Stained Glass

I just couldn’t let this one pass! Having read the Mashable post on Google not allowing their new launch Glasses to be resold/ loaned etc I just had to wonder why on earth not?

Surely if you launch an innovative new product like this you would want as much exposure as possible? Or am I being naive here, and what they are trying to do is control who gets access to this test run? Geek chic accessory or a cool new connectivity device? Either way if I had that sort of funding available….probably wouldn’t be queueing up for these, or at least not until the touch screen model becomes available  

GLASS

Quote from Mashable post:

“You may not resell, loan, transfer or give your Device to any other person. If you resell, loan, transfer or give your device to any other person without Google’s authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the Device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the Device will be entitled to any refund, product support or product warranty.”

 

Quote from Google TOS

Resale and Gifts

You may not commercially resell any Device, but you may give the Device as a gift, unless otherwise set forth in the Device Specific Addendum. Recipients of gifts may need to open and maintain a Google Wallet account in order to receive support from Google. These Terms will also apply to any gift recipient.

Privacy Piracy

Privacy? Well I would expect to get fleeced on Facebook – and obviously Instagrab know what they are doing in the market place – must have learned the Color way lol

The market is just not quite ready to wholeheartedly abandon all privacy rights – there may be no denying the inevitable but steps along the way please? With all the bluster surrounding image sharing privacy issues the one sign for me that data farming is the new pyramid scheme came with the realisation that sites that I totally sibscribed to and trusted have the same terms.

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And this from a site that I trusted and deemed relevant and informative. The price you pay I guess?
So where does this leave the future of data farming? Either you accept albeit sadly that data farming is the new monetization online or you resume life online under one of your alts. It’s relevant data just not connectable and arguably valueless.

 

Sonneratti

Color – is it really all washed up?

Have they folded or shut up shop? Or are they waiting for the privacy acceptance levels to settle?.

Did the product fail or was the launch badly managed or both?

Was Mr N naive to think that users would not mind the t and c’s on the mobile app? Or just a wistful assumption that no one really reads them anyway?

There is little doubt that the big money is still chasing this mobile data gold mine, think imgur and Apple’s recruitment for the ex execs of Color ( ref ATD )

If say you wanted to get around people’s natural scepticism of the invasive nature of the data draw down, you could always try a different launch tactic.

The advent of the disposable camera and it’s popularity at weddings gives rise to the potential for a practically disposable ( Economy model sounds better!! – an additional handheld device ) sim enabled device. Then say for an International Event ( dammit just missed the opening ceremony f the Olympics, Obama in Ireland but hey you get the pictures ) the company distributed free devices that auto uploaded to a website illustrating the enet from all angles. Now geo tag and date tag the images and what a valuable record in time. Layer over a mapping interface through chronological order and what a massive layer of images you would be curating.

And maybe over time folk would get used to sharing images more freely and who knows then what they may overlook?

Futures – One

Mobile – the attractions and the trends.

Why is mobile content consumption growing exponentially? There are many factors at play here – but lets start with the first premise of mobile. Yep, that is it – it’s mobile, portable, with you when you are out and about, commuting travelling, in waiting rooms, coffee bars, librarys – so whereas you once bought a paper at the station, boarded a plane with a chicklit that weighs more than your make up bag…now that super shiny Samsung Galaxy Note ( current aspirational device of choice ) slips into your clutch bag, or your briefcase, or even your pocket.

These handheld devices – neatly encapsulates tablets, pads and smartphones of all sizes – are able to provide literature, movies, photos, social sharing, reviews, price comparisons, maps, local search, shopping lists, mobile payments, updates, alarms, torches, spirit levels KK the list is a lot longer than this page and my attention span can stand.

So we have devices that deliver convenient content on demand. The rise in the popularity of e readers and the vast array of ebooks available grow the market in the same way that cheese and onion and salt and vinegar made the ready salted crisp market share evolve.

Video and streaming , film, video, television broadcasting – next

Random geo musings……

Another update

Edited to add

 

Current hot trends for development appear to be split between geo spatial / local and image sharing. Most focus is being spent on developing for mobile devices, but to step back to a fuller picture and encapsulate all devices together, tablets, mobile phones, net books etc then ignore the operating systems as just local dialects foreign languages.

(needs more explanation of why OS’s are just languages like French or Russian)

Google are amazing in what they enable, through their suite of apps through to the ultimate search engine. Not to mention uber databasing….

But……….why are all their products separate entities?

For image sharing we use Picassa, for geo location we use Latitude, there are Google Places oh and not to mention the ultimate sharing stream that is  G+

What if we revisited from a user perspective, mine that is. Oh the ego lol

Taken that geo is important, in that it is the basis for all local and geo stuff, so we start with the Google Universal Map, GUM….( ok ok so the Russian supermarket may spring to mind rather than a software platform).

The Universal Map could then be searched through the usual filters, images, history, tracks, places. Tagging would deepen and refine the filters. Scrolling in and out to enable a wider field.

From a user creating content perspective tracks could be uploaded directly onto the map encapsulating nodes and images, the user that uploaded could opt to own the track or make it public. Comments could be left if public and other users could contribute to the public track by uploading more images, comments. Hey we could even go social and search from this basis and find other similar tracks. Journey sharing, commute and want to share the diesel cost? Delivery vehicles looking to maximize loads?
Event planning? Still based around geo, the event has to have a venue after all?

Images could be uploaded to the GUM, imaging tracing the history and watching images from the past. An amazing archive over time.
[/randomramble]

Disgruntled ex-employee……….

The last few days has seen the rapid rise in “Disgruntled ex employee” posts on the ‘net, so much so that I have donned my cyniCallie persona to question the integrity of these posts.

Overkill?
A personal blog post arguing a genuine feeling of disgruntledom would pass the credulity bar but when it is replicated allover ( see links below for multiple posting disorders ) the web it starts to stink of spin.

Just Google (or Bing – note to MS Binging just doesn’t cut it the same as Google it )  James Whittaker and you will see a mass of links and discussions Google vs Microsoft. Bodes well for his future employment – can just see HR googling him for references…..

So, JW leaves Google stating that they no longer encourage experimental 20% projects, where providing that your core function ( the 80% ) is kept to standards, Google encourage other splinter projects.

“The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus.”

Link

Another link to same stuff

And…

Who IS this guys PR Agent???

Coverage worthy of Posh and Becks?

OK OK get the picture…

Yes, Google is a business. Google does have responsibilities to shareholders, investors, employees the works so yes it is a corporate body. I don’t think anyone could argue that point…money doesn’t just talk. Money dictates. Microsoft shareholders must be worrying about the new ethos.

So he decides to leave Google for Microsoft? To leave a company that is openly committed to the future of the web, be it social or corporate…..for a company that wants the future to be viewed through a slightly grainy old window, wooden framed even. Just my opinion but he is mad lol

Wild West Web

In fairness the game is open, no one can say for sure how the internet use will evolve, that is down to the users en masse. Can’t deny the figures at Facebook, but FB is just the evolved Friends Reunited ( social again ) Twitter is growing so fast, but is it intuitive to manage?

Back to the anti-social Google accusations…..on the day the news breaks that Kevin Rose is joining the team Google. Last laugh anyone…

Seriously though – when do alarm bells start to ring? Integrity and transparency are uber buzzy. Authenticity is pretty up there too.

Microsoft – recent issues with licencing, struggling with mobile ( Post about the Nokia lumia 800 coming soon )  - just sayin’

[/cyniCallie]

Data Mining vs Conversation

Data mining – such a cold hard feel to it. But in essence, all it really is, is information gathering, and just perhaps we ought to be grateful that the information is gathere/harvested without ever troubling us nor even flickering our consciousness.

And yet, as humans, is that sterile one way traffic a satisfactory transaction?

In the good old days, and here I am talking about the archetypal Arkwright’s corner store ( ok so only a few will know what I am referring to here…)

Once upon a time you entered a corner shop, the bell over the door alerting the shopkeeper of your arrival, you would approach the counter and …….start up a conversation. A conversation which is a two way dialogue, the purpose of which is two fold – information gathering on the shopkeepers part and information gaining on the potential purchasers part. “Two way” being the key point. You could add dynamic, human contact, local knowledge ( aka gossip?) – but the point is that the conversation is a fundamental human social interaction.

 

OK so not everyone wants to engage in a conversation when buying a bag of sugar, but on accasions the human touch of a dialogue can genuinely enhance the experience.

So data clusters around transactions? ( Transactional data ) Some data pre empts the transactional data – think geolocational triggering mobile events.

 

Who benefits from all this data aggregation?

Do we the punters get served more targetted spam adverts? Personally not convinced – just take a glance at my Groupon / Living Social offers – I won’t elaborate but needless to say not targetted to my needs in any aspect and as such extremely negative influence – if you can’t get that first step right how can I trust you in future?

ooops off track again….back to the who benefits question. The only winner in the data gathering game is the broker of said data.

The transaction in question being the one where data is sold for cold hard cash. Every marketer will acknowledge the value of data – just look at my semi rant above? Targeting is vital in any credible brand campaign.

Now I am off to have a look at how mobile phones relay data…..all the apps we so freely install and leave dormant on our handsets ad infinitum.