Exciting times.
We are about to enter a new www ‘dot’ world where business, brands and other organisations will be able to see their name on the right-hand side of the ‘dot’ in the domain-name URL: a brand name will soon be able to take the place of .com; .co.uk; .org etc, etc….
This represents a dramatic and historic development in the online world that will affect every user of the internet.
Predicting the future is usually the preserve of mad men (and, in our game, analysts and bloggers with no sense of self-deprecation)!
But as 2011 draws to a close, and January welcomes a New Year, I find myself sat at my ipad and wireless keyboard; midway through a 23-hour flight from Sydney to London, and therefore willing to enter the realm of the insane and the self-contratulatory by offering up six key predictions for 2012!
So here we go:
The Economist’s Schumpeter suggests this week there is ‘Too Much Buzz’ in the Social Media (Economist 31st December-6th January) and asserts that “social technologies” provide huge problems as well as huge opportunities.
This dissenting voice is a rarity indeed: most commentators point to the rise and rise of Twitter, Linkedin, FourSquare, Facebook and other social platforms which provide a greater deal of collaboration and empowerment; not just between social groups, but also between consumers and businesses. Continue reading
If your daily online browsing includes video – which it probably does – you may have noticed something new when you last clicked on YouTube; Google’s ubiquitous video sharing site.
On Thursday 1st December, they announced a radical re-design that not only changes the ‘look and feel’ of the site, but also marks a shift in focus:
Last month Google announced an intention to source more professional content, in a move that many suggest sees the platform gearing up to steal views from traditional media broadcasters.
The BBC aired a profile of Facebook tonight (if you are UK-based, you can watch it here): a well put together piece of journalism which benefitted from some decent access (there are advantages to being the BBC after all!).
Blogs, tweets and online commentators immediately jumped on the issue of privacy; especially with regards the placement of ads for products and pages that end-users have ‘liked.’
However, The Next Web (in Zee’s blog post) claimed that the ‘big(gest) question’ put to Facebook’s co-creator, Mark Zuckerberg, related to the ‘threat of Google+;’ a newly released social network from the Masters of Search.
Predictably, Zuckerberg’s answer revealed little – but what was more revealing were his numerous thoughts on the ‘open source nature’ of social media networks; both in respect of shared information provided by end-users and in relation to app add-ons (decribed in the film in the context of Facebook gaming apps). Open is best. Open and shared is better. Apparently.
One man seemed to disagree: Sir Martin Sorrell – and as CEO of the worlds largest adverting Group, his contrary view is worth considering.
More on this from us later – but for the time being, ponder this: the big question regarding the future of the social media will not be about the tensions between Facebook and Google (or anyone else for that matter) but between the end-user (as content creators, largely) and tech companies who publish and utilise the inherent value of this media (and the data it generates).
Sorrrell’s point needs further exploration, and poses a bigger question altogether: has the ‘open’ and the ‘sharing’ model had it’s day?
Some facts are indisputable: Day follows night, night follows day; and the growth in online video in 2011 has been simply staggering!
When we last blogged about online video, we agreed with commentators that expediential growth in the amount of content (and the number of views) would be seen month-to-month, year-to-year. By and large, this has absolutely been the case:
According to ComScore’s Online Video Rankings Data from only two months ago:
“Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in September with 161 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 57.3 million. Microsoft Sites climbed to the #3 position with 54 million viewers, followed by Viacom Digital with 53.4 million and Facebook.com with 49.9 million.” Continue reading
I stumbled across this again the other day as I was backing up my laptop: originally created by global marketing agency, PHD Worldwide – nearly a year old now, but still spot on! I wonder how I’ll feel when I watch this at the end of 2012 or even 2013?
In our last blog post, we wrote about a camera that costs over £14,000. Today we’ve been playing with some footage at the other end of the spectrum from GoPro: their new Hero HD2 camera, which you can pick up online for less than £190 British Pounds!
With an Professional 11MP Sensor, the GoPro can shoot up to 1080p at 30fps; spitting out H.264, making it easy to grab the material into your desktop editing system. Continue reading
Guy Fawkes night always produces a bang or two, and this bonfire weekend Canon have made the biggest noise of all, releasing their new professional-level camera, the C300.
Due for distribution the UK in January, the C300 will come in two flavours – basically to accommodate two different lens mount systems: the EF (which will be common to existing Canon users) and the PL, most typically seen on Arri’s range of high-end camera systems.
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, took time out of his busy schedule this week to visit a round-a-bout in Old Street.
Kind of.
What he was actually doing was offering support for an area of East London called ‘TechCity;’ a group of 600-odd tech businesses that have developed in that area.