It will be very interesting to see how the graph below looks some time after yesterday’s launch of Games on Google Plus. The use of arbitrary terminology in the graph below is a little confusing, but the simple version is: Google Plus is now more popular among suburban parents and well-off empty nesters than it is among the College and Cafe crowd.

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Above: Click for full size. The Y Axis represents how much more likely a group is to visit Plus than the average person included in Hitwise’s 10 million people tracked.

At launch Plus was disproportionately popular among people in its “Colleges and Cafes” demographic than any other group, followed closelyby the group Hitwise calls “Status Seeking Singles.” Six weeks later, College and Cafe visitors have dropped dramatically, Hitwise says. Status Seeking Singles are now the group most into Plussing, but are tied with a group they call “Kids and Cabernet” (“Prosperous, middle-aged married couples living child-focused lives in affluent suburbs.”) and financially comfortable empty nesters are growing fast on the site as well.

Honestly, I don’t know that affluent suburban parents or well-off empty nesters really count as mainstream – but the point is, Plussin’ ‘aint just for college kids and hipsters anymore.

Discuss

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For the uninitiated, Gartner tracks technologies through a lifecycle that begins with a technology trigger through the plateau of productivity. The idea is that companies can use the assessments to decide whether to invest in specific technologies.

The results this year? Gartner puts private clouds at the peak of inflated expectations, cloud computing on the downside of the peak headed towards the trough, and cloud/Web platforms almost at the bottom of the trough of disillusionment. Consumerization has skipped through the hype cycle entirely and is already at the “slope of enlightenment” according to report authors Jackie Fenn and Hung LeHong, despite just being added to Gartner’s tracking. Private clouds were just on the dividing line from tech trigger to peak in the 2010 report.

Now what does all that mean? Just past the peak of the hype cycle is when a technology is being adopted by more than the early adopter crowd. Immediately after that stage is when bad press begins. (Why? Because the less enthusiastic crowd starts finding out what’s wrong with the technology, or how it didn’t quite meet their expectations set by the early adopters.) According to Gartner, a technology that’s in the trough of disillusionment is still sparsely adopted – less than 5% of the audience has fully adopted a technology while there. Once 20% to 30% of the audience has adopted a technology, Gartner considers it at the plateau of productivity.

As far as Gartner’s assessment of the various technologies, it looks about right. I suspect that “big data” will mature very quickly, as it’s an area that’s moving fast and showing very little disappointment. Note that all of the technologies that Gartner is newly covering this year have been well-covered on ReadWriteWeb for some time.

Discuss

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While no one is quite clear on everything Ambassadors will get, Nintendo has said that early adopters will receive certain perks including updated versions of the games they downloaded after August 12. Which games? Well, in conjunction with the price cut, early adopters would get twenty free NES and GBA games, arguably cold comfort for those who would rather have four Hamiltons in their pocket.

Here’s a quote from the press release:

Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.

If this sounds confusing, fear not: even IGN had no idea what was up and they’re paid to write about gaming all day long.

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@dannysullivan would prefer Google unleash the hounds of celebrity and brands, surprised as he and we are that the Plus team was caught flatfooted by the viral adoption of the field trial, or whatever Danny calls it. When we (Danny and I) started complaining about the lack of iPad support and Robert about the perils of high speed Scoble flow via the iPhone, @kevinmarks pointed out the ANdroid support sucked for tablets in general. All in all, much to look forward to and little or no competition from Facebook for Google to worry about.

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Aaaaand…we’re back! The list might seem intimidating, but this week’s roundup of top Mashable features will ultimately save you loads of time otherwise spent scouring the web for tech resources.

We’ve compiled the past week’s features, how-tos and insights into a handy little package — and it’s just for you. Presenting everything from geeky galleries to thoughtful think pieces, this handy guide is here to help.

Editors’ Picks

• 15 Beautiful and Creative QR Codes [PICS]
  Creative QR codes can entice consumers into scanning them. We’ve found 15 excellent examples in our inspirational gallery.
• 7 Ways Google+ Users Are Getting More Out of Their Circles
  We’ve talked to users who have devised clever ways to use Google+ circles. Here they share their best practices so you can learn from their early mistakes and successes.
• HOW TO: Use Google+ For Your Job Search
  The new social network on the block is a burgeoning space for early adopters to congregate. Here’s how to use it for your job search.
• Why Location-Based Gaming Is The Next Killer App [OPINION]
  Game experiences that combine the real and virtual worlds are about to be the next big thing and the market is primed for a big hit. Here’s why that hit game might be coming soon.
• 4 Ways iPads Are Changing the Lives of People With Disabilities
  Touch devices like the iPad are revolutionizing the lives of children, adults and seniors with special needs.

Social Media

• Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Heat Wave Edition
  We still have a least another month of this weather on the mirage-laden horizon.
• Top Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]
  For those of you who are tired of seeing Justin Bieber top these charts, take heart. Not only did he not make it this week, but pioneer geneticist Gregor Mendel did. Sort of.
• Meet Some of Turntable.fm’s Top DJs
  Mashable contacted some of buzzy, still-in-beta startup Turntable.fm’s power users to reveal the women and men behind the avatars
• What Twitter Can Learn From Facebook [OPINION]
  Twitter is feeling the heat from new early-adopter darling Google+. Here’s what the company could learn from Facebook to continue growing.
• Google+ Chrome Extensions: 5 More Handy Tools
  Based on feedback from the Mashable readership, we’ve narrowed down five more useful Chrome Extensions that will improve your Google+ experience.
• The History of Advertising on YouTube
  Take a look at the infographic to see how the site — and its advertising strategy — has evolved since its founding in 2005.
• How Governments Are Using Social Media for Better & for Worse
  Governments and social media have reached a tentative partnership. While the Internet is no longer a “Wild West,” people in power are still trying to figure out how best to approach online communities and their social tools.
• What the Republican Town Hall Taught Us About Twitter as a Debate Platform
  Now that the Republican Twitter debate hosted on 140TownHall.com is over, its organizers are viewing it as a general success. But they do admit to some challenges as well.
• Google+ Tips & Tricks: 10 Hints for New Users
  From quicker sharing options to better content curation via savvy privacy settings, we’ve got 10 tips and tricks native to the new service that will have you Google Plussing like a pro.
• Mashable’s Birthday: 6 Years Covering Digital News and Innovation [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Mashable has been witness to a lot in our six years of existence. This infographic documents just some of the major events we’ve reported on during that time.
• 9 Excellent Celebrity-Powered Social Good Campaigns [VIDEOS]
  Want to see John Mayer make fun of Justin Bieber? Want to see Ed Helms run around Africa in a silly safari outfit? Now do you want to see them do it for charity?
• 12 Food Trucks Mashable Readers Love
  Mashable asked you about your favorite food trucks. With more than 100 submissions, it’s clear the mobile food industry has reached nationwide.
• Google+ Hangouts: 4 Creative Ways People Are Using Group Video Chat
  From intimate concerts to a new way of co-working via cooking lessons, Google Plussers are making the most of Hangouts in fun, new ways.
• Why Social Accountability Will Be the New Currency of the Web
  How can we find a language of currency for the Internet? The answer lies in accountability based influence, which asks, “How can my actions speak louder than my words?”
• Google+ One Month Later: What’s Next?
  Google+ is one month old, so it’s time to ask: what’s next for Google’s social network?
• 15 Google+ Sites & Services for Power Users
  From directories where you can find new Plussers, to sites that will show you the hottest posts and even resources that will help you get more out of the service, we’ve rounded up 15 fab online destinations for Google+ users.

For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Tech & Mobile

• Tablet Publishing: Why Sports Illustrated Is Looking Beyond the iPad
  Why is Sports Illustrated producing editions of its magazine for Android and webOS tablets when all evidence suggests that it will be some time before these devices reach critical mass?
• The History of Android [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Android’s box of sweets has gotten much more diverse since it launched its first dessert-themed operating system update Cupcake in 2009.
• 10 Sleek Google+ Icons for Your Website or Blog
  Now that you’ve had a few weeks to get your feet wet with Google+, it’s time to make sure your other web properties are linking to your +Profile in style.
• Which Tech Giants Birth the Most Successful Startup Founders? [INFOGRAPHIC]
  What happens when entrepreneurial types leave the nest of a tech giants? They found their own startups.

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Business & Marketing

• Why Dependability Is the Most Important Quality for Businesses [OPINION]
  The number one trait you can develop as a business owner to instill confidence in your customers is dependability. Here’s why.
• 14 Ways to Create a Memorable Business Card [PICS]
  Need ideas to help you revamp your business cards? From scented and edible, to 3D and digital, we’ve gathered inspiring online resources to help you create the next big thing in business cards.
• HOW TO: Get Journalists To Tell Your Story
  How do you stand out among your competitors and catch the attention of journalists? Here are tips for being a good source and getting your story told.
• 8 Ways To Recruit Startup Talent Using Social Media
  Having top talent is a crucial way to guarantee startup success. How can you use social media to get the best team for your startup?
• The Web & Business Tools Startups Use Most [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Now that startups have a plethora of web and cloud services to choose from, which ones are they selecting to run their young businesses?
• HOW TO: Successfully Run a Social Media Contest
  Online contests can be a great way to build a fan base, gather data and engage an audience. Here’s how to run one successfully using social media.
• The Pros and Cons of Moving Your Business Into the Cloud
  Cloud computing can be a good option for small businesses, but what are the pluses and minuses of moving to the cloud?
• The State of the Tablet and Ereader Market
  Here’s the skinny on how big the tablet market actually is, who’s buying tablets, how apps and 4G connectivity figure into their success, and more.
• HOW TO: Utilize Social Data More Effectively
  Learn how to successfully build social data into marketing programs.
• Freelance Web Development: 9 Tips for Better Project Management
  Taking on a large project can be both exciting and intimidating. Here are tips to help you stay organized and productive, whether you’re working individually or as a team.
• Gamification: How Competition Is Reinventing Business, Marketing & Everyday Life
  Can life, and all the menial or routine tasks that come with it, be transformed through game mechanics into an engaging, social and fun recreational activity?
• 10 Tips for Better Startup Marketing
  You need to do more for your brand than simply create a Twitter account. Here are 10 strategies that have worked for successful entrepreneurs.
• The Future of Social Customer Relationship Management
  Social media platforms and technologies are transforming customer relationship management. Brands must learn new ways to measure customer data and value in the context of the social web.

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Image courtesy of Flickr, webtreats.

More About: business, List, Lists, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, social media, tech, technology

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Go to Source

Aaaaand…we’re back! The list might seem intimidating, but this week’s roundup of top Mashable features will ultimately save you loads of time otherwise spent scouring the web for tech resources.

We’ve compiled the past week’s features, how-tos and insights into a handy little package — and it’s just for you. Presenting everything from geeky galleries to thoughtful think pieces, this handy guide is here to help.

Editors’ Picks

• 15 Beautiful and Creative QR Codes [PICS]
  Creative QR codes can entice consumers into scanning them. We’ve found 15 excellent examples in our inspirational gallery.
• 7 Ways Google+ Users Are Getting More Out of Their Circles
  We’ve talked to users who have devised clever ways to use Google+ circles. Here they share their best practices so you can learn from their early mistakes and successes.
• HOW TO: Use Google+ For Your Job Search
  The new social network on the block is a burgeoning space for early adopters to congregate. Here’s how to use it for your job search.
• Why Location-Based Gaming Is The Next Killer App [OPINION]
  Game experiences that combine the real and virtual worlds are about to be the next big thing and the market is primed for a big hit. Here’s why that hit game might be coming soon.
• 4 Ways iPads Are Changing the Lives of People With Disabilities
  Touch devices like the iPad are revolutionizing the lives of children, adults and seniors with special needs.

Social Media

• Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Heat Wave Edition
  We still have a least another month of this weather on the mirage-laden horizon.
• Top Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]
  For those of you who are tired of seeing Justin Bieber top these charts, take heart. Not only did he not make it this week, but pioneer geneticist Gregor Mendel did. Sort of.
• Meet Some of Turntable.fm’s Top DJs
  Mashable contacted some of buzzy, still-in-beta startup Turntable.fm’s power users to reveal the women and men behind the avatars
• What Twitter Can Learn From Facebook [OPINION]
  Twitter is feeling the heat from new early-adopter darling Google+. Here’s what the company could learn from Facebook to continue growing.
• Google+ Chrome Extensions: 5 More Handy Tools
  Based on feedback from the Mashable readership, we’ve narrowed down five more useful Chrome Extensions that will improve your Google+ experience.
• The History of Advertising on YouTube
  Take a look at the infographic to see how the site — and its advertising strategy — has evolved since its founding in 2005.
• How Governments Are Using Social Media for Better & for Worse
  Governments and social media have reached a tentative partnership. While the Internet is no longer a “Wild West,” people in power are still trying to figure out how best to approach online communities and their social tools.
• What the Republican Town Hall Taught Us About Twitter as a Debate Platform
  Now that the Republican Twitter debate hosted on 140TownHall.com is over, its organizers are viewing it as a general success. But they do admit to some challenges as well.
• Google+ Tips & Tricks: 10 Hints for New Users
  From quicker sharing options to better content curation via savvy privacy settings, we’ve got 10 tips and tricks native to the new service that will have you Google Plussing like a pro.
• Mashable’s Birthday: 6 Years Covering Digital News and Innovation [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Mashable has been witness to a lot in our six years of existence. This infographic documents just some of the major events we’ve reported on during that time.
• 9 Excellent Celebrity-Powered Social Good Campaigns [VIDEOS]
  Want to see John Mayer make fun of Justin Bieber? Want to see Ed Helms run around Africa in a silly safari outfit? Now do you want to see them do it for charity?
• 12 Food Trucks Mashable Readers Love
  Mashable asked you about your favorite food trucks. With more than 100 submissions, it’s clear the mobile food industry has reached nationwide.
• Google+ Hangouts: 4 Creative Ways People Are Using Group Video Chat
  From intimate concerts to a new way of co-working via cooking lessons, Google Plussers are making the most of Hangouts in fun, new ways.
• Why Social Accountability Will Be the New Currency of the Web
  How can we find a language of currency for the Internet? The answer lies in accountability based influence, which asks, “How can my actions speak louder than my words?”
• Google+ One Month Later: What’s Next?
  Google+ is one month old, so it’s time to ask: what’s next for Google’s social network?
• 15 Google+ Sites & Services for Power Users
  From directories where you can find new Plussers, to sites that will show you the hottest posts and even resources that will help you get more out of the service, we’ve rounded up 15 fab online destinations for Google+ users.

For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Tech & Mobile

• Tablet Publishing: Why Sports Illustrated Is Looking Beyond the iPad
  Why is Sports Illustrated producing editions of its magazine for Android and webOS tablets when all evidence suggests that it will be some time before these devices reach critical mass?
• The History of Android [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Android’s box of sweets has gotten much more diverse since it launched its first dessert-themed operating system update Cupcake in 2009.
• 10 Sleek Google+ Icons for Your Website or Blog
  Now that you’ve had a few weeks to get your feet wet with Google+, it’s time to make sure your other web properties are linking to your +Profile in style.
• Which Tech Giants Birth the Most Successful Startup Founders? [INFOGRAPHIC]
  What happens when entrepreneurial types leave the nest of a tech giants? They found their own startups.

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Business & Marketing

• Why Dependability Is the Most Important Quality for Businesses [OPINION]
  The number one trait you can develop as a business owner to instill confidence in your customers is dependability. Here’s why.
• 14 Ways to Create a Memorable Business Card [PICS]
  Need ideas to help you revamp your business cards? From scented and edible, to 3D and digital, we’ve gathered inspiring online resources to help you create the next big thing in business cards.
• HOW TO: Get Journalists To Tell Your Story
  How do you stand out among your competitors and catch the attention of journalists? Here are tips for being a good source and getting your story told.
• 8 Ways To Recruit Startup Talent Using Social Media
  Having top talent is a crucial way to guarantee startup success. How can you use social media to get the best team for your startup?
• The Web & Business Tools Startups Use Most [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Now that startups have a plethora of web and cloud services to choose from, which ones are they selecting to run their young businesses?
• HOW TO: Successfully Run a Social Media Contest
  Online contests can be a great way to build a fan base, gather data and engage an audience. Here’s how to run one successfully using social media.
• The Pros and Cons of Moving Your Business Into the Cloud
  Cloud computing can be a good option for small businesses, but what are the pluses and minuses of moving to the cloud?
• The State of the Tablet and Ereader Market
  Here’s the skinny on how big the tablet market actually is, who’s buying tablets, how apps and 4G connectivity figure into their success, and more.
• HOW TO: Utilize Social Data More Effectively
  Learn how to successfully build social data into marketing programs.
• Freelance Web Development: 9 Tips for Better Project Management
  Taking on a large project can be both exciting and intimidating. Here are tips to help you stay organized and productive, whether you’re working individually or as a team.
• Gamification: How Competition Is Reinventing Business, Marketing & Everyday Life
  Can life, and all the menial or routine tasks that come with it, be transformed through game mechanics into an engaging, social and fun recreational activity?
• 10 Tips for Better Startup Marketing
  You need to do more for your brand than simply create a Twitter account. Here are 10 strategies that have worked for successful entrepreneurs.
• The Future of Social Customer Relationship Management
  Social media platforms and technologies are transforming customer relationship management. Brands must learn new ways to measure customer data and value in the context of the social web.

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Image courtesy of Flickr, webtreats.

More About: business, List, Lists, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, social media, tech, technology

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

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TFTS – Bringing you the very lastest technology and gadget news 24/7

Original Post: Nintendo 3DS Price Cut to $170 [Nintendo USA Cuts Price of 3DS Handheld Console by a Third; Offers Free Games to Early Adopters]

View lastest in: Computer/Console Gaming | No comments so far | Add to del.icio.us

© 2011 TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities – Unauthorised duplication and/or distribution of this content is strictly forbidden.

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Connect with the TFTS Team? New TFTS Facebook Page now Active – Stop by, Get Involved

TFTS – Bringing you the very lastest technology and gadget news 24/7

Original Post: Nintendo 3DS Price Cut to $170 [Nintendo USA Cuts Price of 3DS Handheld Console by a Third; Offers Free Games to Early Adopters]

View lastest in: Computer/Console Gaming | No comments so far | Add to del.icio.us

© 2011 TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities – Unauthorised duplication and/or distribution of this content is strictly forbidden.

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IntoNow, a TV-tagging application owned by Yahoo, plans to release an application for Android, and revealed details of an intricate partnership with Lifetime Television surrounding season 9 of the network’s reality hit, Project Runway.

Under the deal, arranged by Yahoo, IntoNow’s iPhone and just-released Android applications may even be promoted during on-air broadcasts of Project Runway Season 9 trailers and episodes.

Application users will be invited to “tag” episodes — a.k.a. check in to shows via IntoNow’s propriety SoundPrint TV-listening technology — to unlock additional content, participate in polls and enter contents.

Content extras, says Yahoo Media Products Vice President Adam Cahan, will involve bios on guest judges, sneak peeks at future episodes, photo flipbooks and more. Yahoo will also include a number of engagement events that are synchronized with each show, he adds.

Cahan sees Lifetime and Project Runway as perfect partners for the on-air and mobile campaign. Reality shows are immensely popular among IntoNow’s 1 million users currently on iOS, he says.

Those iOS early adopters will also be greeted with an application update Thursday. The app will now feature a new set of show recommendations based on factors such as expressed interests and friends’ activities. Cahan refers to the new recommendations as a personal calendar for television that tells the viewer what he could be watching at any given time.

IntoNow is doing 36,232 tags per day, on average. The service surpassed 5 million tags 138 days after its release. But, IntoNow has not gained momentum following its sale to Yahoo in April — at the time, the startup was averaging 25,000 to 35,000 tags per day.

Others participating in the television check-in game have seen modest success with campaigns similar in nature to IntoNow’s Project Runway promotion. GetGlue has hosted a number campaigns with network parters around the second experience. So too has USA Network, using its own lineup of companion applications. But what users want from a TV-mobile combo experience is still unknown, Cahan says. “I don’t think anyone in this space has cracked what users are drawn to,” he says.

Perhaps, IntoNow’s Android release and Project Runway campaign will allow the still-infant application to better determine what television viewers want and help it find a substantially larger audience.

In a separate initiative run by A+E Networks, Project Runway, for the first time ever, will also allow fans to vote for their favorite designers via Twitter.

More About: Android App, entertainment, IntoNow, MARKETING, project runway, television, Yahoo

For more Business & Marketing coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Go to Source

IntoNow, a TV-tagging application owned by Yahoo, plans to release an application for Android, and revealed details of an intricate partnership with Lifetime Television surrounding season 9 of the network’s reality hit, Project Runway.

Under the deal, arranged by Yahoo, IntoNow’s iPhone and just-released Android applications may even be promoted during on-air broadcasts of Project Runway Season 9 trailers and episodes.

Application users will be invited to “tag” episodes — a.k.a. check in to shows via IntoNow’s propriety SoundPrint TV-listening technology — to unlock additional content, participate in polls and enter contents.

Content extras, says Yahoo Media Products Vice President Adam Cahan, will involve bios on guest judges, sneak peeks at future episodes, photo flipbooks and more. Yahoo will also include a number of engagement events that are synchronized with each show, he adds.

Cahan sees Lifetime and Project Runway as perfect partners for the on-air and mobile campaign. Reality shows are immensely popular among IntoNow’s 1 million users currently on iOS, he says.

Those iOS early adopters will also be greeted with an application update Thursday. The app will now feature a new set of show recommendations based on factors such as expressed interests and friends’ activities. Cahan refers to the new recommendations as a personal calendar for television that tells the viewer what he could be watching at any given time.

IntoNow is doing 36,232 tags per day, on average. The service surpassed 5 million tags 138 days after its release. But, IntoNow has not gained momentum following its sale to Yahoo in April — at the time, the startup was averaging 25,000 to 35,000 tags per day.

Others participating in the television check-in game have seen modest success with campaigns similar in nature to IntoNow’s Project Runway promotion. GetGlue has hosted a number campaigns with network parters around the second experience. So too has USA Network, using its own lineup of companion applications. But what users want from a TV-mobile combo experience is still unknown, Cahan says. “I don’t think anyone in this space has cracked what users are drawn to,” he says.

Perhaps, IntoNow’s Android release and Project Runway campaign will allow the still-infant application to better determine what television viewers want and help it find a substantially larger audience.

In a separate initiative run by A+E Networks, Project Runway, for the first time ever, will also allow fans to vote for their favorite designers via Twitter.

More About: Android App, entertainment, IntoNow, MARKETING, project runway, television, Yahoo

For more Business & Marketing coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Go to Source

Additionally, when you click a particular CSS selector in the editor, the preview pane will highlight the corresponding element in the preview pane so you can see what you’re going to be editing.

Sponsor

I experimented with the example a bit, and it seems to work pretty well. It seems like something that would be particularly nice for beginners or for working out really thorny CSS problems.

WebPutty is free for early adopters. You can find out more here.

Discuss

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Additionally, when you click a particular CSS selector in the editor, the preview pane will highlight the corresponding element in the preview pane so you can see what you’re going to be editing.

Sponsor

I experimented with the example a bit, and it seems to work pretty well. It seems like something that would be particularly nice for beginners or for working out really thorny CSS problems.

WebPutty is free for early adopters. You can find out more here.

Discuss

Go to Source

Additionally, when you click a particular CSS selector in the editor, the preview pane will highlight the corresponding element in the preview pane so you can see what you’re going to be editing.

Sponsor

I experimented with the example a bit, and it seems to work pretty well. It seems like something that would be particularly nice for beginners or for working out really thorny CSS problems.

WebPutty is free for early adopters. You can find out more here.

Discuss

Go to Source

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

While many small business owners have considered offering a group deal, only 10% have actually run one, according to recent research from MerchantCircle. And while the results have been promising for these early adopters — and 77% say they would run another one — group deals don’t work for everyone. Among the people who said they wouldn’t offer another deal, 42% said it was not effective in customer acquisition, and 24% said they lost money.

Given these mixed results, it is critical that entrepreneurs do their homework before embarking on a group deal to make sure they’re positioned for success.

Here are five tips to help you get the best results:

1. Shop Around

While Groupon and LivingSocial may be the most well-known group deal services, there are now a wide range of services to choose from. Yelp, Facebook and Google have all tossed their hat in the ring, as have a number of daily newspapers and newsletter services.

While all can get your business in front of consumers who’ve expressed an interest in daily deals, these services “can vary widely when it comes to terms and conditions,” says Brent Harrison of marketing consulting firm SmokeJumper Strategy, who has tested out more than a half dozen group deals services for his Mountain View, Calif., wine bar and shop Savvy Cellar.

For example, Harrison notes that “with Groupon you’ll get the biggest volume, but also the least attractive economics and control. Groupon typically wants a higher share of the deal price, and they also spread out payments to the merchant over a period of months.”

Another issue related to volume is audience targeting. “With a high-volume provider, you’re essentially deep-sea fishing with a driftnet: You want the valuable salmon, but you’re going to get all sorts of less attractive life forms while you’re at it,” adds Harrison. While high-volume services may be a good fit for larger, more established businesses, he suggests that new or niche businesses test out a few smaller, more targeted services to see which one brings in the right clientele.

The good news is that there are many vertical and niche deals sites to choose from. There’s Daily Gourmet for foodies. There’s Yuupon and TripAlertz for travel. There’s even a deals site for dog owners called “Doggyloot.” There are also business-to-business deals site such as RapidBuyr. Before choosing the first vendor that calls you, do some research into which ones offer the right terms and audience for your business.

2. Put Time Constraints on Your Deal to Manage Demand

With most group deals services, you won’t have much control over the timing of when your deal hits — this can make it difficult to service the increased demand and could lead to bad reviews from new customers and existing patrons alike.

“People who redeem your offer are likely to follow your usual traffic patterns and come in when you’re already at peak capacity,” notes Harrison. “At Savvy Cellar, I’m typically looking to fill in the downtime such as Tuesday evening, but without constraints on my deal, I know that most people will come in Friday or Saturday night, which could put a strain on my operations.”

For this reason, Harrison recommends putting time constraints on your deal when possible. “Think about making your offer valid Monday through Thursday, or running a special event on a specific day with a limited number of spaces available,” he suggests. You can also set up your deal so that the value of the discount is greater on your slowest days or during off-peak times. If your business has significant seasonality, try just running deals during your slowest months.

Some group deals services are actually beginning to give merchants more flexibility and control over when volume comes in, so it’s something to ask about when choosing a vendor. For example, Groupon recently launched a “Groupon Now” product that lets you put out more modest deals around a certain item or timeframe.

3. Understand the Costs

In many cases, group deals don’t result in an immediate profit and may even result in a net cost to the business. Make sure you’ve done the math ahead of time to minimize costly surprises.

Here’s the basic formula: your group deal needs to be offered at a steep discount to the regular price — let’s say somewhere around 50%. You will then need to share revenue from the deal with your service provider, at rates as high as 50% or more. So if your spa is offering a $200 service for $100, and you have to pay $50 of that to your service provider, you’ll end up with $50 for your $200 service. If it costs you more than $50 to provide the service, you’ll actually lose money on the deal — and the better the deal does, the more it will cost you.

Even if you do make a profit, if your business has a limit on capacity (such as a restaurant or a spa), deal seekers may be edging out regular customers who would have paid full price.

But there are other ways to benefit from a group deal besides an immediate profit. A successful group deal brings new customers in the door and gives them a taste of your business. There are up-sell opportunities once they’re in your shop. Plus, your company’s name gets in front of thousands of local consumers through the service providers’ marketing of your deal.

4. Make the Most of the First Customer Visit

Given the economics of group deals, there’s a lot riding on getting new customers to spend beyond the initial deal, but according to recent Rice University study, less than 20% of deal users return again to make a full-price purchase. In order to improve these odds, it is essential to make the most of each new customer visit.

This means that in addition to making sure you have enough capacity to serve both new and existing patrons, you should also think about developing special up-sells for people who redeem your coupon. For example, a dentist could offer new customers $5 off a Sonicare toothbrush at the end of their appointment, or a yoga studio could offer a discount for new patrons who book a series of sessions before leaving the studio.

Also make sure to capture people’s information when they redeem their coupon so you can continue to stay in touch with them. Have a sign-up sheet at the check-out counter for people to register for your email newsletter, encourage people to “check in” at your establishment on Facebook Places or Foursquare, and let them know how to follow you on Facebook or Twitter.

5. Measure ROI

If you don’t make an immediate profit on your deal, how can you determine if it was a success and thus worth doing again? David Rangel, former Head of Merchant Services at Groupon and founder of gourmet food e-commerce and deals site Daily Gourmet, recommends that you build these basic considerations into your ROI calculation:

• How many buyers are new customers? While it may be easier for some businesses such as dentists or spas to identify new customers than others (such as a restaurant), try to figure out which people redeeming your coupon are visiting you for the first time — it may be as simple as asking this question each time the coupon is presented.
• How many new customers came back, and how much did they spend? Rangel recommends capturing information on each new customer in a database if possible and tracking their ongoing patronage and spending over time.
• How much money was spent above the voucher amount? Rice University found that 36% of deals customers spend more than the voucher value when visiting a merchant. Rangel suggests that you actually structure your deals to encourage this additional spend; for example, a restaurant whose average bill is $50 could issue vouchers with a value of $35 to $40.
• How many coupons or vouchers were not redeemed? Not everyone who pays for your deal will end up redeeming it — the Rice study found that average coupon “breakage” is about 22%. Depending on the laws of the state and how your service provider structures the deal, you may be able to keep this money without ever delivering goods or services.

Have you offered a group deal? What was your experience? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

More About: Facebook Places, foursquare, groupon, Groupon Now, LivingSocial, yelp

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Already using Google+? Follow Mashable News for the latest about the platform’s new features, tips and tricks as well as our top social media and technology updates.

Google+ hit the news feeds like a strategic and popular ton of bricks. But we haven’t stopped there. In addition to breaking news, Mashable has provided how-tos and tools for maximizing your Google+ experience. We’ve sourced reviews from some of the network’s early adopters, and we’ve also welcomed your input as you navigate one of the most buzzworthy social outlets of the year.

Read on for Mashable‘s roundup of all resources Google+. Gather tips, analyze reviews, participate in polls and, as always, voice your thoughts in the comments below.

Google+ Tips, Tools and Talk

• Google+: The Pros & Cons
  Here are some pros and cons of Google+, from the social network’s early users.
• Google+: First Impressions
  Mashable’s Ben Parr takes Google’s new social network, Google+, for a spin. Check out his review.
• The Google+ Cheat Sheet [PIC]
  This Google+ cheat sheet includes most of the common syntax, hotkeys and tips you need to know to use Google+ like a pro.
• 5 Chrome Extensions That Improve Google+
  Whether you want to get better notifications, enjoy improved sharing options, or scroll through your stream faster, there’s a free Chrome Extension to help.
• Make Google+ Look More Like Facebook
  A new userscript turns Google+ into a Facebook clone.
• HOW TO: Make a Google+ Desktop App
  Want an easy way to access Google+ while using Google Apps accounts? Here’s how to create a Google+ desktop app.
• HOW TO: Upload iPhone Photos to Google+
  Who says Android phone users get to have all the fun uploading photos to Google+? Here’s how to do that with an iPhone, too.
• HOW TO: Get Your Own Google+ Vanity URL
  Gplus.to lets you create a vanity URL for your Google+ Profile.
• HOW TO: Import Your Facebook Contacts on Google+
  A new Google Chrome extension makes extracting Facebook contacts a lot easier, helping new Google+ users more easily reconstruct their respective social graphs.
• 10 Top Google+ Users Weigh In on the Web’s Newest Social Network
  We’ve scoured the profiles, Twitter feeds and blogs of the top Google+ users. You might be surprised to hear their reviews of the recent social networking phenomenon.
• What MySpace’s Tom Anderson Thinks of Google+
  Google+, the search giant’s social network, has just received a strong endorsement from MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson.
• Can Google+ Sustain Growth Beyond Early Adopters?
  Google+ is getting rave reviews in the tech press and from early adopters, but we’ve seen that with social networks before. Does Plus have what it takes to succeed long term?
• What’s In a Name: Google+ Is Your Plus One
  Ever wonder why Google picked a search-unfriendly and clumsy name for its ambitious new social network? The answer may be right in front of you.
• Get Ready for Google+ Games
  It looks like Google has some big features planned for Google+, including a much rumored Google Games product.
• 5 Hilarious Google+ Parodies [VIDEOS]
  We’ve found five funny videos that offer a comedic look at the new service, including some classic memes updated for the occasion and some spoof walkthroughs that will make you smile.
• Video Chat Faceoff: Google+ Hangouts vs. Facebook [POLL]
  Now that Facebook has unveiled its video chat service, we have to ask: how does it compare to Google+ Hangouts?
• What Do You Think of Google+? [POLL]
  Will Google+ give Facebook a run for its money, or will it fall flat like some of Google’s previous attempts at social?
• What Features Do You Want Google to Add to Google+? [OPEN THREAD]
  We’d like to open this question to our readers: what features do you think Google should add to Google+ next?

Screenshots: Inside Google+

Google+ Logo

This is the Google+ logo.

Google+ Icons

The Google+ icons. Starting top left and circling to the right: Circles, Hangouts, Home, Sparks, Profile, Photos.

New Google+ Navigation Bar

All Google sites will sport the new Google+ navigation bar. It includes notifications, profile information and content sharing options.

Google+ Stream

This is the Google+ Stream, where users share content and see what their friends are sharing. It is similar to the Facebook News Feed.

Google+ Circles

Google+ Circles is Google’s version of the Facebook friend list or the Twitter List. Users can select multiple friends and drag-and-drop them into groups. This makes it easier to send stuff to friends, family or the entire world.

Google+ Circles Editor

This is the Google+ Circles editor in action. Google has created unique animations for adding and removing friends through HTML5.

Google+ Sparks

Google+ Sparks is Google’s content recommendation and discovery engine. Users can search different topics and find relevant articles, videos and photos. Users can then share that content with their friends.

Google+ Hangouts

Google+ has a unique video chat feature called Hangouts, which lets you chat with up to 10 people at the ame time.

Google+ Photos

Google+ allows you to upload and share photos with your friends. It includes photo tagging and a simple browser-based image editor.

Google+ Profile

Google+ Profiles are like most profile pages — it includes basic information about the user like interests, occupation and profile photos.

More About: Google, Google Plus, List, Lists, resources, roundup, social media, tips

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Already using Google+? Follow Mashable News for the latest about the platform’s new features, tips and tricks as well as our top social media and technology updates.

Here’s an interesting tidbit from the Google+ stats trackers: Three quarters (or more) of Google+ users are male.

SocialStatistics, a third-party site that gathers data from select profiles, pegs the percentage of male users at 86.8%, while FindPeopleOnPlus, which curates information from about a million users, says men constitute 73.7% of Google+.

FindPeopleOnPlus also discovered that 95% of the Google+ users who say they are “looking for love” on the site are male. Some 25,000 users in their sample identify themselves as single, versus 19,000 married and 12,000 in a relationship. The vast majority of the million users sampled don’t say what they are.

With around 60% of users identifying themselves as web developers or software engineers, that paints a fairly stereotypical picture of Google+’s userbase: nerdy guys who have deep understandings of technology and who don’t mind killing some time setting up Circles of friends.

It’s true that the early adopters of any new technology are usually male. But Google+ will have to appeal to a mainstream audience if it’s to reach mass adoption anytime soon. Consider the gender breakdown for Google+’s biggest competitor, Facebook. The social network is close to a 50-50 split between men and women. And some of Facebook’s most addicted, most enthusiastic users are women.

Meanwhile, Google is about to stop requiring users to input their gender — meaning we may get less accurate stats as time progresses.

Screenshots: Inside Google+

Google+ Logo

This is the Google+ logo.

Google+ Icons

The Google+ icons. Starting top left and circling to the right: Circles, Hangouts, Home, Sparks, Profile, Photos.

New Google+ Navigation Bar

All Google sites will sport the new Google+ navigation bar. It includes notifications, profile information and content sharing options.

Google+ Stream

This is the Google+ Stream, where users share content and see what their friends are sharing. It is similar to the Facebook News Feed.

Google+ Circles

Google+ Circles is Google’s version of the Facebook friend list or the Twitter List. Users can select multiple friends and drag-and-drop them into groups. This makes it easier to send stuff to friends, family or the entire world.

Google+ Circles Editor

This is the Google+ Circles editor in action. Google has created unique animations for adding and removing friends through HTML5.

Google+ Sparks

Google+ Sparks is Google’s content recommendation and discovery engine. Users can search different topics and find relevant articles, videos and photos. Users can then share that content with their friends.

More About: gender, Google, Google Plus, sausagefest

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

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Already using Google+? Follow Mashable News for the latest about the platform’s new features, tips and tricks as well as our top social media and technology updates.

The Social Analyst is a column by Mashable Editor-at-Large Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space. You can follow the author on Twitter and Google+.

Give credit to Google: Its strategic and orchestrated launch of Google+ has been nearly flawless.

Early reviews were positive but reserved, thanks to Google’s failure with Google Buzz. Like clockwork though, technology celebrities like Robert Scoble and Kevin Rose starting flooding Google’s social network and singing its praises. Taking a cue from Gmail, Google released invites in small bursts, sparking a clamor for invites across the web.

The result of Google’s carefully planned campaign is an estimated user base of 10 million in just two weeks. More importantly, engagement on Google+ is extremely high, with many reporting they get more responses on Google+ than they do on Twitter or Facebook. It’s clear that Google+ has momentum.

That’s nice, but the momentum is starting to blind Google+ users and the press to reality. Here’s the truth: Google+ is dominated almost entirely by early adopters. And early adopters, while important, are not great predictors of the success of a social network.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit some social media services that have been embraced by early adopters. What has happened to them and what it might mean for the future of Google+?

The Technology Adoption Lifecycle

Image courtesy of Wikipedia, Natebailey

Many of you have probably heard of the technology adoption lifecycle and Rogers’ bell curve. It is a sociological model developed in the 1950s to predict the normal distribution of technology adoption. Innovators and early adopters make up the first 16% of any given population that accepts a new technology. They are more risk-oriented, tend to be community leaders and aren’t afraid to try new things. However, that still leaves 84% of the population to adopt a new technology.

Let’s put these percentages in the context of Facebook and Google+. Zuckerberg said last week that he believes Facebook has hit critical mass. He also announced that Facebook has 750 million users. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that’s the potential market for the adoption of a social media service. If we do the math, that means that the first 120 million users are early adopters for social networking. That’s a long way from the current 10 million.

Whether you agree with my math or not, it’s clear that Google+ is dominated by an early-adopter crowd. Only early-adopter crowds could make Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte and Kevin Rose among the top ten most popular users on Google+. I even have a term for this phenomenon: The Robert Scoble Effect.

A History of Early Adoption

There’s nothing wrong with early adopters — you need them to test and evangelize your products. Every product starts with early adopters, though some start with a different crowd than others (remember, Facebook started out as a social network for college students).

However, early adopters shouldn’t be used as an indication that a technology product is destined for success. Let’s look at what has happened to a couple of technology products that either are or were once hot with the early adopter community:

FriendFeed: In 2008 and 2009, FriendFeed was all the rage. Its real-time stream and long comment threads were the precursors to the technology now standard on Facebook and Google+. The tech press wrote about it constantly, predicting that it would beat out the competition.

FriendFeed gained a cult-like following, but it never broke out into the mainstream. In 2009, Facebook acquired FriendFeed for $50 million. It was a nice exit, but with companies like Groupon and Zynga filing for IPOs that could be worth more than $20 billion, FriendFeed never turned early adopters into a mainstream audience.

Quora: At the end of last year, nobody could shut up about Quora, the social Q&A startup co-founded by former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo. It was in the middle of a perfect storm.

Since then, discussion of Quora has dropped off tremendously, and so has usage of the Q&A site. Follower growth has stalled since May. It also suffers from the Robert Scoble Effect, as the technology enthusiast is still Quora’s most followed user.

Let’s be clear: it’s still too early to make a final judgment on Quora, but the Q&A site is a good example of the fickleness of early adopters.

Twitter: On the other hand, Twitter is a good example of how an early adopter product can go mainstream. Twitter was dominated by early adopters for the longest time. It wasn’t until Ashton Kutcher, Oprah and Shaq joined that the social media service’s growth shot to the moon.

Now Twitter users generate more than 200 million tweets per day, and its most popular users aren’t Robert Scoble or Kevin Rose: it’s Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Barack Obama.

Buzz: Let’s not forget that Google launched a social product last year, one that received a ton of accolades. We all know how that turned out.

Image courtesy A. Stiffler

Google+ Hasn’t Truly Been Tested

Let’s be clear: We’re not trying to predict the future of Google+ after just two weeks of use. Overall, we like Google+ and think it brings some new ideas to the table. In fact, we’ve been surprised by the engagement we’ve received on Google+ thus far.

Still, all of this can be attributed to the early adopter effect. Is your mom using Google+? Is your sister using Google+? Have your friends in finance or medicine joined the Google+ revolution yet? We bet the answer is a resounding “no” in the vast majority of cases. At least your grandma has heard of Facebook.

So while Google+ may be riding a tidal wave of momentum at the moment, it’s still a toy of the early adopter. And until it can prove that it has a place in a world dominated by more mainstream networks, we suggest not abandoning your Facebook profile just yet.

The Google+ project: A quick look

Google provides an overview of the entire Google+ project.

The Google+ project: Explore Circles

Google+ Circles is Google’s take on the friend list or the Twitter list.

The Google+ project: Explore Settings

In this video, Google explores the different settings available on Google+.

The Google+ project: Explore Mobile

Google+ will launch with an Android app. In this video, Google explores the app’s features.

The Google+ project: Explore Hangouts

Google+ comes with a group video chat feature called Hangouts. This video explains how it works.

The Google+ project: Explore Sparks

In an attempt to get users to share more content, Google+ includes a feature called Sparks. It provides recommended content based on keywords or topics.

The Google+ project: Circles

In this video, Google talks about the impact of friends and social groups.

The Google+ project: Hangouts

Google talks about spontaneous hangouts in this video.

The Google+ project: Huddle

Google introduces Huddle, the company’s group-texting feature.

The Google+ project: Instant Upload

Google+ for mobile includes an instant upload feature for photos and videos. They’re uploaded to a private album where they can then be shared from the desktop.

The Google+ project: Sparks

Google talks about exploring interests through Sparks in this video.

More About: Column, facebook, Google, Google Plus, social network, social networking, The Social Analyst, trending, twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Go to Source

Already using Google+? Follow Mashable News for the latest about the platform’s new features, tips and tricks as well as our top social media and technology updates.

The Social Analyst is a column by Mashable Editor-at-Large Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space. You can follow the author on Twitter and Google+.

Give credit to Google: Its strategic and orchestrated launch of Google+ has been nearly flawless.

Early reviews were positive but reserved, thanks to Google’s failure with Google Buzz. Like clockwork though, technology celebrities like Robert Scoble and Kevin Rose starting flooding Google’s social network and singing its praises. Taking a cue from Gmail, Google released invites in small bursts, sparking a clamor for invites across the web.

The result of Google’s carefully planned campaign is an estimated user base of 10 million in just two weeks. More importantly, engagement on Google+ is extremely high, with many reporting they get more responses on Google+ than they do on Twitter or Facebook. It’s clear that Google+ has momentum.

That’s nice, but the momentum is starting to blind Google+ users and the press to reality. Here’s the truth: Google+ is dominated almost entirely by early adopters. And early adopters, while important, are not great predictors of the success of a social network.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit some social media services that have been embraced by early adopters. What has happened to them and what it might mean for the future of Google+?

The Technology Adoption Lifecycle

Image courtesy of Wikipedia, Natebailey

Many of you have probably heard of the technology adoption lifecycle and Rogers’ bell curve. It is a sociological model developed in the 1950s to predict the normal distribution of technology adoption. Innovators and early adopters make up the first 16% of any given population that accepts a new technology. They are more risk-oriented, tend to be community leaders and aren’t afraid to try new things. However, that still leaves 84% of the population to adopt a new technology.

Let’s put these percentages in the context of Facebook and Google+. Zuckerberg said last week that he believes Facebook has hit critical mass. He also announced that Facebook has 750 million users. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that’s the potential market for the adoption of a social media service. If we do the math, that means that the first 120 million users are early adopters for social networking. That’s a long way from the current 10 million.

Whether you agree with my math or not, it’s clear that Google+ is dominated by an early-adopter crowd. Only early-adopter crowds could make Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte and Kevin Rose among the top ten most popular users on Google+. I even have a term for this phenomenon: The Robert Scoble Effect.

A History of Early Adoption

There’s nothing wrong with early adopters — you need them to test and evangelize your products. Every product starts with early adopters, though some start with a different crowd than others (remember, Facebook started out as a social network for college students).

However, early adopters shouldn’t be used as an indication that a technology product is destined for success. Let’s look at what has happened to a couple of technology products that either are or were once hot with the early adopter community:

FriendFeed: In 2008 and 2009, FriendFeed was all the rage. Its real-time stream and long comment threads were the precursors to the technology now standard on Facebook and Google+. The tech press wrote about it constantly, predicting that it would beat out the competition.

FriendFeed gained a cult-like following, but it never broke out into the mainstream. In 2009, Facebook acquired FriendFeed for $50 million. It was a nice exit, but with companies like Groupon and Zynga filing for IPOs that could be worth more than $20 billion, FriendFeed never turned early adopters into a mainstream audience.

Quora: At the end of last year, nobody could shut up about Quora, the social Q&A startup co-founded by former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo. It was in the middle of a perfect storm.

Since then, discussion of Quora has dropped off tremendously, and so has usage of the Q&A site. Follower growth has stalled since May. It also suffers from the Robert Scoble Effect, as the technology enthusiast is still Quora’s most followed user.

Let’s be clear: it’s still too early to make a final judgment on Quora, but the Q&A site is a good example of the fickleness of early adopters.

Twitter: On the other hand, Twitter is a good example of how an early adopter product can go mainstream. Twitter was dominated by early adopters for the longest time. It wasn’t until Ashton Kutcher, Oprah and Shaq joined that the social media service’s growth shot to the moon.

Now Twitter users generate more than 200 million tweets per day, and its most popular users aren’t Robert Scoble or Kevin Rose: it’s Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Barack Obama.

Buzz: Let’s not forget that Google launched a social product last year, one that received a ton of accolades. We all know how that turned out.

Image courtesy A. Stiffler

Google+ Hasn’t Truly Been Tested

Let’s be clear: We’re not trying to predict the future of Google+ after just two weeks of use. Overall, we like Google+ and think it brings some new ideas to the table. In fact, we’ve been surprised by the engagement we’ve received on Google+ thus far.

Still, all of this can be attributed to the early adopter effect. Is your mom using Google+? Is your sister using Google+? Have your friends in finance or medicine joined the Google+ revolution yet? We bet the answer is a resounding “no” in the vast majority of cases. At least your grandma has heard of Facebook.

So while Google+ may be riding a tidal wave of momentum at the moment, it’s still a toy of the early adopter. And until it can prove that it has a place in a world dominated by more mainstream networks, we suggest not abandoning your Facebook profile just yet.

The Google+ project: A quick look

Google provides an overview of the entire Google+ project.

The Google+ project: Explore Circles

Google+ Circles is Google’s take on the friend list or the Twitter list.

The Google+ project: Explore Settings

In this video, Google explores the different settings available on Google+.

The Google+ project: Explore Mobile

Google+ will launch with an Android app. In this video, Google explores the app’s features.

The Google+ project: Explore Hangouts

Google+ comes with a group video chat feature called Hangouts. This video explains how it works.

The Google+ project: Explore Sparks

In an attempt to get users to share more content, Google+ includes a feature called Sparks. It provides recommended content based on keywords or topics.

The Google+ project: Circles

In this video, Google talks about the impact of friends and social groups.

The Google+ project: Hangouts

Google talks about spontaneous hangouts in this video.

The Google+ project: Huddle

Google introduces Huddle, the company’s group-texting feature.

The Google+ project: Instant Upload

Google+ for mobile includes an instant upload feature for photos and videos. They’re uploaded to a private album where they can then be shared from the desktop.

The Google+ project: Sparks

Google talks about exploring interests through Sparks in this video.

More About: Column, facebook, Google, Google Plus, social network, social networking, The Social Analyst, trending, twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Go to Source

I suppose they all thought they were all getting in on a gold rush of sorts. But the sameness of the various offerings has caused many a consumer’s eyes to glaze over in the aisles of Best Buy. It’s no wonder they end up going with an iPad when the other options try so pathetically to get consumers to care about trivial differences in hardware, and make vague promises of improvements coming down the line, over which they have no real control.

At the same time, a few companies have been bold enough to depart from the pattern enough that you can distinguish their product without squinting. But are these non-traditional designs going to galvanize an indifferent market or are they too much, too early?

Convertible Tablets

I just read a fairly reasonable article suggesting that these convertibles, like Asus’ Transformer, are going to be a big hit. The main points, for those too busy to look: they’re getting slim enough to be worth a look, the software is maturing to the point where it doesn’t feel sloppy, and there is an increasing number of people who can’t decide between a tablet and a laptop. Naturally they’ll choose the hybrid.

While there’s something to this, I don’t think it points to adoption at large. If you look at usage patterns of things like the iPad, you see a huge amount of browsing, video-watching, casual gaming. Email, too, but as typing on touch-keyboards is a pain, it’s mainly checking, nothing serious. The point is that even the early adopters (and make no mistake, even the 20 million iPads sold are to early adopters) are interested in consumption, not creation. The tablet is a window to content, but it’s one-way glass.

True, convertible tablets make it easier to type. But compared to any $500 laptop, a tablet isn’t going to perform nearly as many tasks that make the keyboard necessary. You’ll be able to do email better, and type web addresses more quickly, but is there enterprise software, financial management stuff, serious word processing and editing to be done on them? Not yet, and I suspect not for some time.

Windows 8 is the biggest arrow in the convertibles’ quiver. A lot depends on Microsoft making that extremely promising start turn into something people really want to use. A rich interface with the ease of use of a tablet plus the power of a full-on PC isn’t an easy task, but Microsoft realizes they need this one to be a hit or they’re out of the tablet game forever. If convertibles become popular, it won’t be because of the reasons suggested above, but because Microsoft made them popular. Because Apple, Google, Asus, Acer, and the rest sure as hell aren’t going to do it.

Dual-screen Tablets

Courier, Courier, where art thou, Courier? O most promising of pre-iPad devices. If you’re reading this, you probably remember Microsoft’s star-cross’d Courier project, which broke out of its incubator early and was the darling of the blogging world for a few months. It showed imagination, good design, and a willingness to take risks. So it came as no surprise when it was peremptorily buried by Ballmer. Since then, we haven’t really had a dual-screen tablet to get excited about — but that doesn’t mean the form factor is fundamentally barren.

The Kno springs to mind as an example of something done partially right. Intended as a replacement for bulky, heavy, expensive textbooks, the Kno is a bulky, heavy, expensive tablet. But I don’t do it justice: it really is a very savvy piece of work and, though its size and cost ended up killing it, shows that a ground-up approach and unique brand can do wonders for product visibility. An on-stage demo at TechCrunch Disrupt helps as well. But if anything, it was always type of device that sells units in the tens of thousands, not the tens of millions.

More recently we’ve seen some rather strange designs like the Iconia Touchbook, which end up being more like the worst of both worlds. Sony’s S2, which we just had a hands-on with today, seems more promising, but we’ll look more closely at it in the gaming tablets section below.

The issue here seems to be a technical one rather than a design one. The bezel width, weight, and cost of two separate displays mean that the tablet wouldn’t be able to compete in form or price. Plus, the lack of optimized apps for two screens means the benefits are extremely limited. When the technical issues are solved and a thin, foldable device no longer makes unacceptable compromises, then the software will follow. Until then, no chance.

Gaming Tablets

Companies have been going out of their way to laud the gaming prowess of their particular brand. Never mind that they’re all just shilling for Nvidia’s Tegra team (with the exception of Apple, whose A5 seems to be a genuine departure from the norm). And to tell the truth, the last year or so has seen these low-power chips in phones and tablets go from anemic weaklings to true modern 3D powerhouses. The poster child for this would be the Unreal Engine and Infinity Blade.

But can a tablet get away with truly focusing on a gaming experience? Sony is making that bet with the Playstation-branded S1 and S2 tablets, which will have exclusive access to certain Sony content, though the quality of that content is far from guaranteed (think PS1 titles at first). And the serious gamers, to whom this tablet would presumably be marketed, are not easy to woo away from their platform of choice. The Vita and 3DS are more on their minds.

The problem of control rears its head immediately. While tablets are great for certain types of games, they’re just awful for others. The most popular “real” games in the world right now are shooters, and despite what fanboys will tell you, they control terribly on tablets. Accessories like the Fling joystick help, but there is no standard control overlay and settings vary greatly between titles.

The thing is that any gaming experience exclusive to a tablet isn’t likely to be exclusive to a gaming tablet. It’s just going to be something like Plants vs. Zombies or Angry Birds: best played on a tablet but not limited to some sort of special gaming setup. That may change in the future as gaming leaves the casual sector on tablets and we start seeing more tablets in the hands of mainstream gamers, but in the meantime the benefits of a so-called gaming tablet are illusory.

Rugged/Field Tablets

We’ve written a few times about how the iPad has gained a following in the medical and education establishments, among others. This is primarily the result of being first to market, and a magnet for specialized apps. But there has always been a market for hardened devices, the Panasonic Toughbook line being perhaps the most familiar. The military has been making noises recently regarding the need for a good standard smartphone or tablet, as well, and you better believe they need more than brushed aluminum and Gorilla Glass. My Otterbox is nice, but it’s no flak jacket.

Once things have leveled out a bit, I expect that iOS will lose favor in these situations — Google is pushing extensibility on Android for just this purpose, and of course Windows 8 includes Microsoft’s famous/infamous backwards compatibility. Laugh it up, but when your hospital has records going back to Windows 3.1 days and you just want things to work without hiring a team to modernize your whole operation, Windows starts looking more attractive.

Unfortunately, ruggedness comes at a cost, and although consumers might like the idea of a waterproof phone like the Defy, there’s no way they’ll pay the premium for Mil-spec hardening of their around-the-house tablet.

Stylus-powered Tablets

Steve Jobs’ disdain for the stylus was wise in that it led to a very focused finger-optimized phone OS, but unwise in that it summarily dismisses the benefits of pen input. It’s true that you lose them, they’re kind of weird to hold, and they disconnect you from the interface. But it’s also true that they provide far greater precision, they allow for quick and complicated gestures, multiple “click” types, and a number of other things — things which were admittedly totally inapplicable to the iPhone.

I recently reviewed the HTC Flyer. Spoiler alert: I didn’t like it. Or rather, I felt like it was an interesting evolutionary step that should probably have just been kept in the labs. I felt the potential, but I also felt the extreme difficulty in designing an interface that’s accessible to both touch and pen. Yet the Courier (at least in its demo videos) seemed to show that if you worked at it enough, you could make it work.

If tablets are to be used by the creative and enterprise class of users (as opposed to the consuming class), they will likely need stylus support. Fingertips are great for touching icons, but they’re not so good for circling individual words, editing photos and video, and so on. There’s a huge amount of sophisticated interpretation that goes into determining where your blob of a thumb is touching the screen, and the stylus changes the whole interface metaphor.

I’d expect a well-done niche product before a consumer breakout — a creation-oriented tablet, perhaps a collaboration between two big names like Wacom and Sony, or even Adobe. It could double as a stylus surface for another computer (like a Bamboo), but work independently as well, and be provided with a few powerful tools for interfacing with standard MIDI, video, tethering, and paint programs.

Windows 8 shows up again here: a stylus is a tolerable replacement for a mouse when the interface is done right. Windows 7 integrated some touch controls, but they were more concessions than true tools. Microsoft’s handwriting recognition is excellent, though, and if they’re able to combine their Surface, Metro, and Windows IP successfully, you could see a seriously versatile piece of hardware come out in mid-2012.

The time is not yet right

The conclusion here seems to be that large-scale market penetration and hardware limitations are the most serious barriers to variant tablets gaining traction. Demand isn’t great enough that you can make a successful niche product. There’s a bit of a chicken-egg problem here, since you can’t make a niche product without a niche, but the niche won’t exist until you make a product for it — but all that’s needed to solve that is a little time. As tablets grow from a 20-30 million unit market to a 100 million unit market, you’ll start seeing natural fragmentation in the user base, and not just in who wants 3G or 64 gigs.

The difference will be like the difference you see in computers and laptops: people who just want a laptop, and people who want a laptop that does X and not necessarily Y. The stratification of that market is well-known and prices have solidified around the $500, $750, $1000, and $1600-2000 marks. Pricing won’t have nearly such a large spread with tablets, but in a year or two, $250 will buy you a basic Android tablet, $500 will buy you a deluxe one or an iPad, and $750 will buy you a specialty device like a stylus, dual-screen, high-res screen, and so on. Professionals will gladly pay good money for a full-HD screen, real stylus interface, and enough power to use as an on-site editing device for photos or video.

Timing is anybody’s guess, and it depends on a lot of things. Will Amazon push Android over the top for e-readers? Will Apple release a super-high-resolution iPad Pro? Or will Samsung? Will OEMs grow some dignity and stop making chintzy tablets with identical specs? Or will Apple diversify and proliferate? Whatever the case is, until people get their heads around what a tablet is for and how it fits into the existing ecosystem, you’re not going to see these interesting but immature form factors do anything but sit on shelves and excite idle praise from tech writers. You can expect quite a few dead-end launches, but you can also expect (if you’re charitable) that companies like HTC and Sony just might learn something from them and reuse those ideas when the time is right.

Note: We are aware that many of the links in this article are dead at the moment due to some technical difficulties related to the redesign. They should be functional soon.

Go to Source

I suppose they all thought they were all getting in on a gold rush of sorts. But the sameness of the various offerings has caused many a consumer’s eyes to glaze over in the aisles of Best Buy. It’s no wonder they end up going with an iPad when the other options try so pathetically to get consumers to care about trivial differences in hardware, and make vague promises of improvements coming down the line, over which they have no real control.

At the same time, a few companies have been bold enough to depart from the pattern enough that you can distinguish their product without squinting. But are these non-traditional designs going to galvanize an indifferent market or are they too much, too early?

Convertible Tablets

I just read a fairly reasonable article suggesting that these convertibles, like Asus’ Transformer, are going to be a big hit. The main points, for those too busy to look: they’re getting slim enough to be worth a look, the software is maturing to the point where it doesn’t feel sloppy, and there is an increasing number of people who can’t decide between a tablet and a laptop. Naturally they’ll choose the hybrid.

While there’s something to this, I don’t think it points to adoption at large. If you look at usage patterns of things like the iPad, you see a huge amount of browsing, video-watching, casual gaming. Email, too, but as typing on touch-keyboards is a pain, it’s mainly checking, nothing serious. The point is that even the early adopters (and make no mistake, even the 20 million iPads sold are to early adopters) are interested in consumption, not creation. The tablet is a window to content, but it’s one-way glass.

True, convertible tablets make it easier to type. But compared to any $500 laptop, a tablet isn’t going to perform nearly as many tasks that make the keyboard necessary. You’ll be able to do email better, and type web addresses more quickly, but is there enterprise software, financial management stuff, serious word processing and editing to be done on them? Not yet, and I suspect not for some time.

Windows 8 is the biggest arrow in the convertibles’ quiver. A lot depends on Microsoft making that extremely promising start turn into something people really want to use. A rich interface with the ease of use of a tablet plus the power of a full-on PC isn’t an easy task, but Microsoft realizes they need this one to be a hit or they’re out of the tablet game forever. If convertibles become popular, it won’t be because of the reasons suggested above, but because Microsoft made them popular. Because Apple, Google, Asus, Acer, and the rest sure as hell aren’t going to do it.

Dual-screen Tablets

Courier, Courier, where art thou, Courier? O most promising of pre-iPad devices. If you’re reading this, you probably remember Microsoft’s star-cross’d Courier project, which broke out of its incubator early and was the darling of the blogging world for a few months. It showed imagination, good design, and a willingness to take risks. So it came as no surprise when it was peremptorily buried by Ballmer. Since then, we haven’t really had a dual-screen tablet to get excited about — but that doesn’t mean the form factor is fundamentally barren.

The Kno springs to mind as an example of something done partially right. Intended as a replacement for bulky, heavy, expensive textbooks, the Kno is a bulky, heavy, expensive tablet. But I don’t do it justice: it really is a very savvy piece of work and, though its size and cost ended up killing it, shows that a ground-up approach and unique brand can do wonders for product visibility. An on-stage demo at TechCrunch Disrupt helps as well. But if anything, it was always type of device that sells units in the tens of thousands, not the tens of millions.

More recently we’ve seen some rather strange designs like the Iconia Touchbook, which end up being more like the worst of both worlds. Sony’s S2, which we just had a hands-on with today, seems more promising, but we’ll look more closely at it in the gaming tablets section below.

The issue here seems to be a technical one rather than a design one. The bezel width, weight, and cost of two separate displays mean that the tablet wouldn’t be able to compete in form or price. Plus, the lack of optimized apps for two screens means the benefits are extremely limited. When the technical issues are solved and a thin, foldable device no longer makes unacceptable compromises, then the software will follow. Until then, no chance.

Gaming Tablets

Companies have been going out of their way to laud the gaming prowess of their particular brand. Never mind that they’re all just shilling for Nvidia’s Tegra team (with the exception of Apple, whose A5 seems to be a genuine departure from the norm). And to tell the truth, the last year or so has seen these low-power chips in phones and tablets go from anemic weaklings to true modern 3D powerhouses. The poster child for this would be the Unreal Engine and Infinity Blade.

But can a tablet get away with truly focusing on a gaming experience? Sony is making that bet with the Playstation-branded S1 and S2 tablets, which will have exclusive access to certain Sony content, though the quality of that content is far from guaranteed (think PS1 titles at first). And the serious gamers, to whom this tablet would presumably be marketed, are not easy to woo away from their platform of choice. The Vita and 3DS are more on their minds.

The problem of control rears its head immediately. While tablets are great for certain types of games, they’re just awful for others. The most popular “real” games in the world right now are shooters, and despite what fanboys will tell you, they control terribly on tablets. Accessories like the Fling joystick help, but there is no standard control overlay and settings vary greatly between titles.

The thing is that any gaming experience exclusive to a tablet isn’t likely to be exclusive to a gaming tablet. It’s just going to be something like Plants vs. Zombies or Angry Birds: best played on a tablet but not limited to some sort of special gaming setup. That may change in the future as gaming leaves the casual sector on tablets and we start seeing more tablets in the hands of mainstream gamers, but in the meantime the benefits of a so-called gaming tablet are illusory.

Rugged/Field Tablets

We’ve written a few times about how the iPad has gained a following in the medical and education establishments, among others. This is primarily the result of being first to market, and a magnet for specialized apps. But there has always been a market for hardened devices, the Panasonic Toughbook line being perhaps the most familiar. The military has been making noises recently regarding the need for a good standard smartphone or tablet, as well, and you better believe they need more than brushed aluminum and Gorilla Glass. My Otterbox is nice, but it’s no flak jacket.

Once things have leveled out a bit, I expect that iOS will lose favor in these situations — Google is pushing extensibility on Android for just this purpose, and of course Windows 8 includes Microsoft’s famous/infamous backwards compatibility. Laugh it up, but when your hospital has records going back to Windows 3.1 days and you just want things to work without hiring a team to modernize your whole operation, Windows starts looking more attractive.

Unfortunately, ruggedness comes at a cost, and although consumers might like the idea of a waterproof phone like the Defy, there’s no way they’ll pay the premium for Mil-spec hardening of their around-the-house tablet.

Stylus-powered Tablets

Steve Jobs’ disdain for the stylus was wise in that it led to a very focused finger-optimized phone OS, but unwise in that it summarily dismisses the benefits of pen input. It’s true that you lose them, they’re kind of weird to hold, and they disconnect you from the interface. But it’s also true that they provide far greater precision, they allow for quick and complicated gestures, multiple “click” types, and a number of other things — things which were admittedly totally inapplicable to the iPhone.

I recently reviewed the HTC Flyer. Spoiler alert: I didn’t like it. Or rather, I felt like it was an interesting evolutionary step that should probably have just been kept in the labs. I felt the potential, but I also felt the extreme difficulty in designing an interface that’s accessible to both touch and pen. Yet the Courier (at least in its demo videos) seemed to show that if you worked at it enough, you could make it work.

If tablets are to be used by the creative and enterprise class of users (as opposed to the consuming class), they will likely need stylus support. Fingertips are great for touching icons, but they’re not so good for circling individual words, editing photos and video, and so on. There’s a huge amount of sophisticated interpretation that goes into determining where your blob of a thumb is touching the screen, and the stylus changes the whole interface metaphor.

I’d expect a well-done niche product before a consumer breakout — a creation-oriented tablet, perhaps a collaboration between two big names like Wacom and Sony, or even Adobe. It could double as a stylus surface for another computer (like a Bamboo), but work independently as well, and be provided with a few powerful tools for interfacing with standard MIDI, video, tethering, and paint programs.

Windows 8 shows up again here: a stylus is a tolerable replacement for a mouse when the interface is done right. Windows 7 integrated some touch controls, but they were more concessions than true tools. Microsoft’s handwriting recognition is excellent, though, and if they’re able to combine their Surface, Metro, and Windows IP successfully, you could see a seriously versatile piece of hardware come out in mid-2012.

The time is not yet right

The conclusion here seems to be that large-scale market penetration and hardware limitations are the most serious barriers to variant tablets gaining traction. Demand isn’t great enough that you can make a successful niche product. There’s a bit of a chicken-egg problem here, since you can’t make a niche product without a niche, but the niche won’t exist until you make a product for it — but all that’s needed to solve that is a little time. As tablets grow from a 20-30 million unit market to a 100 million unit market, you’ll start seeing natural fragmentation in the user base, and not just in who wants 3G or 64 gigs.

The difference will be like the difference you see in computers and laptops: people who just want a laptop, and people who want a laptop that does X and not necessarily Y. The stratification of that market is well-known and prices have solidified around the $500, $750, $1000, and $1600-2000 marks. Pricing won’t have nearly such a large spread with tablets, but in a year or two, $250 will buy you a basic Android tablet, $500 will buy you a deluxe one or an iPad, and $750 will buy you a specialty device like a stylus, dual-screen, high-res screen, and so on. Professionals will gladly pay good money for a full-HD screen, real stylus interface, and enough power to use as an on-site editing device for photos or video.

Timing is anybody’s guess, and it depends on a lot of things. Will Amazon push Android over the top for e-readers? Will Apple release a super-high-resolution iPad Pro? Or will Samsung? Will OEMs grow some dignity and stop making chintzy tablets with identical specs? Or will Apple diversify and proliferate? Whatever the case is, until people get their heads around what a tablet is for and how it fits into the existing ecosystem, you’re not going to see these interesting but immature form factors do anything but sit on shelves and excite idle praise from tech writers. You can expect quite a few dead-end launches, but you can also expect (if you’re charitable) that companies like HTC and Sony just might learn something from them and reuse those ideas when the time is right.

Note: We are aware that many of the links in this article are dead at the moment due to some technical difficulties related to the redesign. They should be functional soon.

Go to Source

As Apple, Google, and now Facebook scramble to offer their users video chat options, it’s clear that these companies are looking to meet a huge perceived demand for the functionality. We all want to bypass simple voice messaging for a face-to-face video conversation, right?

Well, maybe.

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At Facebook today, Skype CEO Tony Bates offered some impressive statistics about the amount of video calling that the VOIP service is witnessing. He said that Skype users average about 300 million minutes per month of video calling, a figure that makes up about 50% of Skype’s traffic.

Video Calling: The Future or Just a Fad?

But other figures suggest that while there is a growing interest in video calling, it is still just a small portion of phone or VOIP communication. According to a survey by VOIP service Rebtel that we reported on last month, 13% use video chat to talk to family, 9% use it to talk to friends and just 6% use it to talk to their significant other.

Of course, the ease with which Skype integrates with Facebook is sure to boost the frequency with which we video chat. And as tech pundits and early adopters continue to rave about the Hangouts feature of Google Plus, perhaps we’ll join The New York Times’ Jenna Wortham in realizing what a “life-changing” experience it can be.

Or perhaps we’ll find that, video chat is a nice feature to use every once and a while… with some people… on days you’re fully dressed… and are in a tidy room with nice back-lighting, but isn’t really a killer feature at all. It will be like my experience with FaceTime on the iPhone – something I used once to see if it worked and haven’t utilized since. Indeed, The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal wonders if it isn’t “the cupholder of social networking” – in other words, that extra feature that isn’t really necessary to run the machine, but one that we judge on whether or not we want to buy the car.

Do you see yourself using video chat more frequently? Or is it merely a new shiny toy to test-drive today, before returning to the good ol’ fashioned voice call?

Discuss

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The beauty of Google’s Circles is that it does allow for this sort of public relationship with people in your industry – in my case, fellow tech enthusiasts. But at some point, I’m concerned the “put people into boxes” model may break down. Relationships aren’t binary (friend or not), but they’re also not static (e.g. “Friend A in Circle X”). Relationships change. How will Circles adapt to change with them?

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2 Examples of Changing Relationships

Here’s one simple example to illustrate the problem with Circles: you change jobs. Let’s say you go to work for a competitor. Now, everyone in the circle called “Work” need to be put into a circle with less access to your daily thoughts and posts, assuming you were using Google Plus to talk about projects you’re working on or you were talking to others in your same industry. Those conversations may need to remain private.

Even if privacy is not a concern, for organizational purposes alone, the title “Work” is no longer accurate.

Here’s another example: you become friends with someone – real friends, not “Internet friends.” Thanks more public social networks like Twitter or even niche communities like “People You Follow” on Google Reader, there’s now an opportunity to know of someone, even chat casually with them in a safe, public, space. With Circles, you can easily dump all these same folks into one big Circle. From my initial foray into Google Plus, that’s precisely what many of the early adopters have done. They’re using Google Plus the way they used Google Buzz, or FriendFeed before that. Friend everyone, and engage in public chats – mostly about Google Plus, of course.

But what about when one of those people becomes a real-world friend? Maybe you first run into them at a conference, putting a face to a name. They’re now an “Acquaintance.” Later, you spend a night out on the town with them, and realize you have a lot in common. You make plans to see each other again, at a non-work event, perhaps. This person has become a “Friend.” Depending on how your Google Circles are set up, you may have had to drag-and-drop them into multiple different circles over time, as this relationship changes.

Be Prepared: Circle Management Overhead Coming Soon

No big deal, you say – it’s just one person. But are you prepared to do that with all your relationships, from this point forward? Is that a sustainable system? How much of your time with Google Plus will be spent organizing and quantifying your degrees of closeness with your contacts? And if you choose not to, deciding to just friend only your “real” friends, or “return friend” everyone, then how exactly would Google Plus’s system be any different from Facebook or Twitter (respectively) for you, in terms of relationship management?

These are some of my initial concerns with the Circles model of managing relationships. It’s not a system I personally mind, to be fair – I’m a geek too, and I like organizing things. But what about the mainstream user, arriving from Facebook? Circles are a lot like Facebook’s friend lists, a feature which Facebook has shown less support for and interest in over time. Maybe regular folks don’t think it’s useful to put people in lists? Maybe regular folks find it easier to live in public, and post things for everyone to see, even if “everyone” now includes mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and that random friend from high school who wanted to catch up?

What Can Google Do?

To continually differentiate itself from Facebook, and keep Circles from becoming an organizational overhead nightmare, Google Plus needs to get smarter, quickly. Google should use its engineering brilliance to build algorithms that do relationship management for you. It should know when you change jobs (you update LinkedIn, for example) and suggest or enact a Circles change to reflect that. It could monitor the frequency of your conversations with fellow friends and suggest they’re moved into a more personal circle – all you have to do is click “Accept.” Or it could even auto-create Circles for you based on those interactions, or based on keywords in Google Profiles, or based on whether or not you were friends on other networks, and so on.

But should Google intervene? Or would that cross the “creepy line” it so likes to toe? And if it does not intervene, will Circles become end up being too much work to keep up with, thereby destroying the entire value proposition of Why Google Plus and Not Facebook?

What do you think? Do you share this concern, or find me overly pessimistic? Let me know your thoughts via comments, Twitter, or heck, Google Plus.

Discuss

Go to Source

The beauty of Google’s Circles is that it does allow for this sort of public relationship with people in your industry – in my case, fellow tech enthusiasts. But at some point, I’m concerned the “put people into boxes” model may break down. Relationships aren’t binary (friend or not), but they’re also not static (e.g. “Friend A in Circle X”). Relationships change. How will Circles adapt to change with them?

Sponsor

2 Examples of Changing Relationships

Here’s one simple example to illustrate the problem with Circles: you change jobs. Let’s say you go to work for a competitor. Now, everyone in the circle called “Work” need to be put into a circle with less access to your daily thoughts and posts, assuming you were using Google Plus to talk about projects you’re working on or you were talking to others in your same industry. Those conversations may need to remain private.

Even if privacy is not a concern, for organizational purposes alone, the title “Work” is no longer accurate.

Here’s another example: you become friends with someone – real friends, not “Internet friends.” Thanks more public social networks like Twitter or even niche communities like “People You Follow” on Google Reader, there’s now an opportunity to know of someone, even chat casually with them in a safe, public, space. With Circles, you can easily dump all these same folks into one big Circle. From my initial foray into Google Plus, that’s precisely what many of the early adopters have done. They’re using Google Plus the way they used Google Buzz, or FriendFeed before that. Friend everyone, and engage in public chats – mostly about Google Plus, of course.

But what about when one of those people becomes a real-world friend? Maybe you first run into them at a conference, putting a face to a name. They’re now an “Acquaintance.” Later, you spend a night out on the town with them, and realize you have a lot in common. You make plans to see each other again, at a non-work event, perhaps. This person has become a “Friend.” Depending on how your Google Circles are set up, you may have had to drag-and-drop them into multiple different circles over time, as this relationship changes.

Be Prepared: Circle Management Overhead Coming Soon

No big deal, you say – it’s just one person. But are you prepared to do that with all your relationships, from this point forward? Is that a sustainable system? How much of your time with Google Plus will be spent organizing and quantifying your degrees of closeness with your contacts? And if you choose not to, deciding to just friend only your “real” friends, or “return friend” everyone, then how exactly would Google Plus’s system be any different from Facebook or Twitter (respectively) for you, in terms of relationship management?

These are some of my initial concerns with the Circles model of managing relationships. It’s not a system I personally mind, to be fair – I’m a geek too, and I like organizing things. But what about the mainstream user, arriving from Facebook? Circles are a lot like Facebook’s friend lists, a feature which Facebook has shown less support for and interest in over time. Maybe regular folks don’t think it’s useful to put people in lists? Maybe regular folks find it easier to live in public, and post things for everyone to see, even if “everyone” now includes mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and that random friend from high school who wanted to catch up?

What Can Google Do?

To continually differentiate itself from Facebook, and keep Circles from becoming an organizational overhead nightmare, Google Plus needs to get smarter, quickly. Google should use its engineering brilliance to build algorithms that do relationship management for you. It should know when you change jobs (you update LinkedIn, for example) and suggest or enact a Circles change to reflect that. It could monitor the frequency of your conversations with fellow friends and suggest they’re moved into a more personal circle – all you have to do is click “Accept.” Or it could even auto-create Circles for you based on those interactions, or based on keywords in Google Profiles, or based on whether or not you were friends on other networks, and so on.

But should Google intervene? Or would that cross the “creepy line” it so likes to toe? And if it does not intervene, will Circles become end up being too much work to keep up with, thereby destroying the entire value proposition of Why Google Plus and Not Facebook?

What do you think? Do you share this concern, or find me overly pessimistic? Let me know your thoughts via comments, Twitter, or heck, Google Plus.

Discuss

Go to Source

The in-part Google-financed startup announced a big jump in growth this Spring when a wave of media coverage lead it from 1 million users to 2 million in just 10 weeks. Now the company tells us it’s hit 3 million in 9 more weeks and this week it announced a big new feature: carrier-level location tracking of any phones, including feature phones, for free. Life360′s plan is to undercut the market on location data, scale up fast with a fremium model and then build its business with value-added services that incumbents in industries like home security and insurance are offering today with super-high margins.

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Life360 partnered with another company called LOC-AID to negotiate with all the major US carriers in order to get access to the carrier-level location data of their users. That means they know where users are (once they’ve opted in) based on their phone’s connection to the celular network – whether they have a smartphone running an app or not. Parents, typically, might have a smartphone running the Life360 app and tracking the location of their children’s feature phones – which were opted-in by SMS. The first 3 phones tracked are free and the tracking app is free as well.

This is the kind of feature that carriers themselves and others have offered for some time, but by offering the first 3 phones for free and running a well-designed app through established and successful app stores – Life360 seems a more viable use of that location data than a family tracking app that a carrier sells to consumers themselves.

“We think within a few years, location is going to be a commodity and it will be very hard to charge consumers for location data,” says Life360′s CEO Chris Hulls. “And the carriers have realized that they aren’t going to compete long term with the App Store, that’s a channel that’s going to be there forever.”

By leveraging a free app in a successful App Store to scale up, Life360 believes it can position itself to offer paid services like home security.

“We’re trying to turn this into a much bigger security company,” Hulls says.

“We believe there’s going to be an antivirus for your life, making sure you’re safe – we believe that’s where mobile will go. We think we can get to massive scale, with regular engagement, and we don’t want your money up front. We want to build the relationship and then move into home security, social networking security, identity protection. Home security systems are already being controlled by your phone but we think more interesting is the $10b spend on marketing by that industry. When you buy a house they come to your door and send out lots of direct mail, but we’ll have a huge advantage – we’ll algorithmically know that you’ve moved by the location of your family’s phones. We’ll be there first and with a trusted relationship. We can monitor when your teenager speeds and then we can upsell to a driver monitoring system. There are a whole lot of possibilities.”

Will that kind of “apps on cheap location data platform” strategy be a realistic way to build a viable business in the future?

“I think that’s the right thing for a company that’s buying that data from someone else to say,” says Adam Duvander, Executive Editor at leading API monitoring website Programmable Web and author of the book Map Scripting 101. ProgrammableWeb is a property of Alcatel-Lucent, a giant telephony network middleware company that itself advocates that carriers offer app-enabling APIs just like this and is also a sponsor of ReadWriteWeb.

“Free is certainly a better value proposition than what the carriers have offered customers interested in family tracking apps to date,” Duvander says. “And I agree with them that free and established app stores are a better way to get market penetration for that kind of service.”

Life360′s Hulls believes the market is changing rapidly and that the kinds of technologies that will be built on top of location data are going to change too.

“The most successful mobile companies of the next year are going to be totally different from what they looked like over the last year,” Hulls says.

“They will target different consumers and fill different needs because smart phones aren’t thought of as mysterious magic anymore by everyday consumers – and they are quickly growing more stable. There’s an assumption that the 20-30 year old urban hipster base will continue to define the market – but there are far more people joining the mobile web now than that and they are going to be interested in very different new types of services.”

Duvander, as steady-voiced an observer of the bleeding edge of tech as you’ll find, concurs in his understated way.

“What they are saying is that it will move from early adopters to other people,” he says. “Well…that’s much as we’ve seen with other technologies.”

That’s one way to look at it; but the prospect of a widely-questioned mobile technology (consumer location tracking) moving into economically viable and perhaps surprising value-added services, built on location as a platform, seems to me to be an exciting tech trajectory to consider.

Discuss

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The Gadget of the Day Series is supported by the Energizer_® Inductive Charger, which brings you the next generation of charging with Qi technology. Qi is the new universal standard for wireless charging … now that’s positivenergy™.

Product: MSi GT683 Gaming Notebook

Price: $1,599 (but you can get it for $1503)

What It’s Good For: Playing the latest games (including those that support DirectX 11) at extremely high frame rates, scaring your opponents, family and coworkers with its plethora of decorative LEDs.

Who It’s Good For: Serious gamers, early adopters and those who would like a literally flashy notebook.

Limitations: No keyboard backlighting and unusual keyboard layout.

Bottom Line: The first laptop with Nvidia’s brand-new GTX 560M graphics card, for the next few days this will probably be the world’s fastest gaming laptop. Its good looks and processing power could also serve you well if you edit video, create 3D graphics or have an unusual need for speed.

A Close-Up Look at The MSi GT683 Notebook

Gamers want the fastest machines in the world. Beyond that, they want to be able to intimidate their opponents, and the MSi GT683 Gaming Notebook can accomplish both of those feats. We fired it up, ran gaming benchmarks on it, played a lot of games with it — and here’s the result.

Despite its relatively low $1,599 price, this 7.7-lb beast is loaded. At the heart of the system is a quad-core Intel Core 2GHz processor, and you can goose that up to 2.9GHz in its Turbo mode. Accompanying that is an array of two 500GB drives, striped together in RAID 0 for almost twice the speed, giving gamers 1TB of extremely fast disk space. It has the latest of everything, including “superspeed” USB 3.0 ports, 12GB of RAM and THX surround sound that can be synchronized with the LED lighting, throbbing with the beat of the music or sound effects.

All that is impressive, but the star the show is that 1.5GB Nvidia GTX 560M graphics card, introduced just a few days ago. It’s fast enough for MSi to claim that this is the quickest gaming laptop in the world right now. While our testing didn’t match up with the benchmark numbers MSI got (the company somehow arrived at an incredible 18,162 3DMark Vantage number), this laptop’s 3DMark Vantage score of 9,583 3DMarks were through the roof — faster than any PC we’ve ever tested.

What do these numbers mean? To see detailed results of our benchmark testing, take a look here, and if you’d like to compare this MSi laptop’s speed to your own machine, download the free basic edition of the 3DMark Vantage benchmark we used here. For the rest of us, you’d be hard-pressed to find a faster gaming laptop anywhere.

Displaying those speedy graphics is a 15.6-inch 1080p screen that looks exquisite for games and equally sharp and impressive for HD videos. Indeed, this is a state-of-the-art collection of hardware. Everything about this laptop is fast, which is immediately apparent when you launch its Windows 7 Home Edition operating system and start clicking around. Then when you start playing games at their highest resolutions and revel in its butter-smooth frame rates, you’ll have a big, satisfied smile on your face.

Using it as an everyday laptop is a pleasure, too. While its keyboard is flimsier than I would like, it still gets the job done, and I like the group of touch-sensitive controls positioned just above the keyboard that light up when you select them, including toggle switches for Wi-Fi, Turbo mode, Bluetooth and controls for all those kooky LED lights (and yes, you can stop the light show with a tap of one button). My only complaint is that if MSi saw fit to light up this laptop like a Christmas tree, with LEDs alongside the screen, in the back, on the front corners, and even backlighting the MSi logo on the back, why didn’t it backlight the keyboard? Strange design decision.

Looking past that peculiarity, I like this laptop, even with its garish lights that are bordering on absurd. It oozes fun and games, and after all, that’s exactly why it was created. If you’re a gamer who must have the fastest and latest, this is it. When you consider that many so-called high-performance laptops that aren’t anywhere near as fast as this can cost $1,000 more, it’s a bargain.

MSi Gaming Notebook

Notice the two lights on the bottom corners — there are many more.

Attractive Design

There are even lights on the sides of the screen/lid.

Side View

The 7.7 pound notebook is not the lightest in the world, but it’s not as heavy as many desktop replacement units, either.

Backlit Logo

Its piano-black finish is a fingerprint magnet. You’ll need a microfiber cloth nearby to keep it looking this shiny.

Side View

Two USB 3.0 ports (with the “SS” logo) are on the left, then there’s an SD card slot and a USB 2.0 port.

Back

Here’s where you plug in power, ethernet, VGA, an eSATA drive and HDMI.

Other Side View

Here’s where you’ll find the audio ports (including surround sound) and another USB port.

Keyboard

The delete key is in an odd place, and the number pad makes the keyboard seemed crowded. The Page Up and Page Down keys are in odd places, too.

Track Pad

The ritzy looking trackpad looks like it was surrounded in gold, with helpful backlit indicator lights at the bottom.

Touch-Sensitive Controls

At the top of the keyboard are those touch-sensitive controls mentioned in the review, which come in handy, but they also are in a spot where they could be easily touched accidentally.

The Gadget of the Day Series is supported by the Energizer_® Inductive Charger, which brings you the next generation of charging with Qi technology. Qi is the new universal standard for wireless charging. Energizer_® has always been designed with performance and responsibility in mind … now that’s positivenergy™.

More About: Gadget of the Day Series, gaming, laptop, MSi GT683 Gaming Notebook, review

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech & Gadgets on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech & Gadgets channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

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The Gadget of the Day Series is supported by the Energizer_® Inductive Charger, which brings you the next generation of charging with Qi technology. Qi is the new universal standard for wireless charging … now that’s positivenergy™.

Product: MSi GT683 Gaming Notebook

Price: $1,599 (but you can get it for $1503)

What It’s Good For: Playing the latest games (including those that support DirectX 11) at extremely high frame rates, scaring your opponents, family and coworkers with its plethora of decorative LEDs.

Who It’s Good For: Serious gamers, early adopters and those who would like a literally flashy notebook.

Limitations: No keyboard backlighting and unusual keyboard layout.

Bottom Line: The first laptop with Nvidia’s brand-new GTX 560M graphics card, for the next few days this will probably be the world’s fastest gaming laptop. Its good looks and processing power could also serve you well if you edit video, create 3D graphics or have an unusual need for speed.

A Close-Up Look at The MSi GT683 Notebook

Gamers want the fastest machines in the world. Beyond that, they want to be able to intimidate their opponents, and the MSi GT683 Gaming Notebook can accomplish both of those feats. We fired it up, ran gaming benchmarks on it, played a lot of games with it — and here’s the result.

Despite its relatively low $1,599 price, this 7.7-lb beast is loaded. At the heart of the system is a quad-core Intel Core 2GHz processor, and you can goose that up to 2.9GHz in its Turbo mode. Accompanying that is an array of two 500GB drives, striped together in RAID 0 for almost twice the speed, giving gamers 1TB of extremely fast disk space. It has the latest of everything, including “superspeed” USB 3.0 ports, 12GB of RAM and THX surround sound that can be synchronized with the LED lighting, throbbing with the beat of the music or sound effects.

All that is impressive, but the star the show is that 1.5GB Nvidia GTX 560M graphics card, introduced just a few days ago. It’s fast enough for MSi to claim that this is the quickest gaming laptop in the world right now. While our testing didn’t match up with the benchmark numbers MSI got (the company somehow arrived at an incredible 18,162 3DMark Vantage number), this laptop’s 3DMark Vantage score of 9,583 3DMarks were through the roof — faster than any PC we’ve ever tested.

What do these numbers mean? To see detailed results of our benchmark testing, take a look here, and if you’d like to compare this MSi laptop’s speed to your own machine, download the free basic edition of the 3DMark Vantage benchmark we used here. For the rest of us, you’d be hard-pressed to find a faster gaming laptop anywhere.

Displaying those speedy graphics is a 15.6-inch 1080p screen that looks exquisite for games and equally sharp and impressive for HD videos. Indeed, this is a state-of-the-art collection of hardware. Everything about this laptop is fast, which is immediately apparent when you launch its Windows 7 Home Edition operating system and start clicking around. Then when you start playing games at their highest resolutions and revel in its butter-smooth frame rates, you’ll have a big, satisfied smile on your face.

Using it as an everyday laptop is a pleasure, too. While its keyboard is flimsier than I would like, it still gets the job done, and I like the group of touch-sensitive controls positioned just above the keyboard that light up when you select them, including toggle switches for Wi-Fi, Turbo mode, Bluetooth and controls for all those kooky LED lights (and yes, you can stop the light show with a tap of one button). My only complaint is that if MSi saw fit to light up this laptop like a Christmas tree, with LEDs alongside the screen, in the back, on the front corners, and even backlighting the MSi logo on the back, why didn’t it backlight the keyboard? Strange design decision.

Looking past that peculiarity, I like this laptop, even with its garish lights that are bordering on absurd. It oozes fun and games, and after all, that’s exactly why it was created. If you’re a gamer who must have the fastest and latest, this is it. When you consider that many so-called high-performance laptops that aren’t anywhere near as fast as this can cost $1,000 more, it’s a bargain.

MSi Gaming Notebook

Notice the two lights on the bottom corners — there are many more.

Attractive Design

There are even lights on the sides of the screen/lid.

Side View

The 7.7 pound notebook is not the lightest in the world, but it’s not as heavy as many desktop replacement units, either.

Backlit Logo

Its piano-black finish is a fingerprint magnet. You’ll need a microfiber cloth nearby to keep it looking this shiny.

Side View

Two USB 3.0 ports (with the “SS” logo) are on the left, then there’s an SD card slot and a USB 2.0 port.

Back

Here’s where you plug in power, ethernet, VGA, an eSATA drive and HDMI.

Other Side View

Here’s where you’ll find the audio ports (including surround sound) and another USB port.

Keyboard

The delete key is in an odd place, and the number pad makes the keyboard seemed crowded. The Page Up and Page Down keys are in odd places, too.

Track Pad

The ritzy looking trackpad looks like it was surrounded in gold, with helpful backlit indicator lights at the bottom.

Touch-Sensitive Controls

At the top of the keyboard are those touch-sensitive controls mentioned in the review, which come in handy, but they also are in a spot where they could be easily touched accidentally.

The Gadget of the Day Series is supported by the Energizer_® Inductive Charger, which brings you the next generation of charging with Qi technology. Qi is the new universal standard for wireless charging. Energizer_® has always been designed with performance and responsibility in mind … now that’s positivenergy™.

More About: Gadget of the Day Series, gaming, laptop, MSi GT683 Gaming Notebook, review

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech & Gadgets on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech & Gadgets channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

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If you’d like to take the new beta for a spin, head over to the Firefox channels page and download a copy. Also note, if you’ve been using the Aurora channel, recent updates to that pre-beta release mean you can now switch to the new beta simply by heading to the “About Aurora” menu and choosing “change.”

The new beta release means that Firefox now has three major channels you can use: Aurora, Beta and Release (there’s also a nightly builds channel, but it tends to be very unstable). The three main Firefox channels correspond to Google Chrome’s dev, beta and stable releases.

The first beta release of Firefox 5 adds support for CSS animations, which allow developers to animate transitions between CSS states. For a list of all the animations Firefox 5 currently supports, head over to the Mozilla developer page (note that all the supported rules currently require the -moz prefix).

Firefox 5 beta sees some performance improvements to JavaScript, memory, and networking performance. There’s also been some speed boosts for canvas-based animations.

Other new features include improved support for web standards like HTML5, XHR, MathML and SMIL, along with the usual bug fixes that come with any beta release.

To go along with the new desktop beta, there’s also a new beta of Firefox 5 for mobile devices. Firefox 5 beta for mobile adds support for the Do Not Track header and offers some speed improvements, particularly on 3G networks. To grab the latest version of Firefox 5 for Android, head over to the Android market.

See Also:

• How to Use Firefox’s New ‘Aurora’ Release Channel
• Mozilla: Soon Your Add-Ons Will Work With Firefox Beta and Aurora
• Mozilla Plans Faster Firefox Development Model

Go to Source

Sounds pretty cool, but what HTML5 can do actually? Well, this post is going to satisfy your curiosity about the power of HTML5 by showing you a series of practical HTML5-powered web applications such as drawing application, chart creating application and time management application. So there’s no technical document anymore, let your eyes witness the true potential of HTML5!

19 HTML5-Powered Web App

DeviantART muro

Muro is HTML5-based sketching app that works in all modern browsers, and you can dive in and start drawing on a blank canvas, all without Flash or any other plugin. There are several brushes available to everyone, but to access more advanced features, you’ll need a DeviantArt account.

HootSuite

HTML5-based social media dashboard with some great features: geo-location tweet searching, choice between new and old style retweets, connection to Google Analytics, drag and drop editing, custom interface and much more. Perfect online tool for professional brand management.

X-Worlds

Something cool and interesting for kids of all sizes. You can submit a drawing of your character and watch it transform into an awesome illustration. Be the next X-world superhero!

Aviary’s Image Editor

HTML5-powered photo editor which is easy to use and surprisingly powerful. Beyond its use of HTML5 (as opposed to Flash, Silverlight or other RIA frameworks), what sets this app apart is that it’s designed to be portable so developers can directly integrate it into their sites or apps.

CSSWarp

CSSWarp is online tool that allows you to attach any text to a curved path or a circle, then create warped text with pure CSS and HTML.

Flickr Browser

Flickr Browser is an unique HTML5 app for browsing Flickr photos with cool approach.

CSS3.0 Maker

A great app for developers. It makes use of sliders and even a live preview area to generate cross-browser markup.

Coolendar

A HTML5-based calendar web app. Simple and clean interface and useful features for effective time management.

Twimbow

Twimbow is a colorful, HTML5 and CSS3 based Twitter client with a focus on filtering. The interface looks similar to TweetDeck and Seesmic, but its main distinction lies in its colourful interface. You can assign different colours to different users and groups, and also change the colour of tweets by adding a color tag!

Sketchpad

Sketchpad by Mugtug is a Pixelmator-like application that has desktop-like tools, colour selection, patterns, swatches and much more.

CloudCanvas

Cloud Canvas is a free HTML-5 based cloud image editor. This is a fully featured online image editor that allows you to create and save digital media. All content saved will be in PNG and XML format and stored in Google Documents.

Lislis Painter

Another interesting web app based on HTML5. Basic tools, layers and other features make this app an useful sketching tool online.

Scribd

This version of Scribd is a Flash and HTML5-based web app that provides in-browser access to all sorts of documents and e-books uploaded by users.

Google Body Browser

Google Body Browser is a cool web app powered with WebGL for study use. WebGL is a cross-platform low-level 3D graphics API that is designed to bring plugin-free 3D to the web. It uses the HTML5 Canvas element and does not require Flash, Java or other graphical plugins to run.

LucidChart

LucidChart is a great online tool for creating charts and diagrams. It works very fast and smooth, a perfect tool for team collaboration online.

Diagramo

Diagramo is an interactive online application, which allows you to make diagrams and flowcharts from within a web browser. It also allows you to create, edit and share diagrams, organizational charts, network diagrams and graphs. The diagrams can be saved for a lifetime.

Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator

Colorzilla has designed this very easy to use CSS3 gradient generator. It uses sliders and color pickers just like Photoshop and is highly recommended.

Citicles

Citicles is an experimental HTML5 visualizator that aggregates basic information about a city and displays it in a simple circle design. Each circle encloses the city’s population, temperature, time, elevation, latitude and longitude.

Tiny Fluid Grid

This grid generator with great design lets you generate a grid framework using simple options and even includes a preview page for you to make sure your grid looks perfect.

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Ron Jacoby is the chief architect and vice president of Yahoo! Connected TV, a leading platform for Internet-connected TV, available across top TV brands worldwide including VIZIO, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and LG.

While mobile has dominated the headlines over the past few years (thanks to rise of the smartphone and the success of apps), another movement is under way in the living room — Internet-connected TV. Just as DVRs and on-demand programming have become the standard, soon we won’t be able to remember our TVs before they were web-enabled.

Right now, more than 30 million U.S. households are using digital TVs, Blu-ray players and gaming consoles for viewing some form of online content in the living room, and that number is on the rise. According to Parks Associates, less than a quarter of HDTVs were connected to the Internet in 2010, but by 2015, that number will spike to 76%. The reason for this massive jump? With increasing consumer demand for connectivity in the living room and faster broadband speeds, device makers will make it convenient for HDTVs to connect directly to the Internet without an extra device in-between.

So how will Internet-connected TV change how we use the television? And why would someone need a connected TV? Just look at your phone to see how the Internet transformed this familiar device. From music to videos to games to search, social media and instant messaging — it’s all happening again, this time optimized for a screen 10 feet away from the couch.

Today, early adopters are accessing full-length TV shows and movies, news and information, social networks, music, casual games and more from their connected setups. But how can the industry cross the chasm from early adopters to broad adoption?

My company’s research and platform usage data reveal a few key trends that we think will spur the mainstream into flipping the switch on connected TVs.

First, It’s Got to be Social.

Consumers love TV shows and talking about them with friends.

• Content around TV shows and social media will spur the growth of this new landscape, especially among women.
• 60% of those surveyed said they would be interested in looking at online content on their TV related to the program they were watching.
• Among those who showed interest, 28% want to include their friends via social media when watching TV.

Second, Tablets and Phones Will Have an Impact on the Connected TV

• 25% of people who purchase a tablet say they use their connected TV more since the purchase.
• Internet-connected TVs need to be multi-screen to take advantage of the interactive features like touchscreens, gestures and media playback.

Last, and more surprisingly, advertising will be a key driver of usage for connected TV.

• Two in five consumers said they are interested in content relevant to the commercials they see. In fact, more than half of survey respondents reported that they are likely to interact with an ad.

Here’s a look into what the future looks like for Internet-connected TV.

Attention Developers: There’s a TV App for That?

Broad consumer adoption will happen when developers can create apps that sync web content with live TV. This will enable the consumer to interact with TV shows and advertisements. Here are a few ways we see this playing out. Consumers will be able to:

• Participate in TV show trivia
• Vote for a favorite actor
• Purchase an item seen on TV
• Play along with a favorite game show
• View related videos and photos

In terms of discoverability, TV apps currently use a pull model, meaning you have to actively browse through the app gallery and select one to use it. In the future, TV apps will be integrated right into the broadcast experience, through what the industry calls “broadcast interactivity.” Personalized, relevant content will soon be pushed to you. In short, it will appear seamlessly on your screen, a lot like the promotional text you already see today along the bottom of certain TV shows.

Social TV

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are not detracting from our TV consumption. Rather, they are creating a hybrid experience around TV content. The socialization of television is extremely important and very exciting.

As an example, let’s take a look at the news of Osama bin Laden’s death. President Barack Obama’s speech about the military operation in Pakistan drew more TV viewers than any other speech of his presidency — 56.6 million according to Nielsen. At the same time, the news set records on Twitter, with more than 5,000 Tweets sent per second at times before and during the speech. What this shows is that millions of people were not just watching TV at that moment — they wanted to participate in the news.

With connected TV, broadcast and social experiences will blend. Imagine watching the speech, reading the tweets, and pulling up the White House pictures on Flickr about what it was like to be in the room when the raid happened.  Most people are already doing this — with a tablet, smartphone or laptop in hand. Now, you could do it on the big beautiful screen in your living room. 

As the television becomes a two-way device, TV networks are already exploring the potential by developing TV apps that, for example, enable viewers to vote on their favorite characters or contestants. This social enrichment of programming will let networks gain valuable insight into audience engagement and reaction to their programming.

Connected TV Advertising

In 2010, television advertising expendetures were the largest for all media, coming in at $69 billion. What this signifies to many is that television is still a tremendous medium to drive product, services and brand awareness.

Connected TV is a Holy Grail scenario for an industry that has been trying to bridge the emotion and effectiveness of television advertising with the metrics, interactivity and audience targeting of Internet advertising. For example, rather than distributing a standard car commercial, the company could run the same ad with the option for connected consumers to pull up additional information on the car, read consumer reviews and find a local dealer — all with the click of the remote control.

Additionally, with connected TV, ad content can be locally relevant and based on consumers’ interests and behaviors. This means ads will be more personalized and tailored to you.

For example, your favorite sandwich shop can distribute a message to you about a “Sunday Special,” just in time for the big game. This creates a whole new layer of experience around TV viewing that is hugely compelling and powerful, both for consumers and advertisers.

T-Commerce

As with the web and mobile industries, there is significant opportunity for businesses to capitalize on the ability to make purchases directly from the television — “t-commerce,” if you will. According to the Parks Associates report, by 2015 there will be more than $8 billion worth of transactions conducted via web-enabled consumer electronics.

There are so many interesting scenarios for t-commerce. There’s the obvious — browsing and shopping for products on Amazon and eBay. But what if you could buy the exact shoes your favorite character was wearing on tonight’s episode of Gossip Girl with a click of the remote? Or what if you could pull up the menu of a local restaurant to order dinner for delivery? These scenarios are all possible through t-commerce, and the best part is, you can do all of it while you’re watching live TV.

The Future is Bright

The best part about the connected TV movement is that it is happening now. Right now there are millions of web-enabled TVs on the market with libraries of on-demand movies and TV shows available directly from your television — without the need for a console or set-top box. There are TV apps to play games, socialize, shop and get the latest in sports and news.

But what’s most exciting is yet to come — the experience of seamlessly interacting with programming and ads, and communicating in real time with friends and family right from your TV. As the web has transformed the print and music industries, it is surely on track to revolutionize television.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Terraxplorer

More About: connected tv, social media, television, tv, video

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Shane Snow is a Mashable contributor and co-founder of Contently.com, an “agile publishing” platform for brands and professional bloggers.

In April, “stealth” social media startup Kohort announced its upcoming launch. Within a few days, the site received thousands of user signups, according to its founder Mark Davis. In the startup world, this itself perhaps isn’t uncommon, but what made Kohort’s story unique is the fact that those thousands of users had no idea what Kohort was when they signed up. To this day, the purpose of the site is still secret.

It may not matter to you what Kohort is or isn’t, nor whether stealth is good or bad. But the fact that it managed to get thousands of people to take blind action (before the site even launched) with so much competition for early adopters is quite powerful.

Kohort is not alone, or even lucky, in its ability to break through the startup-launching, consumer-pitching chaos. There’s a science to generating pre-launch buzz and an art to gaining new users. Here are four tricks startups have used to make it happen.

1. Create a Shareable “Launching Soon” Page

In order to collect user information, you need a place for users to sign up. Philadelphia-based startup LaunchRock thinks a company’s “coming soon” page should be more than a placeholder; it should be a place for users to sign up and provide a way to share a new startup with friends.

LaunchRock gives startups a turnkey solution for a custom coming soon page that allows users to sign up for updates and share the fact that they did so.

2. Create Viral Content

Infographics startup Visual.ly raked in five-figure daily signups after announcing its upcoming launch, according to the site’s founders. They attracted curiosity and in-bound user potential with an infographic-type video describing the site. It wasn’t just a plain (read: boring) video about some company launching. It was a spin on its own market: data visualization. People shared and watched the video more than 50,000 times in a couple of weeks.

Disclosure: The author is an adviser to Visual.ly

3. Make A (Smart) Game Of It

Subjot, the brainchild of game developer Chris Carella, turned its coming soon page into a social game using a feature available on LaunchRock. Carella offered users who signed up for his site the opportunity to gain access early if they got friends to sign up. Every friend you talk into joining the site’s waiting list (via links Subjot’s launch page generates for you) brings you closer to receiving access yourself. Each referral moves you further up in line.

The most remarkable part? Subjot’s launch page didn’t even say what it was. “It got 10% conversion,” Carrella says. “That’s amazing considering there’s nothing on the page.”

It’s a core idea for Jameson Detweiler, co-founder of LaunchRock: “It’s all based on the concept of incentivized sharing. After someone signs up for your site, you ask them to share it with their friends through various social media channels and/or email. In exchange for doing so, you reward the user with something if they get enough of their friends to sign up.”

4. Tease Users With Exclusivity Or Mystery

TV shows like LOST or The X-Files kept viewers hooked by cultivating an addicting feeling of “WTF is going to happen next?!” In a similar manner, anything that sparks curiosity –- in the right way –- gets under our skin. Kohort said the site was “stealth” to play up the sense of mystery around its brand and to generate interest.

Kohort also used exclusivity and scarcity to drum up user signups. Its launch page tells visitors to “stake your claim” and reserve your username before someone else does. Judging by the chatter on Twitter, many people are reserving usernames because they don’t want to risk losing their chosen handle in case this “mysterious” service turns out to be something cool.

“Adoption has far exceeded our expectations,” Davis says. “There seems to be a good bit of curiosity about what we’re up to that is driving interest.”

Buzz Is Great, But Substance Matters Most

In the end, if a startup’s product sucks, it doesn’t matter if it has four users or 4 million when it launches. But if a company has something cool or useful to show the world, an extra thousand users or so to share your message can be pretty nice to have around on launch day.

It’s an even simpler — if not more ambitious — equation for LaunchRock’s Detweiler: “Have an addicting and useful product that brilliantly solves a real problem for a specific market.” Build it, and they will come.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Sweetsofa

More About: business, buzz, kohort, launchrock, MARKETING, social media, startup

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Well, apparently that last part is a bit malleable.

Turns out the perception of one’s location is good enough to fool Color into letting you invade photostreams anywhere, anytime.  Within hours of its release, Veracode CTO Chris Wysopal tweeted:

When he tested it out, he found that he could go anywhere and see anything – much easier than expected.  He used a jailbroken iPad and an app called FakeLocation.  With this app, he was allowed to bypass the iPad’s GPS and set his location to anywhere in the world.

I’m sure most of you can see where this is going.

When he opened the Color app, bingo!  He could now browse all the photos from an area hundreds of miles away.  “This only took about five minutes to download the FakeLocation app and try a few locations where I figured there would be early adopters who like trying out the latest apps,” Wysopal told Forbes’ Andy Greenberg. “No hacking involved.”

To prove his success, Wysopal (in New York City) sent Greenberg a screencap of Color CEO Bill Nguyen’s photostream (Palo Alto, California):

Once again, this “cheat” is not ruffling any feathers over at Color headquarters.  As a spokesman said to Forbes, they never promised privacy.  “It is all public, and we’ve been very clear about that from the very beginning. Within the app, there’s already functionality to look through the entire social graph. Very few people will probably do what you’re saying, but all the pictures, all the comments, all the videos are out there for the public to see.”

And how many Color users, happy to share their photos with any stranger around them, would really care that the stranger lives in another state – or country?

Go to Source

Well, apparently that last part is a bit malleable.

Turns out the perception of one’s location is good enough to fool Color into letting you invade photostreams anywhere, anytime.  Within hours of its release, Veracode CTO Chris Wysopal tweeted:

When he tested it out, he found that he could go anywhere and see anything – much easier than expected.  He used a jailbroken iPad and an app called FakeLocation.  With this app, he was allowed to bypass the iPad’s GPS and set his location to anywhere in the world.

I’m sure most of you can see where this is going.

When he opened the Color app, bingo!  He could now browse all the photos from an area hundreds of miles away.  “This only took about five minutes to download the FakeLocation app and try a few locations where I figured there would be early adopters who like trying out the latest apps,” Wysopal told Forbes’ Andy Greenberg. “No hacking involved.”

To prove his success, Wysopal (in New York City) sent Greenberg a screencap of Color CEO Bill Nguyen’s photostream (Palo Alto, California):

Once again, this “cheat” is not ruffling any feathers over at Color headquarters.  As a spokesman said to Forbes, they never promised privacy.  “It is all public, and we’ve been very clear about that from the very beginning. Within the app, there’s already functionality to look through the entire social graph. Very few people will probably do what you’re saying, but all the pictures, all the comments, all the videos are out there for the public to see.”

And how many Color users, happy to share their photos with any stranger around them, would really care that the stranger lives in another state – or country?

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Time is running out for you to fill out an attendee application for Mashable Connect 2011, a unique event at Disney World in May that will bring together heavyweights in social media and digital.

At Connect, these influential leaders and you will get the chance to discuss and learn about the new online identity, Attentionomics and the new ROI, trends in social TV, mobile marketing and social good, among other topics. Keynotes, so far, include Raymie Stata, Yahoo’s CTO, and David Jones, who Adweek named one of the top two executives of the 2000s for his role as global CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide and CEO of France’s Havas Worldwide.

Mashable executives, editors and writers also will be in attendance and ready to mingle. Below, a few of them sound off on what excites them most about Mashable Connect:

• Pete Cashmore, CEO and founder: “Mashable Connect is unique in that every one of our participants is a digital influencer in his or her field. These are the early adopters who discover and propagate new products and ideas. I’m looking forward to learning about the next big thing before it becomes widely known.”
• Ben Parr, co-editor: “I’m looking forward to having intimate and forward-thinking conversations about the big issues facing technology and media today. Mashable Connect will definitely be one of those rare events that brings thought leaders together in one place. And whenever that happens, you’re always going to return home with something profound.”
• Todd Wasserman, business and marketing editor: “We all know what it’s like to have superficial conversations with industry leaders, but I’m looking forward to the rare opportunity at Mashable Connect to spend a more prolonged period of time with some of the top minds in social media and get beyond the buzzwords and posturing and learn about what these people are really thinking.”

We hope to see you there, so apply now:

Attendees include leaders from leading companies, organizations and brands such as the 92Y, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Behance, Buddy Media, Constant Contact, Converseon, CNN, Deep Focus, Edelman, Fenton, Fidelity Investments, Ford, Gowalla, Groupon, Hallmark Cards, Hasbro, HBO, Hilton Worldwide, Intridea, iStrategyLabs, Microsoft, NBC, Ogilvy, PepsiCo, Rackspace Hosting, Radian6, Rockfish, Saatchi & Saatchi, Scripps Networks, SocialVibe, Spotify, Syncapse, Thrillist, Triton Digital, Tumblr, TV Guide, UN Foundation, Universal Music Group, Wells Fargo, Xero and Yahoo.

Registration for Mashable Connect 2011 is all-inclusive and includes content, meals, special events and surprises, hotel rooms and ground transportation.

There will be plenty of opportunities to connect with speakers, including:

• Scott Belsky, Founder & CEO, Behance
• Rohit Bhargava, SVP, Global Strategy & Marketing, Ogilvy
• Sabrina Caluori, Director of Social Media & Marketing, HBO
• Cameron Death, Senior Vice President and General Manager, NBCUniversal Digital Studio
• Craig Engler, SVP & General Manager, Syfy Digital
• KC Estenson, SVP & General Manager, CNN Digital
• Elizabeth Gore, Executive Director Global Partnerships, UN Foundation
• Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder & CEO, Meetup
• Lisa Hsia, Executive Vice President, Bravo Digital Media
• David Jones, CEO of Havas & Global CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide
• David Karp, Founder, Tumblr
• Rob Key, CEO, Converseon
• Dave Knox, Chief Marketing Officer, Rockfish
• Josh Koppel, Founder, ScrollMotion
• Michael Lazerow, CEO, Buddy Media
• Marcel LeBrun, CEO, Radian6
• Adam Rich, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, Thrillist
• Steve Rubel, SVP/Director of Insights, Edelman Digital
• Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus
• Michael Scissons, President and CEO, Syncapse
• Raymie Stata, SVP, Chief Technology Officer, Yahoo!
• Christy Tanner, Executive Vice President & General Manager, TVGuide.com & TV Guide Mobile
• Josh Williams, CEO, Gowalla

For more details, click here.

More About: mashable, mashable connect 2011, social media, social networking

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The Android version of the app was released in December, along with the following video:

“Your phone improves standard TV remote activities like changing channels or accessing your DVR,” explains Google TV Product Manager Ambarish Kenghe. “I love using it at night, because the back light means I can see all the buttons in the dark and the buttons are easy to find. ”

“You can also interact with your TV in ways you never have before,” adds Kenghe. “For instance, try using the voice search to find your favorite shows and movies just by speaking into your phone. There should be less fighting over the remote, too, since multiple phones can work as remotes at the same time—you just need to agree on what to watch!”

Some people may find the app an attractive alternative to other available Google TV remotes, like the one seen here from Sony. Just using a device you’re going to be using anyway, should reduce the clutter on your coffee table.

Most people that actually have Google TV are probably Android users before iPhone. This is just a gut feeling. These are the early adopters. That said, there are probably plenty that do have iPhones, iPads, or at the very least, iPods.

The app is available in Apple’s App Store.

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The Android version of the app was released in December, along with the following video:

“Your phone improves standard TV remote activities like changing channels or accessing your DVR,” explains Google TV Product Manager Ambarish Kenghe. “I love using it at night, because the back light means I can see all the buttons in the dark and the buttons are easy to find. ”

“You can also interact with your TV in ways you never have before,” adds Kenghe. “For instance, try using the voice search to find your favorite shows and movies just by speaking into your phone. There should be less fighting over the remote, too, since multiple phones can work as remotes at the same time—you just need to agree on what to watch!”

Some people may find the app an attractive alternative to other available Google TV remotes, like the one seen here from Sony. Just using a device you’re going to be using anyway, should reduce the clutter on your coffee table.

Most people that actually have Google TV are probably Android users before iPhone. This is just a gut feeling. These are the early adopters. That said, there are probably plenty that do have iPhones, iPads, or at the very least, iPods.

The app is available in Apple’s App Store.

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Given that the original iPad really hasn’t been out that long yet, and Apple really wants people to get the new version, they’re reportedly offering to refund the price difference to consumers who already purchased the first iPad. 

UK-based ElectricPig, which spoke with the comnpany, reports, "We were assured by Apple’s sales team that Apple would just refund the £100 price difference, without any complicated returns and exchanges, so you can take advantage of the price drop on the original iPad. Good news! The catch is that you’ll need to be within the 14-day returns window, which doesn’t leave much wiggle room for those outside of that window. You’ll also need your receipt."

As usual, Steve Jobs did its fair share of competitor mocking at the big iPad event, implying that the iPad 2 will just completely blow everything else out of the water. We’ll let time and consumer decisions dictate the accuracy of that, but the device hasn’t failed to impress so far. 

The refund thing ought to be huge for bumping up sales of the iPad 2, which will make the numbers look nice. The people who own iPads already are primarily the early adopters, so it stands to reason that a significant amount of them will be game for purchasing the new version of the device. 

There’s no denying that competition in the tablet space is much greater now, however, coming from companies putting out devices running Google’s Android operating system, and Microsoft’s Windows platform, as well as HP webOS devices, and BlackBerry devices from RIM.  

Pricing is a big reason why Android has been able to gain so much momentum in the smartphone market, and as the OS makes its way to more devices, that’s likely to come into play in the tablet market as well. The price reduction for the original iPad should help things for Apple too though. 

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Given that the original iPad really hasn’t been out that long yet, and Apple really wants people to get the new version, they’re reportedly offering to refund the price difference to consumers who already purchased the first iPad. 

UK-based ElectricPig, which spoke with the comnpany, reports, "We were assured by Apple’s sales team that Apple would just refund the £100 price difference, without any complicated returns and exchanges, so you can take advantage of the price drop on the original iPad. Good news! The catch is that you’ll need to be within the 14-day returns window, which doesn’t leave much wiggle room for those outside of that window. You’ll also need your receipt."

As usual, Steve Jobs did its fair share of competitor mocking at the big iPad event, implying that the iPad 2 will just completely blow everything else out of the water. We’ll let time and consumer decisions dictate the accuracy of that, but the device hasn’t failed to impress so far. 

The refund thing ought to be huge for bumping up sales of the iPad 2, which will make the numbers look nice. The people who own iPads already are primarily the early adopters, so it stands to reason that a significant amount of them will be game for purchasing the new version of the device. 

There’s no denying that competition in the tablet space is much greater now, however, coming from companies putting out devices running Google’s Android operating system, and Microsoft’s Windows platform, as well as HP webOS devices, and BlackBerry devices from RIM.  

Pricing is a big reason why Android has been able to gain so much momentum in the smartphone market, and as the OS makes its way to more devices, that’s likely to come into play in the tablet market as well. The price reduction for the original iPad should help things for Apple too though. 

Go to Source

Given that the original iPad really hasn’t been out that long yet, and Apple really wants people to get the new version, they’re reportedly offering to refund the price difference to consumers who already purchased the first iPad. 

UK-based ElectricPig, which spoke with the comnpany, reports, "We were assured by Apple’s sales team that Apple would just refund the £100 price difference, without any complicated returns and exchanges, so you can take advantage of the price drop on the original iPad. Good news! The catch is that you’ll need to be within the 14-day returns window, which doesn’t leave much wiggle room for those outside of that window. You’ll also need your receipt."

As usual, Steve Jobs did its fair share of competitor mocking at the big iPad event, implying that the iPad 2 will just completely blow everything else out of the water. We’ll let time and consumer decisions dictate the accuracy of that, but the device hasn’t failed to impress so far. 

The refund thing ought to be huge for bumping up sales of the iPad 2, which will make the numbers look nice. The people who own iPads already are primarily the early adopters, so it stands to reason that a significant amount of them will be game for purchasing the new version of the device. 

There’s no denying that competition in the tablet space is much greater now, however, coming from companies putting out devices running Google’s Android operating system, and Microsoft’s Windows platform, as well as HP webOS devices, and BlackBerry devices from RIM.  

Pricing is a big reason why Android has been able to gain so much momentum in the smartphone market, and as the OS makes its way to more devices, that’s likely to come into play in the tablet market as well. The price reduction for the original iPad should help things for Apple too though. 

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Matthias Galica is CEO of ShareSquare. Via a self-serve mobile web app CMS and QR codes, the ShareSquare platform enhances real world promotions for artists, agencies & brands. Mashable readers can sign up for the private beta for free by clicking here. He will also be presenting on the topic of QR code adoption at the Where 2.0 Conference.

Nearly every year since 1994 has been hyped as the year that QR codes pierce the mainstream, but in 2011 the hubbub is finally reaching a fever pitch.

This is thanks to a confluence of factors: Critical mass in smartphone penetration, a large installed base of many barcode-scanning apps, and an approaching social tipping point of awareness. QR codes are finally becoming an effective tool for driving offline-to-online interactions at scale.

Combine this with the fact that enhancing real world promotions in music, film and brand marketing is among the best applications of this technology, and next month’s SXSW has the potential to be the breakout event for QR codes in America.

Unfortunately, many well-intentioned early adopters will waste the opportunity by not delivering enough value or making some very simple mistakes.

I’ve spent nine months isolating the best practices and highest converting use cases specific to these applications. Taking over where Jamie Turner left off with his post on the 10 commandments for marketers using 2D codes, below is a “brass tacks” breakdown of the minimum value each marketer needs to offer to be successful.

What Should My QR Code Do?

It should direct users to a mobile-optimized webpage with functionality tailored to your audience and application. Below are recommendations based on the calls-to-action that we’ve seen achieve the highest engagement. You’ll notice the following themes recur: Exclusivity, rich media, downloads, social media, incentives like prizes and contests, and contextual relevance.

Music and Artist Performances


Must-Haves: Provide immediate music playback via an online service like YouTube or Rdio. Show a bio along with performance and venue information. Allow users to “Like” on Facebook and follow on Twitter.


Extra Credit: Link to native apps like those made by Mobile Roadie; offer free downloads in exchange for e-mail submissions; win VIP access or free schwag; offer mobile e-commerce through a provider like TopSpin or BandCamp.


Examples: The Grammys, Mitchel Musso.

Film Releases and Screenings


Must-Haves: Show the trailer (ideally an exclusive); put sneak peek images into a slideshow; provide screening and venue information; pre-populate status updates and tweets to help new fans spread the word.


Extra Credit: Deleted scene downloads; free passes; ticket purchases.


Examples: Ironman 2, Ray Kurzweil’s Transcendent Man.

Technology Launches and Exhibitions


Must-Haves: Show screenshots; play a demo video; link to all your native apps (if you have them); display company info, “Like” on Facebook and follow on Twitter.


Extra Credit: Offer early access; send private invites, or register the scan as a check-in.


Examples: Whrrl, SCVNGR.

Brands and Sponsors


Must-Haves: Offer exclusive content or information; free prizes, coupons or giveaways; incentivize Facebook Likes and tweets to drive virality.


Extra Credit: Treasure hunts or collection games like those provided by SCVNGR; mobile e-commerce purchases.


Examples: Chevy at SXSW 2010, Calvin Klein.

Fans, Consumers and Event Attendees

Must-Haves: Install a good scanner like RedLaser on your iPhone, ShopSavvy or Barcode Scanner on Android, or use the native scanner inside BBM 5.0 on Blackberry.


Extra Credit / Example: Add a QR code to your business card.

Where Should I Put My QR Code at a Major Event?

Put your QR code on every single piece of promotional material you have. This goes for every marketer. Posters, flyers, stickers, merchandise tags, press kits, temporary tattoos; The more unusual the better. Any promotion without one is a missed opportunity at major events, especially tech-forward gatherings like SXSW.

What Not To Do

There are pitfalls you need to avoid at all costs, or else your QR code campaign will fail miserably:

• Don’t use proprietary code formats like those from AT&T Barcode Services or any other that requires a particular scanning app to work. Your QR code should simply contain a URL directing to your mobile web presence. You can easily create a free QR code with services like bit.ly or goo.gl, and they come with the added benefits of shortening your URL (which compresses the size of the QR code) and some basic tracking.
• Don’t link to a non-mobile-optimized site, or (heaven forbid) any pages containing Flash.
• Don’t forget to prominently place a compelling call-to-action (e.g. “Scan to Win”) near the QR code so that your audience immediately knows why they should bother scanning your code.
• Don’t forget to test-scan the proofs for your creative. Make sure your QR code works as intended before you produce a bunch of collateral.

It’s also a good idea to set up your QR code and the corresponding mobile webpage with analytics. This will give you the ability to track and optimize your campaign, and if you’re using a plug-and-play CMS, even make updates during the event.

What Results Should You Expect?

At my company, we’re seeing an average time on the mobile page of about 4 minutes, with bounce rates in the low 20% range. When your call-to-action is valuable, and well aligned with your application, you’ll find that you can delight your audience and capture the precious attention that you wouldn’t have before. Your mileage will vary on the total number of scans, which is why a shotgun approach with a variety of different placements will give you the best odds of standing out from the crowd.

We’re also upping the game for SXSW, which I predict will be a big event for QR codes. My company will be displaying real-time Austin heat maps of scanning activity happening on our platform, as well as aggregating leader-boards of the “Most Scanned Bands.” We’ll be giving those artists extra attention and visibility, in addition to some special prizes we’ll announce at the event. I hope to see you, your QR codes, and some effective mobile calls-to-action in Austin next month.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

– HOW TO: Grow Your Sales and Revenue Using 2D Codes
– 2D Codes: The 10 Commandments for Marketers
– How The iPad Is Helping Businesses Go Green
– HOW TO: Jump-Start Your Career by Becoming an Online Influencer
– 4 Small Business Mobile Predictions for 2011

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, fberti

More About: 2d code, business, entertainment, location, MARKETING, mobile marketing, qr code, social media, social media marketing, sxsw

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• Search has been the major driver of traffic of Quora over the past 6 months and accounted for nearly 49% of the visits last week.
   
• Social Networks like Facebook and Twitter have also been key as users can share their both their questions and answers among their networks.
   
• Among the visitors to website, the top 5 Mosaic segments represented 42% of all visits to Quora for the 12 weeks ending February 5, 2011.
   
• The large share of the audience tends to be characterized by college-educated professionals, along with students poised to join those same segments following graduation.
   
• For example, the largest segment currently visiting Quora is Major University Towns, which is primarily made up of students and young adults under the age of 35.
   
• The Young Cosmopolitans segment is another strong segment for Quora, which tends to be the early adopters typically among the first to discover new websites.

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It looks like many smartphones were abandoned by those rushing to be among the Verizon iPhone’s first users when the device hit shelves Thursday morning. In fact, eBay has already made 130,000 offers to purchase these used phones, and most of them are for AT&T iPhone models.

In anticipation of a phone-swapping trend, eBay announced a two-week promotion on February 8 that guarantees at least $200 for select models of functional used smartphones on its Instant Sale platform. For some phones, eBay is offering a price more than $100 higher than Verizon’s trade-in value.

It looks like the anticipated wave of resellers will pan out. Three days into the promotion, 130,000 eBay site visitors have requested offers for used smartphones. It’s too early to tell how many of these will actually send their phones to eBay in order to actually redeem the offers.

Most of the offers have been for used iPhones, and various models of the phone have taken six spots on the list of the top ten most requested offers during eBay’s promotion. BlackBerry and Android phones split the remaining four spots.

This iPhone majority doesn’t necessarily indicate that AT&T is experiencing a mass exodus in favor of Verizon. Android phones only started outselling iPhones in the first quarter of 2010, which means there are more of them out there to resell. There’s also a possibility that eBay’s offer guarantee prompted the rush to resell old phones on the site rather than the Verizon iPhone launch itself.

Even so, the interest in selling even the latest model of the iPhone (early adopters of the iPhone 4 still have more than a year to go to finish their 2-year contracts) must be less than comforting to AT&T.

More About: att, ebay, Mobile 2.0, resell smartphone, smartphone, Verizon iPhone

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Samsung posted positive fourth quarter results Friday morning. The company attributed its success partly to “outstanding sales” of smartphones and its Android-based tablet, the Galaxy Tab.

A report from Korean site Yonhap News claims that Samsung actually sold more than 2 million Galaxy Tabs in its first three months on the market, although we were unable to independently confirm the fact.

In December, Samsung announced it had sold 1 million Galaxy Tabs. If the sales indeed picked up during December and the 2-million-sold figure is true, it’s a surprisingly positive result, although it’s still nowhere near the 7.3 million iPads Apple sold last quarter.

The Galaxy Tab runs on Android 2.2, which is not entirely appropriate for tablets even by Google’s standards. It’s probably best described as a product for early adopters, a forerunner for more advanced Android 2.4-based tablets that are coming this year. When viewed in that light, Samsung’s results paint a bright picture for the future of Android tablets.

Overall, Samsung’s quarterly results were solid, with revenue of $37.6 billion, net income of $3.1 billion, and 80.7 mobile devices sold. Samsung’s revenue in 2010 was a record-high at $139 billion, up 13% from 2009, and the company’s net income ($14.5 billion) and operating profit ($15.5 billion) also marked all-time highs for the company.

Check out Samsung’s quarterly report here [PDF].

[Yonhap News via Electronista]

More About: android, galaxy tab, samsung, Tablet, trending

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Let’s start with the subject of compatibility.  Thanks to the updates, the app will now work on devices running BlackBerry OS6, meaning early adopters won’t be denied the chance to use Bing.  And traditionally, that’s been an important group of people for tech organizations to reach and satisfy.

As for the new features, the more self-explanatory ones are a safe search option, image search, "What’s Nearby," and instant answers related to airplane flights.

Then, just as a Bing user might see on his or her desktop, there are also "Homepage Hotspots."  A post on the Bing Search Blog explained, "If you have a little time to spend and want to explore the day’s image, point around it until you find a hotspot.  Hidden in the image, hotspots are intended intrigue and inform you.  If you look, you’ll find four of them every day.  Each gives you a chance to find out more about the subject of the image."

Finally, general performance improvements should make everybody happy.

It’ll be interesting to see if these updates help Bing increase its mobile search share.

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If you’d like to take Beta 9 for spin on your desktop, head over to the Mozilla beta downloads page. It’s been a very long development cycle for Firefox 4 — the final version isn’t likely to arrive until the end of February — however, the enhancements being made over versions 3.5 and 3.6 are substantial.

Fortunately for early adopters the beta releases are stable enough to use in day-to-day browsing, so it’s not like we’re waiting a long time for nothing. We can reap the rewards well before the official release date.

On the Windows platform, beta 9 now ships with the tabs-in-the-title-bar feature we covered earlier this month. Firefox 4 beta 9 also includes support for IndexedDB, which allows approved sites to store data on your computer for offline use. Other improvements include an overhaul of the bookmarks and history code, enabling faster bookmarking and improving Firefox’s startup performance.

The best news for those eagerly awaiting the final release of Firefox 4 is that beta 9 has squashed some 660 bugs. Indeed, beta 9 is among the fastest and stablest betas we’ve used, but it’s still not ready for prime time. Problems remain with the new tab-sorting interface — dubbed “Panorama” — and there are enough other small problems that it looks like we’ll see a beta 10 before Firefox 4 is official.

So far Mozilla is sticking to its “when it’s ready” slogan and has not set a final release date for Firefox 4. With the latest nightly builds already renamed to beta 10, you can expect one more beta. After that there will be at least one release candidate, which pushes the final release of Firefox 4 well into February.

See Also:

• Firefox 4 Beta 8 Arrives With Faster Graphics, Better Sync
• Try Firefox 4 with Tabs in the Title Bar
• Fourth Firefox 4 Beta Adds ‘Panorama,’ Hardware Acceleration

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