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.

BREAKING NEWS

ONE BILLION DOWNLOADS FOR THE APPLE STORE

Apple’s numbers are worth noting, because the company reported 800 million downloads just a month ago, and hit half a billion back in January. iTunes, on the other hand, took two years to reach that number of songs downloaded. The all-time top 20 apps sees Facebook and Google Earth climbing past Pandora to become the top free apps, followed by Pandora, Tap Tap Range and Shazam. [VentureBeat]

TRENDS

SPOTIFY CEO INTERVIEWED BY THE GUARDIAN: MUSIC FANS WILL BUY MUSIC

“If you truly connect and empower your fan base, people will pay for music. Perhaps that revenue won’t come primarily from selling records, but ad-supported music services, subscription music, downloads, merchandise and live shows as well as CD sales are all going to make money for labels and artists,” the head of Spotify, Daniel Ek, told the Guardian. “I think the music industry as a whole can be in a better position than it has ever been,” said Ek. “There has been a massive shift from ownership to access but people will pay for music if packaged correctly and it offers them something special.”[The Guardian]

MONETIZING SOCIAL MEDIA – FORRESTER PREDICTION

Forrester research by Mark Mulligan (free summary; $750 for full PDF) predicts that even though social music may not generate much revenue now,  monetization’s effectiveness must — and will — improve. Social music destinations will continue to build highly engaged audiences and deepen the relationship between fans and their music. But the labels will have to come to a compromise and change the licensing structure for streaming music. [Epicenter]

GOING UP, DOWN AND UNDER

DRM IS DEAD!  ITUNES VARIABLE PRICING IS BORN

As announced in January, on Tuesday, Apple made good on its promise to remove DRM from every song in the iTunes store — a long-awaited move that the labels only allowed in return for Apple letting them price songs at three different points: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. [Hypebot]

Only two days after, and Billboard reports that there was evidence the increases have hurt the sales rankings of songs given the higher $1.29 price.[BillBoard]

SPOTIFY API

It’s a good week for Spotify. Commercial terms were found with PRS [MusicAlly]

And on Tuesday libspotify, the company’s API, was launched to the public, which means that any developer (for approved devices) can build apps that access Spotify’s massive music catalog and use its P2P architecture, which streams Ogg Vorbis files between users like a streaming version of BitTorrent. [Epicenter]

VEVO IS COMING SOON

It’s now official: before the end of the year the new music video hub Vevo will see the light. Google/YouTube and UMG are working together at the new Join Venture and trying to get other labels on board. The big hope is to be able to better monetize music (videos).  Will they be able to get to $25-40 CPM? [Billboard]

YAHOO MUSIC IS BACK

On Tuesday, Yahoo Music launches its redesigned artist pages incorporating music content from third parties:downloads from iTunes, albums from Amazon, streams from Pandora, music videos from YouTube, and tickets from Ticketmaster.  Yahoo hopes this strategy will cut costs, while still providing music and videos for its 20-million-plus monthly visitors. [Epicenter]

LEGAL P2P COMEBACK? QTRAX (RE)-LAUNCH

The ad supported p2p finally “officially” launched last week with all four major labels on board. The subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies originally unveiled their service at the international music tradeshow Midem last year, but it quickly closed down after it turned out the company hadn’t finalized the major label agreements it said it had. Since then, Qtrax has signed licensing deals with all four major labels, and a number of independents.[Billboard]

SONGZA ACQUIRED BY AMIE STREET …SIX MONTHS AGO

TechCrunch was the first to discover that popular music store Amie Street has kept a deal it forged with Songza, a media streaming service, under wraps. The acquisition happened in October 2008 [TechCrunch]

WE7 AD-FREE SUBSCRIPTION AND REWARD SCHEME

We7 is funded by short adverts played at the beginning of each track alongside a paid-for download store. With the new rewards scheme, regular users collect points by spending time on We7 that they can exchange for ad-free days of music. The reward scheme will be followed in the summer by the launch of a paid-for subscription service for ad-free streamed music. This is likely to cost £9.99 for a month or 99p for a day. [MusicWeek]

GUNS N’ROSES AND ROCKBAND

“Chinese Democracy” will be released in its entirety into the Rock Band Music Store on April 14 and gamers will be able to download and play all 13 songs from the record, Harmonix and MTV Games announced Friday [Billboard]

SOCIAL MEDIA

TWITTER MUSIC POTENTIAL

Hip-hopper K’naan is revising his song “People Like Me” using fans’ tweets and the San Francisco sessions vets in Moonalice are planning a repeat performance of their real-time Twitter concert [UnderWire]

TWITTER PARTNERS AND GORILLAZ

No, Twitter Partners isn’t backed by Twitter, but Universal Pictures, Virgin Media and Gorillaz will use its services to launch on Twitter, soon. Supposedly virtual band Gorillaz is the first client to launch activity, promoting the documentary film Bananaz ahead of its theatrical release.[NewMediaAge]

FACEBOOK & PIRATEBAY

The Share on Facebook Pirate Bay feature didn’t last long. The Pirate Bay had recently made torrents more social by adding “Share on Facebook” buttons across its site. The social network  asked TPB to remove the buttons. After being ignored, Facebook is now blocking all links to The Pirate Bay and its torrents—legal and otherwise. [Ars]

MUST READ

Trent Reznor Interview with Wired [TheUnderwire]

MUST WATCH: TRENT REZNOR INTERVIEWED BY KEVIN ROSE