from Crash Bandicoot.  But the more practical application of this term refers to the grey matter that surrounds a mammalian brain and is responsible for such functions as language and motor skills, sensory perception, conscious reasoning, and spatial relationships.  Now, a company called Numenta, hopes to tap into the theory behind how the neocortex performs those functions in human thinking and apply them to artificial intelligence.  If successful, the process promises to be able to resolve complex issues at the speed of a super computer.
 
The think tank behind Numenta is headed by three people who are well known in the field of artificial intelligence and technology.  Jeff Hawkins is the Founder.  Hawkins is the lauded pioneer of pattern recognition software that powered his inventions like the Palm Pilot and the Handspring Treo.  Donna Dubinsky, a long time business associate of Hawkins, serves as CEO and co-founder of Numenta.  Finally, rounding out the team, is Dileep George.  George is co-founder and Principle Architect, and is helping to translate Hawkins’ theories into mathematical proof-of-concept.
 
Using Hawkins’ understanding of neocortex functionality, Numenta hopes to create a model of computer programming which can duplicate a human being’s higher reasoning skills.  By doing so, Numenta would be able to offer a multitude of businesses solutions to complicated management issues in a variety of fields.  As BusinessWeek reports, the first test site for Numenta’s product is the ESDA data center.  Data centers take up enormous amounts of energy to their basic functions.  Archiving and retrieving massive amounts of information time and again could be done more efficiently with computer programs that monitor, predict, associate, and direct storage management programs.  “The better companies can analyze their data, the more efficiently they can run energy-hogging data centers,” the BusinessWeek article explains.  While no results have been officially announced, massive data centers like Microsoft and Google should be very interested in Numenta’s progress.
 
While Numenta’s long term goal has yet to be reached, the company has had some limited success with its theories.  In October of 2007, Numenta held a contest called Numenta Challenge: GAME.  The idea was to create a program where players had to perform a task and the result would be judged against the NuPIC Pictures example application.  NuPIC is Numenta’s pattern recognition software which can recognize a hand drawn image against a database of image descriptions and correlate the appropriate image to text association.  The result of the Numenta Challenge yielded some entertaining, and amazing, results.
 
Numenta’s latest efforts to achieve successful replication of neocortex functionality in computers holds a great deal of promise.  Biometric fields could use “deep reasoning” software to analyze a multitude of complex symptoms to arrive at a diagnosis more quickly and more accurately than a human counterpart ever could.  Depending on the level of information available to the program and its ability to associate similar characteristics based off past cases, the results might even be capable of predictive functionality.  But for now, the corporate world must eye Numenta’s baby steps with optimism and nurture its first steps toward a more mature artificial intelligence design.

It’s no secret that China is the next big market on the world stage. Following the success of the Olympic Games and the high profiles achieved by major sponsors, many international companies are looking to Asia to expand their reach among China’s 1.6 billion consumers. Google has long played second fiddle to China’s top search engine, Baidu.com, partially because of a controversial music download policy. Baidu provides music searches leading to free, unlicensed downloads, and Google has been hesitant to follow the tricky legal path that its rival has.

Google has now made a move to compete with Baidu, offering searches for free, licensed music downloads for Chinese users. After intense negotiations with music companies, Google will partner with Top100.cn to provide music searches, listening samples, and legitimate free downloads. The service, called Music Onebox, will not only keep Google out of legal trouble, but will also be the first music search service the company will launch anywhere in the world.

As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, “Industry analysts have estimated that as many as 90% of Internet users in China - which now has the world’s largest population of Internet users - download unlicensed music online everyday via search-engine services that provide links to unlicensed music downloads.” Google’s partnership with Top100.cn will offer music from international record labels such as Vivendi SA’s universal Music, EMI, and many other Chinese record labels. The website will be supported by advertising, and revenue will be split between the participating record companies, Top100.cn, and Google.

In addition to providing free downloads for users, Google’s service will create an opportunity for music marketers to collect data about those who use the site. The Wall Street Journal explains, “The search would also provide information about artists and albums from Top100.cn’s database for free. Watermarking technology would be used to track downloads for meaningful statistics for use in selling advertising.” For example, if users are downloading Led Zeppelin songs in record numbers following Jimmy Page’s performance at the closing ceremony of the Olympics, advertisements for other 70s rock band’s albums might be served to those users.

Music Onebox will only be available in China for now, and no plans have been announced to spread it beyond the growing nation. The service may give Google the edge it needs to compete with Baidu, but it will also provide an above-the-table way for music downloads to be rolled out in China. In a market notorious for piracy, offering legal downloads in exchange for advertising revenue could be the solution to the poor performance of record labels. If the system works in China, it could work anywhere.

Mobile web technology is seeing a resurgence since its original unveiling during the dot com era.  As iPhones, Blackberrys, and other devices become more commonplace, consumer demand for mobile applications increases.  Corporations who explored .mobi versions of home websites a few years ago are finding that the time is right to revisit the potential of reaching customers on the go.
 
There were a few factors that kept businesses from successfully developing mobile web presences into lucrative ventures back in 2000.  First was the lack of supporting hardware.  Cell phones were nothing more than slightly smaller bricks with monochrome displays no larger than an oversized postage stamp.  Fast forward a couple years, and the end user technology was there but the programming costs were still too steep for businesses to consider risking against an unknown return.  Finally, there was no supporting service plan for transmission of large packets of secure data through national phone service carriers.  It’s 2008 and the roadblocks are finally being removed.
 
The growth over the past few years in mobile technology has generated more than a few .mobi sites.  But there hasn’t been a lot of fanfare from companies regarding their smartphone friendly web presence.  That’s where MobileMammoth stomps in.  As their website explains, “In the fall of 2006, as the mobile web was finally gaining some real traction, we decided it was time to truly make MobileMammoth a destination for mobile users to discover new and useful mobile websites and services.”  Not only are new .mobi sites presented, they are also held up for review and recommendation.  And while there are many .mobi sites out there, MobileMammoth has listed only 29 as “the absolute best mobile websites” by categories like business, sports, entertainment, weather and the like. 
 
Reports are coming in that clearly indicate the time is right for mobile web.  According to The Wall Street Journal, “Forrester Research reports that the number of inquiries it received from businesses and service providers wanting to talk about the mobile Web jumped 40% last year.”  Companies like E-Trade Financial, Fidelity Investments, eBay, and Gamespot all have mobile versions of their website and/or service.  These companies have the enviable position of front runners in the race to dominate mobile web business.
 
A whole new industry is being created, as well.  Companies like GoLive!Mobile are springing up to assist any level of corporation with creating a successful mobile web presence.  “What do users see when they access your company’s website using their mobile phone’s browser? Most likely, they see a complete mess. But have no fear - we can help!” proclaims GoLive!Mobile’s website.  By providing services that encompass:

• WAP Site Hosting
• Mobile Website Design
• Traffic Management to Your WAP Site
• WAP Billing & Premium SMS Integration

GoLive!Mobile is helping other companies broaden their electronic presence and tap into the earning potential of the mobile web.
 
An idea ahead of its time can be mistaken for a flop.  The mobile web concept was explored a little too soon.  The desired level of service and customer usability just wasn’t there at the turn of the century.  Now that PDAs and smartphones are able to deliver color presentation on a sizable screen, companies finally have a reason to re-invest in a .mobi version of their web presence.  The companies who learned from past mistakes are certain to become major players in the mobile web game.

When you mention technology and how it can impact a campaign, the usual story that gets talked about is the Kennedy Nixon debate.  This was the first televised presidential debate in the history of America and those who watched the debate declared Kennedy the winner while those who listened on radio sided with Nixon.  By understanding the advantages of a given technology, political candidates can change the rules of debating, politicking, and now — fundraising.
 
Much like the Kennedy Nixon debate, the Democrats have taken the lead in effectively using technology to generate funds for local to presidential races.  The premier site, ActBlue , offers one stop shopping for Democratic candidates and like minded independent groups to solicit support from donors regardless of location.  “In four years, ActBlue has sent more than $60 million to some 3200 candidates and committees from more than 420,000 donors, with a median contribution of only fifty dollars, doing as much to ensure a sustainable Democratic future as any other player in the field,” declares ActBlue’s website.  With multiple ways to search the list of candidates, supporters are sure to find who they’re looking for, links to candidates’ web sites, and easy methods to donate.  ActBlue even takes PayPal.  The days of going door to door, looking for donations to support campaign efforts are soon to be a thing of the past.
 
Harnessing the web to get support from ones compatriots is also paying off.  The Wall Street Journal recently covered the saga of Sean Tevis, a would-be politician running for a Kansas state legislature seat.  After extremely unproductive door to door tactics, Mr. Tevis posted a web-comic venting his frustration with the process and appealing for funds from what could be called a “shared-interest constituency”.  Mind you, these were not the people actually in his district, but anyone out there who could identify with his comic “Running for Office: It’s Like a Flamewar With a Forum Troll, but With an Eventual Winner “.  The end result:  over $95,000 in campaign donations.
 
“I felt a connection,” Scott Lange told the Wall Street Journal. “We had something in common. It doesn’t matter where he is.”  Lange isn’t in Mr. Tevis’ district.  He’s not even in Mr. Tevis’ state.  Mr. Lange is a law student in Atlanta.  That’s the power of campaigning on the internet.
 
The other side of the aisle is starting to catch on but the GOP has a lot of work ahead of them.  The Republican version for party-wide donations is Slatecard.  Much like ActBlue, Slatecard works on behalf of candidates to gather funds and point supporters to candidate websites.  Two large differences include the inability to work with PayPal and the lack of support for candidates who are running in local elections.  The site’s FAQ points to later development which will include both these areas.  Slatecard’s homepage has some impressive figures, advertising funds by candidate and slatecard, running from $2,000 - $64,000.
 
As the 2008 Presidential elections heat up, expect more focus to be placed on fundraising.  Sen. Barak Obama recently announced passing the 2 million donor mark.  You can bet it wasn’t done door to door but site to site.  With more and more people connecting to the internet, using social networking, and sharing information via cellphone, the reach of fundraising directors gets a little closer to constituents’ wallets every day.  Economists may have invented the term “voting with your dollars” but this generation of politicians are putting a whole new spin on it.