Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Augumented Reality? What's That?

Augumented reality can be a hard idea to get across with words. Ah, but a video of it in use is pretty self explanatory.



I don't know about you, but I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for geo location services. Remember, every cell just about now has GPS on board. This is a great example of mashups with online maps - like Google maps.

Along those lines have you tried to use Google Maps MyMaps feature? Take a look.

Going from ready now to the fringe, did you see this post on bionic contact lenses?

Here is the video on that - I want this right now for myself - the four eyes I have been oh these many years...

The Facebook Age

The folks over at Media Post have a very interesting post on current rates of use of the social web.

Here is a quick summary of their facts:

  • 4 in 5 U.S. online adults use social networks at least once a month
  • 1/4th of online U.S. adults are creators of content
  • 1/3rd of online Americans still take part in activities like posting reviews and commenting on blogs, fewer now contribute to online forums
  • Joiners swelled to one in two online adults. Half of online adults now belong to social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, a 46% growth rate year-over-year
  • 3 in 4 online Americans now consume social content
  • Inactives now represent less than one-fifth of online adults, as only 18% of U.S. online adults don't use social tools in 2009 -- down from 25% in 2008
  • Only 3% of 18- to-24-year-olds and 10% of 25- to-34-year-olds are socially inactive

And here is ther big finish...

"The message here: Social applications are necessary in every marketing plan that targets young adults."

Blatant self promotion warning...

This is exactly why we have built SehHey and are putting so much energy and resources in to enhancing it.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Uncle Guy

Yesterday my Uncle Guy passed away. He was 86 years old and had a very full life.

Guy was my ideal of the perfect Uncle. So for myself and others who may aspire to be a good Uncle, I thought I would say why Guy was a perfect Uncle.

Guy accepted me for what I was. He never imposed his desires or expectations. Parents can't do this, but Uncles can.

Guy was always there to take me on a little more of an adventure than would have been appropriate for a parent. I remember him giving me sips of his beer at my Grandmother's house when I was only 3 or 4 years old. The excitement of the forbidden fruit with the safety of trusted and loving family.

Guy never contradicted my parents, but sometimes this may have been because there were things my parents had not been asked clearly enough to create any possible contradiction.

When I became an adult and lived for two years with Guy's Mother and my beloved Grandmother Mimi, Guy would frequently spend several nights at a time with us at her house. This common bond and common experience allowed us to move beyond the relationship of my childhood to one of adult friends.

Guy had several difficult challenges with personal loss in his life. When I found myself facing this possibility, Guy was there to talk to in conversations I could not have with anyone else.

Guy gave me stories I will tell again and again for the rest of my life.

Guy also taught me that tickets to sporting events were most valuable and enjoyable when shared with or given to others. And that no matter what, these were never things to be sold. Their value went so far beyond any amount of money you could ever receive.

Guy was not my Father, my Brother or my Child.

He was my Uncle and I found him to be perfect in that.

I loved him and he will be forever Uncle Guy.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Social Media Revolution

OK, another video to the same music and a few of the same statistics, but enough new to be worth the time.




The text for these statistics is at Socialnomics .

Long Tail for Keywords in Search

I have been talking to a lot of groups about how to get found in free search results - actually how to get to the top of the free search first page.

I talk about the long tail of keywords that get traffic to a web site.

As a concrete example I am going to show you one of my sites July 2009 charts on keyword sources of visits. What amazes me about this is how much of my traffic comes from keywords that are not in the top 100.


The charts below show a graph for all keywords, for the top 100 and for the top 5. I had a total of 3053 different, unique keyword searches that led to a visit on my pages.

My top five keywords gave me 22% of my traffic.

My top 10 keywords gave me 29% of my traffic.

My top 100 keywords gave me 57% of my traffic.

After the top hundred, I got 43% of my total traffic.

In other words, the vast majority of my visits came from keyword searches that were only entered 18 or fewer times in July of 2009. Without all the long tail of infrequently used keywords I would never make enough money off this site.

Here are the charts.

All Keywords


Top 100 Keywords



Top 5 Keywords



Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Why the NFL Hates Twitter

I was listening to 850 the Buzz sports talk on my drive to lunch today. The topic was NFL fines for players using Twitter.

The host was wondering why the NFL hates Twitter so much. I thought I would venture my guesses.

With Twitter, anyone can follow any player. They don't have to be invited to be friends as they would in Facebook or MySpace.

This lets thousands - even hundreds of thousands - of fans have a direct connection with their favorite players. There is no one in between. Read this as no control by and no payment to the NFL.

If an NFL player said the exact same thing to a friend, a print reporter, or a TV reporter would the NFL fine them. I don't think so. But the NFL has no way to control personal conversations with friends - free country and all that sort of thing. ( Hey, that might make a good joke -"An NFL player, a newspaper sportswriter, a TV Sportscaster and Twitter go into a bar")

With reporters the NFL may at least feel there might exist some adult supervision from editors. And if the reporter gets out of line, the NFL can just ban them from the games and locker rooms.

Then there is that contract package with the TV networks that pays billions. You've got to let those guys talk to players. Of course here the NFL and TV have exactly the same interest in keeping the NFL popular. Money, money, money. We all like money.

I guess a good question would be if I can get all my news about a player from the player himself, why do I need to watch interviews, read newspapers or listen to sports radio? There is a good answer. Do you guys at 850 the Buzz know what it is? Here is a hint - its not just the Buzz Babes.

To be kind to the NFL I am willing to believe they are just trying to help Twitter figure out how to make money. Contract with the NFL so all player tweets have to go through an NFL subscription. Twitter makes money, the NFL makes money - can I get a residual for the idea? If so, I like it.


Monday, August 3, 2009

An Idea for Your YouTube Videos

Do you remember the Apple ads from 2002? I didn't - but I saw them when reading Fast Company.

I have embedded them below. Wouldn't this be a great appraoch to creating some YouTube ads for your business? Maybe a series with different customer types?


Ad #1




Add #2




Ad #3




Ad #4