10 Downing Tweet
10 Downing Tweets tracks the views and projected voting preferences of social media users for the 2010 UK Election.
From the lovely people that brought you Christmas Tweets.
Nice.
Site here.
Twitter here.
Gigya | Social Optimization
As the social web continues to grow it will begin to direct as much, if not more, online traffic than traditional search engines (Facebook is already the top source of traffic for major news and entertainment portals such as Yahoo and MSN). The search engines won’t go away, but realistically people only spend around 5 percent of their time searching and the rest of the time at the destination. Social media already accounts for a large percentage of that activity, so it makes sense to spend search money influencing those people. Web display ad’s and seeded content can reach audiences, but the influence of home-grown social activity and friend recommendation is way more effective than those more traditional methods.
Gigya is a company that offers social optimization services for companies wishing to leverage this activity.
Magazines – The New LP’s?
Does this demonstration of a digital Sports Illustrated magazine from Time Inc and The Wonderfactory show the future of magazine publishing? It incorporates video , branded content, games, sharing and rich (interactive) experiences – kinda like a website. Given that practically everyone is launching a reader/tablet how long will it be before the technology is ubiquitous and printed material is like vinyl?
Beware: The internet is eating everything.
Ning | Social Interest Networking
Ning has just announced that they’ve reached 37 million registered users and 1.6 million social networks. Wow. Incase you don’t know, Ning is a web service that enables anyone to create their own custom social network. As you’d expect these networks can house videos, photos, chat,events, forums, messaging, blogs, etc. They have their own profile pages, friending program, status, and third party apps (all the stuff you’d expect to find on Facebook style networks) but are mostly smaller and centered around interests over just socializing/mating. Ning (with ad’s) is free, but, of course, offers premium services that allow users to employ their own domain name, utilize more storage space, remove ads and remove promotional shit etc.
I think it (and services like it) are the future of ‘social networking’. I don’t think they’ll replace the current activity – just add to it. Services that only enable you to network with people whose commonality is friendship are kinda limiting. Centering the activity around a common interest adds another, more relevant, dimension to that interaction. I guess the proof is in the pudding – I’ve never seen an ad for Ning yet it has 37 million users.
So – you heard it here first. ‘Social Interest Networking’ is the new black.
Here.
Slidey/Followy Nav Hits The Big Time
If you’ve been surfing recently you’ll be aware that the pipe has gone slidey/followy nav crazy. I first encountered it on the Nike Skateboard site (above) , since then the idea has been adopted by a multitude of sites and has spread like wildfire across the world wide internet web.
Just yesterday I discovered that EasyJet are now employing the technique with a slidey/followy basket:
I like the slidey/followy nav on the Nike site and I actually quite like the one on EasyJet, but I’m not sure if I want all my sites to have a it.
Opinions aside, I guess we should prepare for the onslaught.
webtrendmap.com
The interactive version of the poster.
webtrendmap.com is a product of collaboration between iA Inc. (@iA) and Craig Mod (@craigmod) in Tokyo.
More info here.
iGoogle | Social Gadgets
Social Gadgets is basically a load of add-ons that are designed to offer the functionality of Facebook on your IGoogle – transforming the page into a social space for doing stuff with friends. Current Gadgets include what you’d expect; status updates, photo sharing, live multi-player games and shared to-do lists etc.
iGoogle already has 60,000 gadgets, of which only 19 are social, so there’s little doubt about the potential for both for propriety and third-party apps. If iGoogle is taken seriously as a possible social network, then it’s easy to imagine an iPhone app-based explosion of Social Gadgets. On top of that iGoogle social gadgets enable gadget-by-gadget sharing, unlike Facebook’s all-or-nothing approach. Social Gadgets also offer functionality that means you can hang-out with all your friends while connecting to some friends with gadgets that other can’t see.
Google obviously wants a Facebook, which it may well have with the incoming Wave. Meanwhile the integration of Social Gadgets into iGoogle might be a viable alternative to (the recently ‘young-person’ retardant) Facebook.
The American Time Use Survey Visualization
Nice interactive visualization from the NYTimes of the American Time Use Survey that asked thousands of American residents to recall every minute of a day. The graphic shows how different groups of people over the age 15 spent their time during 2008.
Track Your [un]Happiness?
Track Your Happiness is a cultural learning program created by Harvard University boffin Matt Killingsworth. It is designed to find tangible factors that influence happiness. Likely very beardy Mr Killingsworth decided not to conduct a ‘lab-conditions’ experiment, in a darkened sanitized room, and so started collecting data from the real world – throughout the whole day. His method: the iPhone (I’ll come back to that).
To get involved you basically sign up on the Track Your Happiness site, answer a couple of questions about yourself and tell Mr Killingsworth, and his gang, how often you’d like to participate in the survey during your day (which you can do up to 5 times apparently). Each survey (optimized, of course, for the iPhone’s screen) is sent via SMS and includes questions about how happy you are, where you are, whether you’re with others or alone, and whether you enjoy the task you’re currently engaged in.
The data you submit is used in Mr Killingsworth’s research – as well as being fed back to you in the form of personal “happiness reports”. Obviously the sum total of the information will hopefully be used to improve peoples overall happiness.
This is probably a good idea, but I’d argue that the iPhone element (while being a clever way to collect more relevant data) may well be its downfall. The iPhone owners that are most likely to involve themselves in this kind of activity are largely mardy* bastards who find it difficult to have fun because they would rather spend their day doing surveys on their iPhone over doing stuff that might actually make them happy.
But if that sounds like you, then go here.
*A word popularly used in the Nottingham/East midlands area of england. Words with a similar meaning include: stroppy, moody, sulky, grumpy, childish etc.
If Twitter Was 100 People
Seen this a few time on my rounds. Kinda puts it in perspective.
Apparently by the tremendous David Lovehandles. Which is nice.
Flickr version.
I Vs 100 | Endamol Vs Microsoft | Video Games Vs TV
Microsoft and Endemol have combined to create a massively multiplayer real-prize game-show initiative for the Xbox Live Primetime channel called, ‘1 vs 100‘ (based on the hit TV show). The idea being that a gaming experience can transform you from spectator to player on a socially interactive platform in which you can win real prizes. The whole thing is completely live – including the hosts, featured players, and constantly updated content – meaning it’s a new experience every time you participate. You can play with your friends and family, or compete with other Gold members via Xbox LIVE. What’s really interesting is that this is effectively a broadcast show, right down to the scheduled commercial breaks lasting some 20-30 seconds, running traditional telly style commercials.
The rules are similar to the various TV versions: One player is selected to play the game as ‘The One’ against 100 other people, collectively known as ‘The Mob’. To win the game outright, the One must eliminate all 100 members of the Mob by answering questions correctly. The player and The Mob are asked multiple-choice question. The Mob is given a short amount of time to lock in their answer before The One is given the opportunity to answer the question. If the One is correct, all Mob members that answered the question incorrectly are eliminated from further play, bringing the lone contestant closer to winning the game. If the contestant eliminates all 100 mob members, he or she claims top prize. However, if the One is incorrect, the game ends and he or she leaves with nothing – the remaining members of the Mob split the losing contestant’s winnings.
In this case the ‘One’ and ‘The Mob’ compete for a share of 10,000 Microsoft points (£100ish) per episode, plus everyone in said Mob is competing for a free copy of that week’s selected XBLA game. It’s awarded to the top three point scorers each round and anyone who makes it into the last 10 Mob members standing. Microsoft will also be holding a once-per-season giveaway of products like electronics, which players can enter by taking part in the nightly Extended Play sessions.
1 vs. 100 may represent a little revolution in games. We know the whole world is playing them, but so far they are mostly doing that at their own times. 1 vs 100 is not only (according to those that have played) incredibly engaging, due to the live presentation and chance to win real prizes, but it represents a sort of ‘appointment-to-view’ type mentality. Games that offer this occasionally appear but, to date, have not yet been adopted by the masses. Perhaps this is the turning point, this essentially ‘live’ broadcast interactive game-show has a potentially enormous global audience.
And it sure as hell beats the price is right.
Craig David’s 4th Screen
You know all those UKG divvies that sit upstairs on the bus playing Two step as loud as they can through their crappy phone’s speakers? Well look out, because now they might have something else to do.
There’s a new trend emerging where ‘dem-kids’ are using mini-projectors to display video on the sides of buildings (most likely from atop a bus):
Alien controlled* companies like Microvision are working with these technologies to ‘enable better viewing experiences for users of mobile devices,’ claiming that current screen hardware limits our ability to imagine, entertain, and share, which makes some degree of sense.
It has been apparent for some time that when it comes to the portability vs functionality of a device, the only major remaining limitation is the screen. People still (and always will) want or need to experience some stuff big. Until now that has been difficult for purely mobile technologies without, of course, a physical screen to plug into.
So, the irony (aside from the fact that I’ll probably have Craig David videos projected into my eyeballs) is that the old 4th screen gubbins that people (still) keep rabbiting on about isn’t on a device.
It’s on a wall; not unlike the 1st.
*not strictly true.
Umbrella Today
It’s like totally the simplest weather report ever.
Oh, you’ll need a zip code.
100,000,000
Avril Lavigne’s video for Girlfriend has knocked The Evolution of Dance from it’s YouTube toppermost (3 year) No 1 spot. It’s a monumental occasion for both Lavigne and YouTube.
There is, of course, a certain amount of controversy surrounding the figures. A ‘cheating’ (or clever, depending on how you look at it) AvrilBandAids.com have created a way to hoodwink the YouTube system. When fans open a browser on the YouTube page, the video is auto refreshed every 15 seconds, thus helping promote the video by being able to ‘view’ it some 5,000+ times per day. I guess whichever way you do look at it, it doesn’t really matter – Lavigne made it to 100,000,000 before anyone else and that will never be up for debate.
Not only has Girlfriend beaten Judson Laipply to the No 1 spot, but it has become the first video to top 100,000,000 views which demonstrates ‘brand Lavigne’ has a reasonable understanding of it’s mostly female (supposedly) teenyish market. And for little old YouTube, well, it has clearly demonstrated what many have known for a while now: it has become a (if not the) major force as a tool for online music consumption and marketing.
Crime Finder
This Crime Stats Heatmap indicates the level of crime detection in relation to specific areas of London. Which is brilliant if you want to score or burglarize someone in a relatively burglar freindly neighbourhood.