Influx Insights Tag Feed: google

apple is no google

Influx Insights — 2008-09-19T20:25:35Z

Steve Rubel has written an interesting post comparing the transparency of Google with the cold, firm and closed approach of Apple.

He uses some great examples that show how the brands communicate online with their users and it clearly shows that Apple is from a very different era and hasn't quite grasped this whole 2.0 thing.

However, I don't really think this matters for Apple and don't believe it really impacts the brand.

Apple has always been about selling something shiny, new and enticing. Something you pay top dollar for and show off proudly to all around you. It sells the ultimate gadget and things that are truly magical.

On the other Google, doesn't sell anything, it's a free service, but it needs its users to keep coming back to it to view the pages that contain its valuable ads. It has to do everything it can to keep these people happy and content. Charmed in the knowledge that Google is the best "free" thing in their lives.

Apple could benefit from opening up, but let's face it, this is not the company's style. It's a one man autocracy and until he decides to open the floodgates and let everyone inside out and visa versa this isn't going to happen. I believe the lack of openness works in the brand's favor. It keeps things mysterious and interesting, you never quite know what they are up to next and it would a shame if they did anything to give that away.

As long as Apple keeps making products that amaze us, it can get away without opening up.

It doesn't have to do a Dell, until it becomes like Dell.

Apple sells us a dream and the more it becomes like real life, the less interesting it becomes.

Transparency is not for them...

Posted by Ed Cotton

google turns 20 (fiction)

Influx Insights — 2008-09-10T10:42:20Z

Some interesting scenarios from Blogscoped on Google at 20- including:

"At first it was impossible to imagine; in 2008, Google.com used to be the site you’d check when you weren’t sure you had internet (if even Google is down, it was surely your internet connection that was broken!). Things changed quite a bit since then. But when the World Senate forced Google Inc. to make available 90% of their server farm for the public good and progress of humanity, their speed and availability suffered. When people worldwide went online en-masse to research the green glow in the skies after the Even Larger Hadron Collider experiment in 2011, Google.com wasn’t available – and people started looking for alternative ways to access news."

Via Fimoculous

Posted by Ed Cotton

failure is cheap for google

Influx Insights — 2008-09-09T00:35:42Z

Many strategists have complained about Google's lack of focus and its constant charge to invent or half-invent new tools and features, many of which never catch on.

Most see this as a failure and call the giant company a "one trick pony", an organization that has an inability to have a "second hit."

However, leave it Nick Carr to set the record straight with some smart thinking on why they are doing this and explaining how, in essence, Google can't not be measured or compared with other companies or other strategies because of it's scale and power.

It comes close to controlling the internet, so finding more cheap/free/affordable ways for people to use it, is the company's strategy.

"Because the marginal cost of producing and distributing a new copy of a purely digital product is close to zero, Google not only has the desire to give away informational products; it has the economic leeway to actually do it. Those two facts — the vast breadth of Google’s complements, and the company’s ability to push the price of those complements toward zero — are what really set the company apart from other firms. Google faces far less risk in product development than the usual business does. It routinely introduces half-finished products and services as online “betas” because it knows that, even if the offerings fail to win a big share of the market, they will still tend to produce attractive returns by generating advertising revenue and producing valuable data on customer behavior. For most companies, a failed launch of a new product is very costly. For Google, in general, it’s not. Failure is cheap."

Nick Carr- The Omnigoogle

Posted by Ed Cotton

google gets communication savvy

Influx Insights — 2008-09-02T18:19:05Z

Google has been playing around with its marketing communication.

Clearly not wanting to be anything like the typical brand, it's done some obscure billboards and a few YouTube videos created by its product development teams.

Increasingly, it appears to be looking to external creative expertise to add some cool and credibility to the brand. In the last few months the Google Maps group worked with an improv group to create more viral films and its latest effort employs the comic book talents of Scott McCloud.

The challenge here is to get the message across in a compelling way without ever looking for feeling like it could be something Microsoft would do.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the algorithm is making us stupid

Influx Insights — 2008-06-10T00:46:32Z

Nick Carr rants in The Atlantic about Google because he fears it's making us all stoopid.

"I’m haunted by that scene in 2001. What makes it so poignant, and so weird, is the computer’s emotional response to the disassembly of its mind: its despair as one circuit after another goes dark, its childlike pleading with the astronaut—“I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m afraid”—and its final reversion to what can only be called a state of innocence. HAL’s outpouring of feeling contrasts with the emotionlessness that characterizes the human figures in the film, who go about their business with an almost robotic efficiency. Their thoughts and actions feel scripted, as if they’re following the steps of an algorithm. In the world of 2001, people have become so machinelike that the most human character turns out to be a machine. That’s the essence of Kubrick’s dark prophecy: as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence."

Skimming has become the norm. Attention spans are in decline, but it's likely there's no turning back from this. In the end, real analytical thinkers will be prized and those who have the foresight to spend time to work out arguments and spend deep time thinking about issues. Great ideas and thought will still be needed and it will have to come from somewhere, there just might be fewer people doing it.

I am encouraged by the desire for live and virtual debate and discussion. I believe this is the area where analysis and thought is happening, not in the act of search. Conferences like TED and PopTech have never been busier or more widely distributed.

In the past 18 months, I've been astonished by the number of people who've told me they never heard of TED, but were inspired by the 15 minute films.

Thinking is still valued, it's just how it manifests itself that's changed. Ideally, it should be neatly packaged and collapsed into a nice televisual format that's snackable.

Posted by Ed Cotton

dynamic new media formats

Influx Insights — 2008-02-06T09:55:22Z

Yesterday's Super Tuesday collaboration between Google and Twitter introduced us all to a new dynamic media form.

Google brought in all the results in real time on the left of the map and Twitter gave us commentary from people and media around the world.

It might not have been as arresting as watching Wolf on CNN, but it was pretty close.

The simplicity of the design and the real time dynamics created something that was interesting and fun to spend time with.

It showed us the mash-ups can have a role and Twitter has a use, after all.

Posted by Ed Cotton

facebook is the marketing story of 07

Influx Insights — 2007-12-19T02:55:35Z

Facebook emerged from college dorms late in 2006 and then exploded onto the cultural scene in the US, UK and Canada in 2007.

With close to 60 million members and an audience that's doubling every 6 months, Facebook is the brand phenom of the year.

Consider that over 50% of its audience use the site daily and that over 20% of Canadians have an account.

The brand faces significant challenges in 08, with the core question being how it makes money?

The Beacon debacle hasn't helped and there's got to be more to it than banner ad inventory. The brand is going to need to work closely with agencies and its community to ensure useful media tools are created for brands.

The problem with the Social Graph is that it's still not clear if users want conversation and friendship with brands or if they want brands getting in the way of their conversation. Apple Students, Nike and Victoria's Secret are currently the only three mass brands who can talk of any real success on Facebook.

Clealry, there's going to need to be a considerable level of creative thought applied to the development of relevant brand communication platforms.

Facebook would be wise to call upon the best minds in the creative industries to help them. An all expenses paid three-day creative summit in Cannes or Necker Island could be in order.

If Facebook follows the wishes of its investors looking for a quick return, in 12 months time we might soon be talking about it as if it were Friendster, get it right and we could well be looking at the next Google.

Today, its power and hold over its users is unquestionable, so strong, it's even spawned a thriving t-shirt business.

Sadly, there are only 5,000 of these suckers available.

Posted by Ed Cotton

adding new dimensions to storytelling

Influx Insights — 2007-12-17T23:47:48Z

Alexis Madrigal has written for Influx a few times and should pending favorable conditions be working in the Planning Department of a large San Francisco agency, sadly the ad world’s loss is Wired magazine’s gain.

Alexis writes about science and space for the renowned tech lifestyle pub, but he is also taking the concept of journalism into the 2.0 world.

If you are interested, you can follow Alexis’s research process on his Twitter account, you can see his inspiration sources from his Google reader account and join his Facebook group.

It’s interesting to see that content doesn’t have to be one-dimensional, it can be seen in many forms; pre creation, during creation all in addition to the finished piece.

There’s a lesson here for all media, all storytellers and planners; there’s gold in everything you do.

Posted by Ed Cotton

knol- a unit of boring knowledge

Influx Insights — 2007-12-14T15:44:46Z

Google announced today that it's bringing out/working on a new service called Knol. It's a mash-up of About.com and Wikipedia and looks designed as a defensive play to eat up more ad dollars and to provide more places for blue links to go.

Sadly, it has none of the innovation one expects from Google and perhaps that's the current problem with the company. All its innovation has been put into search and its become like every other company that exploits its critical mass by bringing other "me-too" offerings into its orbit.

This is a shame, because a dynamic conversational engine that provides an interesting way of consolidating knowledge could be very different and useful.

Hopefully, Google will re-think this and try to bring a new idea to the table.

Posted by Ed Cotton

New Feature -- Influx Button for Google Toolbar

Influx Insights — 2007-12-17T14:58:31Z

We are pleased to announce the new Influx Button for Google Toolbar 5.

Once installed, here's what you can do with it:

Click the button icon once to open the Influx Insights homepage.
Click the small downward-pointing triangle next to the icon to open a dropdown menu with the Influx RSS feed. Hovering over an item will display a small preview of the posting (see the screenshot below).
Use the Influx search engine on text you enter into the Google Toolbar search box.
Select HTML text on any webpage and click the button icon once to run it against the Influx search engine.

If you'd like to install the Influx Button, it's an easy, single-click installation from our Widgets page. (If you don't have the Google Toolbar installed, you can download it here or you'll prompted when you install our button.)

Posted by Joseph Piro

google's interest in television doesn't end with youtube

Influx Insights — 2007-11-15T17:12:35Z

From The Observer.

"Internet giant Google is in secret talks with Simon Fuller, the British entrepreneur behind the Spice Girls, about a joint venture that could change the way TV is watched over the internet.

News of the collaboration will prompt speculation that Google's plans for the TV market include generating original content and competing with major broadcasters."

Google appears to be on the attack to transform businesses well beyond internet search as it makes giant leaps into the world of telecommunication and media.

It appears the big network agencies now need dedicated "Google watchers" to gain insight into the rapidly changing dynamics of the media and advertising market that are being caused by the actions of one company.

Via Podcasting News

Posted by Ed Cotton

google: half the company has been hired in the past 12 months

Influx Insights — 2007-10-25T00:31:46Z

CNET has an interesting story about the rapid fire hiring practices at Google.

The company added over 2,000 workers in the last quarter alone and wasn't without financial impact,it caused a 3 cent miss in earnings. However, one analyst pointed out a more troubling fact that half the company has been hired in the past 12 month. That means someone who has been at Google for more than two years is not only a millionaire, they’re also a veteran.

Google’s internal brand culture is in danger of diluting to the point of meaninglessness, unless the HR people can step up and successfully “Googlewash” the new employee base.

Google is a classic example of a company that starts out as a challenger to the incumbents and the established norms, just like Microsoft did to IBM, but in a very short period of time, finds itself just like the incumbents it was rallying against.

In Google’s case, this has happened really fast, it clearly knows it needs to do everything it can to protect its unique culture.

There are some interesting thoughts on this notion from the company’s founders in this video. (warning...it's long, but comments about culture and scale are at 29m 25s)

Posted by Ed Cotton

google reverse engineers youtube

Influx Insights — 2007-10-09T11:03:03Z

For months, analysts have been speculating about how the mighty Google is going to make money from YouTube and all kinds of suggestions and schemes about new ad units and formats have been raised. In the fashion of a true innovator, Google has made a lateral move by offering video content as part of its Adsense network.

Now publishers can create video ad units using YouTube content.

It's a fascinating strategic move and it will be interesting to see how it takes off.

Here's a video explanation from the Google team.

Posted by Ed Cotton

google needs creative

Influx Insights — 2007-06-06T12:39:48Z

The Google machine needs ideas, it needs creativity, it needs everything that Madison Avenue has got and it needs it now. To the salivating masses of agency business development heads, sadly this isn't a rallying cry to send your books and reels to Mountain View because they need an ad agency.

Cancel your FedEx packages!!

Google wants to creative talent to help its own clients out, yes your clients.

We're all aware of the potential power of online video and what it can do to TV and TV ads, well get this, Google wants to create this stuff.

Here's some copy written in typical Googlish style ("Guys bear with us, we are just trying out this little experiment").

"Creating your video ad is the first step to launching a video campaign. Using the Google Ad Creation Marketplace, you can find a video production professional to create your custom video ad, at whatever budget you set.

We're now signing up advertisers interested in trying out the Ad Creation Marketplace. Everyone who signs up will be accepted. Once you sign up, we'll contact you with instructions on how to launch your first video advertising campaign.

Note: Response times may vary because we are still testing this service. We'll notify you by email once you've been given access to the Marketplace. We appreciate your patience."

If you're Jon's Rib Shack, it might take time for them to get back to you, but it could be faster than some of the holding companies out there.

How long before Google's Ad Creation Marketplace becomes a global agency network with 5,000 employees in 35 countries worldwide?

Via Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0

Geo Enabling the Internet

Influx Insights — 2007-07-05T14:22:02Z

This week at the Where 2.0 conference we witnessed an exciting aspect of the near-future Internet. For the last couple of years the focus has been on ‘what’, as in what is something associated with and what kinds of meta data can be used to make that content indexable and sortable. Now the goal becomes to add location data to content, thus enabling the geo aware web. The map mashup, so prevalent over the last year or two, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, Second Life is cool, but what about moving around the real earth and its buildings, inside and out. That’s the aim of Planet9’s application,‘Raygun’, which allows you to walk around in virtual cities modeled after their real namesakes and potentially interact with other people in the virtual world. It's currently in private Beta, but promises to be worth a look when it goes public.

Although not brand new Microsoft’s live maps are now 3d enabled directly in the browser via a plugin. Now when you search for your hotel in San Francisco, you can zoom in, look at the building in 3d, and see what landmarks are around it. Then head over to Google maps to see actual pictures of the area via the new ‘Street View’ functionality.

Communities of neocartographers are helping produce the openstreetmap.org map, a wiki based map of the world . The content is submitted by dedicated people armed with GPS units and a desire to make maps open for all to use and share. This project was started because many countries (Great Britain specifically in this case) tightly control map data and that so desperately wants to be free or at least inexpensive.

The gap between the Internet and location-aware mobile devices is rapidly breaking down. Check Twittervision for an example or Boost’s product created by Loopt that allows you to keep track of your friends.

Although the online mapping community is a relatively young movement overall, many of the people involved are very experienced in building amazing applications. There are some real heavy hitters investing massive amounts of money in this endeavor. The kinds of hardware, software, networks, and communities that are available for use on these projects have and will continue to ensure amazing products and ideas. The next few years are going to witness amazing software that is unlike anything you’ve seen on the Internet so far. You really don’t have to think very hard to start dreaming up amazing applications for geo-aware data and how it not only makes the Internet more interesting in general, but also enables more relevant and interactive marketing.

Joshua Brewer
Senior Software Engineer
SFI

google streetlevel is just scratching the surface

Influx Insights — 2007-05-31T11:28:28Z

Frank Taylor of Google Earth blog captured some amazing footage of new Google camera technology that was shown at yesterday's Where 2.0 conference. Just think of the advertising possibilities!

trouble at brand mba

Influx Insights — 2007-05-12T00:40:07Z

There are all kinds of rumors flying that Google is suffering a brain drain. Some of the brightest and best are leaving the Googleplex because of the stifling bureaucracy that’s emerged at the company in recent months.

Bureaucracy runs counter to the very DNA of Google that's thrived on creativity. The finger is being pointed squarely at the invasion of MBAs who are attempting to turn chaos into order.

For many Google watchers the rapid growth of the company was always a cause for concern. No one could understand how the company could possibly maintain its culture , when it’s hiring 100 new employees a week. Now it looks as if the growth might be coming back to bite them and the MBAs are to blame.

This is not a new problem almost every successful new company seems to suffer a cultural crisis as it grows. Perhaps its just part of a company’s natural evolution. The original DNA that created the entity and gave life to the founding idea has to be jettisoned for a new more balanced culture that’s capable of leading the company to maturity.

The problem is rapid growth creates a cultural rift between the old guard and the new guard. The old guard believes they are responsible for success and know instinctively how to achieve it. The new guard lacks the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the old guard and tries to out analyze, resulting in bureaucratic paralysis.

To see fingers pointed squarely at MBAs has to be cause for concern for educators, the MBAs themselves and anyone who believes an MBA is the ticket to success in corporate America.

Brand MBA appears to be in trouble and this has been going on for sometime, in certain circles, the MBA has in been an unattractive stereotype, for at least a dozen years. It’s not as if educators weren’t aware, they have had a decade to course correct. However, it appears the brand is still plagued with the same image problem.

The challenge for business educators is to breed a new generation of MBAs who have the balance of left and right brain skills and can truly embody the “Whole New Mind’ that Daniel Pink writes about.

However, don’t these people need a new brand, to differentiate themselves from the MBAs?