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What Are You Telling Me?

Posted on 16. Sep, 2009 by Antonella Stellacci in News

Sometimes companies are forthcoming about their plans and products.  Think of the new Ipod Nano and of Steve Jobs words. “We’ve seen video explode in the last few years,” he said, showing a picture of a Flip video camera. “Here’s one, a very popular one, four gigabytes of memory, $149, and this market has really exploded, and we want to get in on this.”  Plain and simple.

Other times, companies speak in riddles. So you know that, when you’re using their service, you’re contributing to the making of something different than what you’ve been told. And in the near future, you might find yourself in a totally different reality.

Photo by yhancik

1) Google FastFlip

What is it?  Think of FastFlip as a visual browser that offers viewers a quick snapshot from a few selected blogs and news sources. Clicking through the screenshot of an article, leads you to the full page, loaded inside the FastFlip interface.  Aggregation, search and personalization technologies are bundled into the reader to make the user experience personal and compelling, with a system that keeps learning from your preferences.

In Google’s words “One problem with reading news online today is that browsing can be really slow. A media-rich page loads dozens of files and can take as much as 10 seconds to load over broadband, which can be frustrating” .  Google FastFlip is also an Iphone and Android app.

All of this is surely very honest and very awesome.

But it is also true that, only a week ago, Google unveiled plans for a new micro-payment system, that would allow Google and third parties to charge for micro-transactions, in this specific case, pieces of content.  Not hard to see the “other” picture taking shape, one where we are not only offered access to a faster interface, but also pay for the “micro-content” that is relevant for us. This smart publishing platform will learn what each user is most likely to pay for and deliver it into the most appropriate format and to the chosen device. The transaction might happen inside a mobile store, a Google News Store or whatever modern and customizable “newsstand” will replace the current portals.

The atomization of infotainment is a fact that few can deny. Not yet convinced? Take a peak at Microsoft’s view of the next-generation newspaper. The paradigm shift has yet to happen, but we know that as we fast flip through today’s news, we’re tip-toeing into the water of a new world.

As with all radical innovations, some will pay for it. News corporations have failed to deliver any innovation and are looking at this experiment with a nervous mind. With so many players involved, Google had no choice but to downplay this as an experiment out of its Lab.

2) Facebook Lite and Tagging

What are they? In Facebook’s words, tagging will enable users “to talk about their real-world connections” and “interact with each other more.”  As far as Facebook Lite is concerned, Meredith Chin, a Facebook spokeswoman, says that it is meant for people with very slow Internet connections or new users who want an introduction to the core features of the site”.  For now, it’s been rolled out only for the US and India. The US is known for not shining in the top 10 broadband countries worldwide, but calling it a country with slow connections seems a little bit of a stretch as well pretending that any US person needs a 101 Facebook class…

Again the feeling is to be in front of a stepping stone to something bigger. Talking about Twitter envy seemed the most obvious and most common reaction.  The sequence of the changes that Facebook has undergone in 2009 seems to provide evidence that something else is cooking up and Twitter might be the framework:

-Public Data: in June, Facebook changed the privacy settings to allow users to make their profile and streams accessible to everyone, i.e. public.

-Searchable Data: in August, another major change was introduced, the public timeline search.

-Open-Source, Real-time Streams: in April, Facebook opened its streams via API. Later in August it acquired Friendfeed and used its web framework as an open-source for third parties. In other words, if you’re a developer, you can now pull Facebook data into your program, and use it in real-time. In a Twitter fashion. Think of apps like the Seesmic one.

Tagging and Lite are just the latest, but not the last, tweaks to the metamorphosis of Facebook. Is Twitter the vision? For sure Twitter deserves some credit, since it has unlocked new possible ways of monetizing public conversations by making the relationships among users and users and brands actionable in terms of engagement and context.  Yet to be proven, for sure. But the rush to the next age of advertising is open. CPM was a failed value proposition, search was the brainchild of web 1.0, web 2.0 is still waiting for its Messiah.

Still, Facebook is richer in nature than a Twitter and its Twitterification seems like one of the many possibilities. When you have 300million users, 65million of which already on mobile, a brand that is one of top 10 most trusted in the US, and cash in the house, there are a lot of possible and parrallel universes that you can build. But when your business model is still a work in progress, the communication can not be forthcoming. Jobs knows he is offering a product that can improve your experience with music and video consumption. And he can be bullish about wanting a piece of the video camera business.

Facebook wants to connect the world, but needs brands to pay for its mission. So he can only be half bullish. For now.

Tags: Apple, Facebook, News Industry