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Facebook Could Jumpstart HTML5 Platform With App Bookmarks On News Feed

admin2 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:22:52 +0000

Facebook’s late-comer HTML5 mobile app platform lags way behind the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace. Yesterday I spotted Facebook’s latest effort to catch up — a test showing bookmarks for third-party applications at the top of the mobile news feed. Currently, Facebook buries HTML5 app bookmarks at the bottom of its mobile site’s pull-out navigation menu, and only shows them in the iOS or Android Facebook app’s search bar. Placing them much more prominently atop the mobile home page could increase engagement — the first step in attracting developers to the platform and earning money on in-app purchases. The Facebook mobile app platform launched in October to help the social network start monetizing mobile through in-app payments on which it collects a 30% tax. Apps run through an internal web browser within its iOS and Android apps, allowing it to circumvent Apple and Google’s tax. However, the platform hasn’t gained serious traction with developers or users, and that’s a serious risk the company noted in its S-1 filing to go pulbic. Some developers don’t want to re-fork production to support HTML5 in addition to iOS and the various Android versions, at least not until Facebook’s platform is a proven money maker. HTML5 also needs time to mature before it can handle the most advanced native apps. With limited choice, and no ads to promote third-party apps within Facebook’s own mobile apps and HTML5 site, users aren’t installing them in the first place. Since bookmarks for the HTML5 apps are only found at the bottom of the Facebook mobile site’s nav menu, and have to be located through the search bar in the Facebook iOS and and Android apps, users aren’t reengaging with HTML5 apps either. But Facebook has been pulling its punches. It has hundreds of millions of daily active mobile users who first see the news feed where these bookmarks are being tested. Facebook says similarly styled bookmarks on the web interface’s games canvas page have been proven to drive traffic. The small percentage of m.facebook.com and Facebook for iPhone users in the test could click bookmark and after some confusing lag an internal browser would launch Words With Friends, The Washington Post Social Reader, CityVille Express, Warimals, or another game or app. The test may have run on the Facebook for Android app as well. Facebook is likely testing to see if users click these bookmarks, and if their presence decreases news feed engagement or session length. If Facebook can get more eyeballs on third-party app bookmarks without degrading the user experience, it may have found a way to leverage its natural assets to begin the steep uphill battle against Apple and Google’s mobile platforms.

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Facebook Could Jumpstart HTML5 Platform With App Bookmarks On News Feed

IPO Be Damned, Facebook Will Still Prioritize User Experience

blogger — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:49:51 +0000

For those not from Silicon Valley or Wall Street, there’s only 1 thing you really need know about Facebook’s plan to become a publicly traded company : Your Facebook won’t be suddenly overrun with ads. Facebook bluntly warns greedy investors “Our culture emphasizes rapid innovation and prioritizes user engagement over short-term financial results”, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg proclaims, “Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.” This is a huge win for the user base, which depends on Facebook as a communication utility. Facebook even put its conservative stance on monetization in its assessment of Risk Factors for investors: “we frequently make product decisions that may reduce our short-term revenue or profitability if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our mission and benefit the aggregate user experience and will thereby improve our financial performance over the long term.” When rumors first emerged that Facebook was planning to IPO, I shuddered at the thought of enlarged ad sidebars, banner ads on mobile, and timid product development. I’m not worried anymore. Facebook seems determined not to let outside investors narrow its long-term vision. Just look at this photo Mark Zuckerberg posted of his desk yesterday. Check out our full coverage of Facebook’s filing to IPO , including its $1 billion in profit, 845 million monthly active users, and Mark Zuckerberg’s explanation of “The Hacker Way”.

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IPO Be Damned, Facebook Will Still Prioritize User Experience

Facebook’s S-1 Reveals: 845 Million Users Every Month, More Than Half Daily, Half Mobile

kram412 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:58:16 +0000

As part of its initial filing to go public, Facebook has just revealed some new user numbers that illustrate just how big it is. It had 845 million monthly active users and 483 million daily active users as of December, for year over year growth of 39% and 48% respectively. Mobile is also now half the user base, with 425 million monthly actives. Some other stats, which are a bit more vague: 100 billion friend connections as of the end of last year, and 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day during the last three months of the year. All in all, this basically stacks up with what the company has previously shared. It said in September that it had some 800 million MAUs. One other point on the numbers is that Facebook is providing a fairly extensive caveat around what it’s counting: The numbers of monthly active users (MAUs) and daily active users (DAUs) presented in this prospectus are based on internal company data and we use these numbers in managing our business. We believe that our MAU and DAU numbers are reasonable estimates, and we take measures to improve their accuracy, such as eliminating known fictitious or duplicate accounts. There are inherent challenges in measuring usage across large online and mobile populations around the world. For example, there may be individuals who have multiple Facebook accounts in violation of our terms of service, despite our efforts to detect and suppress such behavior. As another example, applications on certain mobile devices may automatically contact our servers for regular updates with no user action involved, and this activity may cause our system to count the user associated with such a device as an active user of Facebook. We estimate that less than 5% of our estimate of worldwide DAUs as of December 31, 2011 could have resulted from this type of automatic mobile activity and that this type of activity had an even smaller effect on our estimate of worldwide MAUs. The impact of this automatic activity on our metrics may vary by geography, as mobile usage varies in different regions of the world. In addition, our data regarding the geographic location of our users is based on a number of factors, such as IP address, which may not always accurately reflect user location. We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating these metrics to improve their accuracy. In addition, our MAU and DAU estimates will differ from estimates published by third parties due to differences in methodology. For example, some third parties do not count mobile users.

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Facebook’s S-1 Reveals: 845 Million Users Every Month, More Than Half Daily, Half Mobile

Pearson-Incubated Startup Alleyoop Launches To Gamify Adaptive Learning

Administrator — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:52:35 +0000

According to the National Center on Education and the Economy, only 1 in 6 high school freshmen will go on to graduate from college on time, and about 25 percent of Americans drop out before they finish high school. A Pearson -backed startup launching today, called Alleyoop is betting that by combining adaptive learning with some elements of gamification, it can help prepare high schoolers and young people for college — and increase college graduation rates. Simply put, Alleyoop has created an adaptive learning platform for middle school and high schoolers, the goal being to prepare teens for what lies ahead of them in college. For many kids, their problems center around math, so that was the first subject Alleyoop set out to tackle. Because math’s sequential structure means that if students miss a core concept in Algebra I, then they tend to struggle in Algebra II, as the building blocks continue to add up. Thus, the Alleyoop system quickly “learns” and diagnoses where students need help and serves up relevant content in realtime. As users progress through the system, all of this data is saved within their profile, what Alleyoop is calling the user’s “DNA.” The startup’s eventual goal is to create a network of content for teens in a variety of subjects, so that its users can select the type of content that helps them the most. For example, some students are visual learners, some learn by doing, and some learn through games, so Alleyoop wants to assist kids in discovering how they learn best and get them up to speed quickly. To keep students engaged, there are games along the way, called “missions,” that allow them to earn virtual currency, called “Yoops,” which they can spend on academic lessons, videos, virtual tutoring, and more. As such, Alleyoop is designed to be reminiscent of a Facebook game, as students can sign on through Facebook Connect, then search for homework help and can find guidance and practice problems on the site. The platform pulls in a bunch of third-party content, activities, and lessons, from Pearson and other non-profit organizations like PBS, some being paid services that use Alleyoop as a distribution platform, with the startup then serving up content that it thinks will be most relevant to the individual student. As students progress, they earn Yoops, a virtual currency they can spend on activities like one-on-one tutoring and video content. The sites that provide the paid services used by students share in the revenue created along with Alleyoop; in a way that is not dissimilar from Zynga and its social gaming platform. Alleyoop was incubated by Pearson, and operates as an independent company within the education company, allowing them to forge content partnerships with companies even if they are Pearson competitors. The platform has been in beta for the last year, and has been tested by about 20,000 teens. Today, it’s opening up more broadly. For more, check out the video below:

Microsoft Updates Kinect Hardware For Official Windows Release

blogger — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:10:12 +0000

We’ve known for some time that Microsoft would be bringing official Kinect support to Windows this week, but one thing they kept quiet was the fact that they’d be debuting a new version of the hardware as well. It’s not tiny, as some hoped, or built into the bezel of a laptop, as we know it will be eventually , but it does improve on the original in a few ways. The most visible improvement for most people will be a slight improvement of the minimum distance required for the device to operate. The Xbox 360 Kinect required you to be around 50cm away at least, and the Kinect for Windows will go down to 40cm — about 16 inches. That means it can sit on a monitor on a user’s desk and capture movements without the user having to scoot back at all. Other improvements are of the softer variety. Microsoft has improved the tracking software, providing an improved raw sensor stream, better color/depth synchronization, and more accurate skeletal tracking. On the downside, the new version costs quite a bit more: the new Kinect for Windows is going for $250 , while the 360 version is selling for just $100 at the Microsoft Store right now. The justification for the price seems to be that the new version has been updated to support multiple systems and situations, rather than the standard 360 hardware it’s been running on for the last year. And I’m guessing they’re not subsidizing this price quite as heavily. The official SDK won’t work with the 360 version, it seems, though you can still download the beta SDK, which works fine but officially can’t be used for commercial applications. Microsoft says they’ve been working with hundreds of companies and seeing lots of unique applications and ideas, so hopefully we’ll see some of those hit soon. In the mean time our Kinect tag has lots of projects that demonstrate the versatility of the device.

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Microsoft Updates Kinect Hardware For Official Windows Release

Pro Tip: Don’t Pivot Your Way Into Irrelevancy

A D M I N — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:25:18 +0000

They say news is what happens to the editor on his way to work, so here’s some news: podcast distributor Mevio has apparently pivoted right out of the game. The company hosted a number of well-known webcasts including, for a long time, the late GeekBrief.tv. I used the service for about two years to host my own podcast and was quite happy with the service, as were a number of other users I spoke to. This weekend the Mevio suspended a large number of their “customers” (the service was free but there was no visible way to pay for service), asking them to request producer access in order to gain access to their show pages. This move locks down the podcast completely and there is no way to change the XML to move the podcast and set iTunes to point to a new server. Mevio wouldn’t answer requests for comment. Clearly Mevio is pivoting to become more of a media source than a podcast distributor. Founded by MTV’s own Adam Curry, the company recently announced a move to “unify” channels that could explain their lockdown : “By unifying our previously independent online channels, Mevio is now able to more accurately represent our significant growth, and underscore our increasing value to brand advertisers,” said Ron Bloom, Mevio’s CEO. “Our top 15 ranking on comScore reflects Mevio’s focus on building a true entertainment network that combines the reach and frequency of traditional television with the interaction and accountability of the Internet.” Mevio has been increasingly attracting large brand advertisers and management expects the company’s explosive growth will enable it to better serve brands that are interested in advertising on entertainment sites that deliver TV quality, original content. However, the company mentions nothing on their site nor did they inform any of the customers. A few Mevio users on Twitter complained and there are a number of requests on the iTunes Podcasting forum for a way to move iTunes feed pointers to other servers. However, if you’re not part of Mevio’s pivot, you’re SOL. The takeaway here is that when you pivot, either shut down entirely and reopen or explain every step of the way. Big ideas can fail, but when you take out a swathe of your user base used to your “old” system in order to clear space for a new mission, you do little but spread bad will. In the end, it’s important to pivot when you must, but don’t take out your customers while you do it.

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Pro Tip: Don’t Pivot Your Way Into Irrelevancy

Wunderkit Launches Beta For Its Wunderbar-designed Productivity Platform

admin2 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:01:58 +0000

Berlin-based startup 6Wunderkinder has just launched their private beta for their productivity suite Wunderkit . This is an extension to their simple, yet well designed task list manager Wunderlist, which was acclaimed both by early adopters and users. With Wunderkit the startup is now taking a next step. They’ve stuck to the user experience that, while beautifully crafted on the one hand is surely tricky to get used to, and have taken their core task manager several steps further by wrapping a fully fledged social network around it. Whereas RememberTheMilk had been their primary competitor until now, the company is now directly competing with full virtual workspace apps such as Podio or Asana , all of them trying to re-invent peoples’ work and organize their private and professional lives.

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Wunderkit Launches Beta For Its Wunderbar-designed Productivity Platform

Android Dominates Moolah Media’s Mobile Ads

kram412 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:03:00 +0000

It looks like publishers and advertisers are warming to mobile ad startup Moolah Media . The company says that in 2011, it generated 7 million leads for its advertisers — and 1.9 million of those leads (27 percent of the year’s total) came in December. Also in December, Moolah says its ads reached 45 million Americans. And interest in the company is growing — Moolah projects that traffic to its website will triple this month, as pictured in the chart above. The company first launched in November 2010 . At the time, CEO Shawn Scheuer said that no one had effectively brought the “performance-based” ad model into the mobile world. Even now, Scheuer says most ad companies are interested in paying publishers based on impressions or clicks, rather than the form submissions, inbound phone calls, and mobile app installs that Moolah tracks and pays for. So Moolah’s approach is bringing more direct-response marketers into the mobile world — 50 advertisers so far. Last fall, Moolah tried to improve its ads with the launch of SmartMoolah , which gathers more data about user behavior after the click. Since then, publishers have seen significantly higher payments, and are now willing to hand more of their inventory over to Moolah, Scheuer says. He also revealed that 65 percent of Moolah’s ads get served on Android devices, compared to 19 percent on feature phones and a lowly 14 percent for iOS devices. That’s because certain products or services do better on certain carriers or devices, and it’s possible to target ads at that level on Android by not iPhone. “We’re a small team, so we have to focus on where see the highest response rates, and right now that’s Android,” Scheuer says. “Apple has been clamping down on the user ID tracking, and they’re kind of spooking a lot of people about that. That’s really hurt advertising on the iPhone.”

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Android Dominates Moolah Media’s Mobile Ads

Motorola Mobility Closes Out Q4 2011 With An $80 Million Net Loss

user — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:48:40 +0000

Motorola Mobility released their fourth quarter and year-end financials today, and now we can see why they made it a point earlier this month to downplay analyst expectations. The company’s new figures reveal that while Motorola raked in $3.4 billion in Q4 2011, they also incurred a net loss of $80 million. Things don’t look much more promising when we shift our attention to their mobile offerings. Motorola’s myriad mobile devices accounted for the lion’s share of their revenue — $2.5 billion to be precise, a year-over-year increase of 5%. Still, despite pushing out devices like the Droid RAZR and their XYBOARD tablet in time for the holidays, Motorola didn’t see a notable jump over their performance last quarter when during which their mobile devices netted $2.4 billion in revenue. Also interesting to see is how Motorola stacks up to their mobile competitors when it comes to device shipments. Motorola announced earlier this month that they shipped 10.5 million mobile devices in Q4 2011, down from 11.3 million back in Q4 2010. Of those 10.5 million units shipped 5.3 million were smartphones, which doesn’t sound too shabby until you realize that Android-loving rival Samsung sold 35 million smartphones . Taiwan-based HTC would probably be the closest in terms of performance — while they didn’t release specific device numbers along with their unaudited quarterly results , Bloomberg’s estimates pegged them at roughly 10 million devices shipped. Coincidentally, both Motorola and HTC have made known their intentions to streamline their smartphone portfolios going forward, and I’m looking forward to seeing how their earnings change as a result. Stepping back to look at their yearly performance, we find that Motorola Mobility shipped a grand total of 42.4 million mobile devices, which includes 18.7 million smartphones and 1 million tablets. Those in tandem with their (less interesting) home segment offerings led Motorola to pick up net revenues of $13.1 billion, albeit with a net loss of $249 million. Of course, Motorola Mobility’s on the precipice of some drastic change, what with their pending acquisition by Google still churning along. With the transaction expected to finish early this year, we could be looking at a completely different Motorola before too long.

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Motorola Mobility Closes Out Q4 2011 With An $80 Million Net Loss

EU’s Proposed Data Laws Can Only Produce One Thing: Outsourcing User Data

vertical8 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:24:07 +0000

In 2011, Sony had several major security breaches: Sony Online Entertainment , Sony Pictures , and Playstation Network all were attacked and private data was successfully stolen. Their handling of the attacks, particularly the larger PSN one, was widely criticized . Many users are either unaware or acutely aware of how many sites and services have financially or personally sensitive information on record. Events like the Sony hacks do not reassure them, and actions like Google’s yesterday (though arguably innocuous ) may alarm them. Users want more control and more security. And the EU is looking to give it to them . But with the threat of enormous fines, many companies will find that the most logical thing to do is move away from the entire business of storing and serving user identities. It’s a simple fact that maintaining a database of a hundred thousand or a million (or far more) active users is a serious engineering problem in both software and hardware. Keeping things secure but still accessible, staying abreast of new regulations (like those proposed in the EU), providing localized support on billing and user data issues — it’s quite a task. Web enrollment in software and services is growing at a huge rate, and many products and “real” items such as cars and banks are increasingly reliant on online services as well. It’s been happening for a long time, sure. But the stresses are starting to get out of hand. If you’re a car company, or a movie distribution service, or a game publisher, the process of keeping and tracking your users securely is becoming too great of a portion of your business. And with increased regulation and requirements like the EU’s (which some are calling “onerous” and a “tax” on businesses that keep electronic records, but are probably nevertheless inevitable), it’s not something on which they can get by with minimal effort. So what will happen? The same thing that happens whenever a part of an industry begins to outgrow its role: new, dedicated companies sprout up and the world offloads the task onto them. This already happens to some extent, of course. It’s not like every company in the world maintains an independent and proprietary database of its users. There are services and software for this purpose, and the user-management business is plenty real already. But for the millions and millions of people and accounts still internally managed (numbers that are growing worldwide in any market you can think of as online services gain more traction), the situation no longer makes sense. Why should a company that runs a movie distribution service also be running a world-class user-management service? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s like a restaurant making its own forks. It was logical for a while that data related to Sony services should reside on Sony servers, administrated by Sony. But in a day where our logins transcend sites, and everything we do is personalized, that no longer really rings true — to Sony, that is. Regular humans want to go to a site, put in their user name and password, and have their data retrieved. They don’t really care if the data is served by Sony or a third-party site because it’s never said one way or the other. But for Sony and companies like it, the increasingly expensive and complicated user-management part of their business is starting to look like an attractive target for spinning off to third-party services. And third-party services are going to start revving their engines to attract these user-weary multinationals. This doesn’t apply to services like Instagram and Spotify, naturally; they’re account-focused to begin with. It will be much easier for a company built from the ground up for user databases to handle these requirements and adjust to local laws. They can do it faster, better, and cheaper than an internal team, and compete directly with each other. It’ll be good for the user data sector and good for the multinationals hoping to offload this burden. Not to mention good for the users: the EU regulations require fast turnaround on data, instant notification of security breaches, and impose heavy fines for abusive or neglectful companies. Sony wants to worry about the quality of its games and devices, not about whether each of its 20 internal user-tracking divisions is jumping through legal hoops. Secure account management isn’t the most exciting business, but you better believe it’s going to show some serious growth over the next few years, and everyone will gain by it.

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EU’s Proposed Data Laws Can Only Produce One Thing: Outsourcing User Data