The e-commerce battle between Amazon and Google continues to escalate. As more people are using the Amazon store to discover products, Google has begun to charge retailers for spots within its Google Shopping service, making each product listing an ad.
Charging is a way for Google to ensure that retailers keep their ads relevant and accurate, also ensuring a way to compete with the Amazon store.
According to Michael Griffin, founder and chief technology officer of online retail marketer Adlucent, Google needs to be making such moves: “Google and Amazon both have the same end goal, to be the destination that people go to do their product searches, and Amazon’s winning that battle.”
On Amazon’s side, the company has removed all of its listings from Google Shopping.
According to a Forrester Research study, about one-third of consumers start their shopping research on Amazon, while 13 percent start on a search engine. That’s a dramatic change from 2009, when nearly 25 percent began a search on a site like Google and just 18 percent started on Amazon.
According to eMarketer, mobile advertising will only make up one percent of the total U.S. ad spending in 2012. Even so, mobile advertising still stands to have a significant impact on companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook.
Currently, Facebook only accounts for 2.8 percent of the mobile advertising market, eMarketer reports. The company has struggled to gain revenue from its mobile ads, which make up less than two percent of Facebook’s overall ad revenue.
“Next year, however, Facebook’s U.S. mobile-ad revenue is expected to jump to $387 million, according to eMarketer, or about 8.8 percent of the projected total U.S. mobile-ad sales for 2013,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The company’s market share, which eMarketer expects to reach 9.5 percent by 2014, would transform Facebook from a newcomer into a distant No. 2 in a market dominated by Google.”
“The experimentation phase will come to an end, and Facebook will figure out what works in mobile, both for the advertiser and the user,” said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson.
“Even with the expected boom in Facebook’s mobile-ad revenue, eMarketer expects mobile advertising to account for roughly 20 percent of Facebook’s total U.S. advertising sales by 2014, lagging behind the proportion of mobile users who visit the site,” the article states.
Copyright “bots” are becoming more prevalent, leading some to worry about the effects they could have on freedom of speech.
Wired reports that the bots (or systems) “can block streaming video in real time, while it is still being broadcast,” when they detect possible copyrighted material.
The problem here is that the machines cannot take into account instances of fair use or otherwise legitimate use of material.
In a recent example, “a livestream of the Hugo Awards — the sci-fi and fantasy version of the Oscars — was blocked on Ustream, moments before Neil Gaiman’s highly anticipated acceptance speech. Apparently, Ustream’s service detected that the awards were showing copyrighted film clips, and had no way to know that the awards ceremony had gotten permission to use them,” explains the article.
While a “notice-and-takedown” system is in place within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it doesn’t work well for live streaming. The notice would be too late and the opportunity for takedown would be over by the time the paperwork went through.
“It’s likely that this collision between algorithmic defense of copyright versus spontaneous speech isn’t going to be resolved soon,” writes Wired.
David Kelley, founder and chairman of design and innovation firm IDEO, launched “d.school” at Stanford in 2005 as a place to build creative confidence… and geniuses like Steve Jobs. Kelley recently joined Stanford professor Bob Sutton onstage at a MIX Mashup to discuss their philosophy.
Officially named the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, d.school is “a multi-disciplinary mashup of design thinking principles, real-world projects, and collaboration,” Fortune explains. The 17 courses offered each semester cover a variety of themes, but are all aimed at breaking down the walls inhibiting innovation.
The first step in the program is “desensitize yourself to failure,” the article reports. In order to try out ground-breaking ideas, people have to be willing to fail, step outside their area of expertise and celebrate the small successes along the way.
Sutton describes the next big cornerstone in d.school philosophy as “do to think.” Instead of starting off planning or figuring how to make an idea profitable, jump into it and make a prototype. Next, play up your inner five-year-old and ask: Why? How? What if?
“Genuine questions demonstrate a sense of humility, curiosity, even vulnerability,” explains the article. “And they offer up a powerful advantage in a world of expanding complexity and change — a world in which no single individual can possibly have all of the answers, but an open, curious one can attract more perspectives, surface more possibilities, and enlist more help than if they’re closed off by certainty.”
Teaching these three elements at d.school, Kelley hopes to not only build creative confidence but also “self-efficacy,” or as psychologist Albert Bandura explains, “the sense that you can change the world and that you can do what you set out to do.”
A new concept called Government 2.0 leverages the power of online tech stars to solve offline problems. Want to keep city fire hydrants clear of hazardous snow build-up? There’s an app for that.
One notable Gov 2.0 non-profit called Code for America (CfA) has already made substantial improvements in the public sphere. Including the Web app for fire hydrants, CfA has created 35 apps, “for everything from urban blight to school buses,” notes the Wall Street Journal.
The apps work by inviting locals to take up small tasks that benefit the whole community. You can adopt a hydrant to keep clear for firefighters, take on the routine of clearing a storm drain or monitor batteries for local tsunami warning sirens.
“It’s irritatingly obvious, really: Shared technology saves time, money, even lives,” comments WSJ. “Government spending on information technology in 2012 is set at $79.5 billion federally and $55.4 billion for state and local. Meanwhile, to complete one government project — estimated at two years and $2 million — it took a couple of CfA fellows just [2.5] months.”
Besides bringing “online efficiency to offline civics,” the Gov 2.0 movement advocates transparency, calling openness the “next generation’s default setting when they’re up against big problems,” the article states.
It is with tremendous sorrow that ETCentric reports the passing of our good friend, colleague and adviser Bob Lambert.
Bob was a gentle guiding hand in a wide range of industry initiatives and a personal friend to the ETC where he served as chairman emeritus. He was instrumental in getting ETCentric off the ground.
“Bob was one of the most respected technology executives in the media and entertainment business,” comments Ken Williams, executive director and CEO of the ETC.
“Always generous with his time, Bob took a special interest in the Entertainment Technology Center @ USC, serving in numerous capacities, including most recently chief strategic and technology officer,” Ken explains. “Bob’s long service to the ETC was recognized by his being named chairman emeritus in 2010. His friendship and tremendous insight will be greatly missed.”
Bob was a thought leader whose work spanned all platforms, from cinema and television to online and mobile. He played a central role in the development of computer animated feature films and in the transition from film to digital cinema exhibition.
As a senior technology strategist at Disney for 25 years, Bob led the charge in strategic planning, intellectual property, patent strategy, standards and regulatory issues, and talent recruitment.
“I feel blessed to have called Bob a close friend and colleague,” says David Wertheimer, president of digital at Fox and former CEO of the ETC. “He was not only the ‘Father of Digital Cinema’ as we know it today, but he was the ‘Godfather of the Entertainment Technology Center,’ and was one of the most widely respected and genuinely liked people I have ever known.”
Bob was a SMPTE fellow and active member of the AMPAS Science & Technology Council. He served on the board of directors for numerous universities, start-up ventures and non-profits in addition to serving as a judge for the Collegiate Inventors Awards and the ATAS Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards.
“Bob always cared more about people than himself, and he had a rare talent for helping people see through the challenges of the present and focus on the horizon,” David adds. “I know that the world of tomorrow will be a better place for having had Bob with us.”
The team at ETCentric will miss his generous spirit, insight, guidance and good humor. When thinking of Bob’s passion regarding innovation, we’ll remember his line from a letter he wrote about Steve Jobs last year: “When you see something inventive this week, celebrate it. There’s a little of that Jobs spirit in all of us, insisting there’s always a better way to do things. Tip your hat to the folks in your world who help make that happen.”
The Hollywood Post Alliance has announced the 2012 winners of its HPA Engineering Excellence Award.
“The coveted honor is an integral part of the HPA Awards, which have become the standard by which creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of post production is measured,” reports TV Technology.
This year’s winners include: Cinnafilm’s standards transcoder Tachyon; Crossroads Systems’ file-based, portable storage solution StrongBox; the Dolby Atmos sound system from Dolby Laboratories; and Sony’s F65 CineAlta digital motion picture camera system.
“The Engineering Award not only represents the creativity of technology and technical innovation, but also helps to enable the creative power of our artistic community,” notes Leon Silverman, president of the Hollywood Post Alliance. “The products and processes that we honor with this award continue to demonstrate the important engineering work that is done behind our industry’s scenes and screens.”
The 2012 HPA Engineering Excellence Awards event is slated for November 1 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
The NPD Group has released a new report showing that 2012 has seen a loss of 12 million gamers in the U.S., a five percent decline from 2011. Even so, mobile gamers increased from nine to 22 percentage points and now make up the largest gamer segment.
The study divided gamers into six categories: mobile, digital, core, family+kid, light PC, and avid PC. The family+kid gamers saw the largest decline at 17.4 million gamers.
Last year, core gamers made up the largest segment but they still spend the most of any segment.
“Given the long lifecycles of the current consoles and the increasing installed base of smartphones and tablets, it’s not surprising to see a slight decline in the core gamer segment,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “It’s the revenue contribution of the core gamer segment that continues to outpace all other segments, and remains vital to the future of the industry.”
In the past three months, core gamers spent an average of $65 on physical games — notably higher than the overall average of $48.
In the same time period, game purchasers spent an average of $16 on digital games-PC/console/portable and almost 14 percent reported buying microtransactions/additional game content, up from 11 percent in 2011.
As mobile continues to expand, game publishers are putting more focus on social, free-to-play, the cloud, and of course, mobile gaming. And EA is no exception.
“Going forward, every EA game will have some multi-player or social component,” Forbes reports. “This doesn’t mean single-player games will cease to be a part of the EA catalog, it just means that even single-player games will have tie-ins across multiple devices.”
The article notes that this transition to the cloud is very beneficial for certain games, enabling users to to pick up where they left off on any of their devices.
“The problem is, an immersive single-player game that tries to force people to play minigames on separate platforms is probably going to lose whatever immersion factor it ought to have had,” the article suggests. Additionally, requiring social integration, like a mandatory Facebook login, could deter gamers from playing at all.
“That’s not evolving with consumers, it’s adapting to what many in the industry see as the wave of the future: mobile, free-to-play, and social gaming displacing more traditional games,” Forbes writes. “It’s also a bit of sleight of hand. For all the talk of fan service, many of these mobile and social tie-ins are little more than the gamification of viral marketing.”
Mobile gaming is not necessarily growing at the expense of traditional gaming. “The two experiences are fundamentally different, especially since mobile touch-screens are essentially the most limited and limiting type of game controller on the market,” explains the article.
In the world of competitive search engines, Google continues to reign supreme. However, Microsoft’s Bing search engine continues to make progress. Bing’s market share has nearly doubled to reach 15.4 percent, according to comScore.
Mike Nichols, corporate vice president and chief marketing officer for Bing, spoke with Fortune about what Bing is doing to continue its steady rise and hopefully compete with Google in the future.
Nichols claims that Bing’s searches are now preferable to Google’s by a 2-to-1 margin, according to independent research.
To prove these numbers, Bing is hosting the nationwide “Bing It On” challenge, an ad campaign which asks users to search for something on both Bing and Google and rate which answer is better.
“What we’re trying to do here is [encourage] people to compare Bing and Google head-to-head, and we believe that as people do that increasingly they will see that Bing is worth breaking… that Google habit,” says Nichols, “because of the quality of the search results, because it’s the only search service that includes useful information from your friends and experts from Facebook, Twitter, etc.”
Apple users can now edit Google Docs on the go, following an update to the Google Drive iOS app. The new features finally put the iOS app on par with the Android version.
“Google says that any edits on collaborative docs will appear in ‘seconds,’ and full rich text formatting is included as well,” reports The Verge.
“Even the basic function of creating a new document is no longer out of reach. Presentations have been enhanced, with new animation support as well as speaker notes — two crucial items for those living in the slide deck world.”
“Docs support isn’t the only big change, though — users can now upload photos and videos directly from a device to Drive, and it’s now possible to add folders and move (or delete) files directly from the app,” notes the post.
The Android app also received an update that offers the ability to add comments, reply to comments and view tables within the app.
Engadget reports from IBC in Amsterdam on NHK’s Super Hi-Vision camera that “doubles the capture rate from the standard 60Hz to a much speedier 120Hz, yielding sharper motion.”
“While the difference isn’t noticeable with static or slow-moving scenes, it certainly comes into play when filming rapid-motion sporting events or panning the camera,” notes the post.
“Filming a rotating image that paired ordinary objects and cityscapes with letters and numbers, you could see the difference instantly, with the 120Hz image on the right side yielding far shaper details, while the left side was often a blurry mess,” describes Engadget.
Since the higher frequency comes directly from the source, there is no software smoothing involved and “it appears perfectly natural, and much more pleasant.”
The post includes a series of stills and a video report from the IBC show floor.
Spotify is getting ready to launch a newly redesigned browser-based version of its popular streaming music service, according to multiple sources.
The overhaul is expected to focus on music discovery and will reportedly allow users to follow habits and playlists of influencers and friends.
“One source even said a lower subscription price for its mobile app could be in the works,” reports TechCrunch. “With a healthy user base and the record labels’ support, the browser version could help Spotify continue dominating the streaming music spotlight.”
Spotify launched one year ago and already touts 7.7 million daily users and 22.2 million monthlies, according to AppData.
TechCrunch notes that “4 million of them pay $5 a month for ad-free service or $10 for zero ads and mobile access.”
Magazine-style reader Flipboard has announced its partnership with Levi’s in a move that could be the next step in launching a new mobile shopping platform.
“For years now, reader apps have slugged along with an advertising business model that hasn’t exactly been lucrative,” notes Digital Trends. “With the debut of Flipboard’s new social shopping catalog, however, its e-commerce strategy could break ground for the experimentation of new business models among reader apps.”
The mobile-only app’s new Style category (located in the Content Guide) will include images uploaded from Instagram, articles by Levi’s staffers and a behind-the-scenes feature.
Flipboard is not the first to tackle m-commerce. Marie Claire and ELLE magazines are two examples of magazine apps in the iTunes App Store that integrate shopping within the magazine reading experience.
“This strategy could get the folks at Zite, Pulse, News.me, and other mobile readers thinking about supplementing their revenue with an m-commerce business model, and we couldn’t blame them,” concludes Digital Trends. “M-commerce is one of the fastest growing subsets within e-commerce.”
Online privacy company Abine offers a free service called DNT+ (Do Not Track Plus) that “claims to give control back to the user by providing insight into which social networks, advertising networks, and companies are tracking you,” Business Insider reports.
Unlike Microsoft’s “do not track” feature on Internet Explorer 10, Abine actually allows consumers to stop advertisers from tracking.
“Abine not only allows you to notify advertisers that you do not want to be tracked, but it also lets you both see who is tracking you and then block that advertiser from tracking you,” the article explains.
BI tested out DNT+ on various sites, finding social networks had the most trackers. The New York Times had 11 trackers: one for social networks, three for ad networks and seven for other companies.
By contrast, Facebook reported 154 trackers, all monitoring activity on other sites.
“For most of the networks and companies Abine identifies, the tool recommends that you block them,” the article states. “However, there are a few trackers that they suggest you allow. The reason, according to the company’s website, is that some trackers are identified as core technologies that are critical to how a site runs, such as playing videos or login functionality.”
