Tech Feature

Online Video Broker.

2008-04-13T20:33:00.005+08:00

Associate Press (AP) and Microsoft had built a back-end platform that allows web publishers to distribute online video's to other sites across the web. The revenue from video advertisement linked to the content is then shared between the creator of the video, Microsoft , AP and the web site publisher. The service by AP known as Online Video Network (OVN) allows it's members to upload the video contents to their service and choose which sites or AP networked online, radio, or TV stations these video's are allowed to be displayed. This allows the creator of the content to have exclusive ownership of the video and can also make it a strategy to keep exclusive rights of their video content.

An example would be like if someone from another news agency in new york covers a launch in their area, they can choose to allow other networked media companies from other states or area to publish the news but they will be the rightful exclusive media to cover the event in new york. This can be a very strategic plan to keep audience ratings up and also share the resource with other people without damaging their earnings.

The content of the video's are safe from digital theft as it is embeded and played using a built in video player. Other sites can still take the video player but the video's with ads are still consistently linked to the network. As long as there is adverts playing, the revenue's will come in and distributed according to their prior arrangement when signing up for the service.

The profit sharing model tends to see microsoft geting a better deal compared to AP and the content creator. This can be seen in their profit sharing model where a content creator that shares its video to a publisher will get a 30 percent profit from the ad sales while the publisher would get a 20 percent cut with the remaining profits split between AP and Microsoft.But if it posted the AP's content, the publisher would get a 20 percent cut, with Microsoft and AP each receiving 40 percent. Somehow it might be some form of undisclosed agreement between AP and Microsoft.

Building the platform with the model of profit sharing from advertisement wher all parties are able to gain from it is in fact a great idea that is regarded as a win win situation for all parties. As the internet penetration increases, content sharing in this form should be encouraged as more parties are able to gain from the resources of others. This will reduce the cost of handling such services by the web publisher while being able to earn from just placing it in their web sites.

ChaCha mobile answers service.

2008-04-12T19:46:00.007+08:00

Fancy having a search engine with you everywhere you go? If your answer is yes, perhaps you should have a look at this interesting new search service called ChaCha. The best thing about it is that the service is FREE! but standard operator charges apply. It doesn't require you to have internet connection everywhere you are.All you really need is just a mobile phone. Unfortunately, this service is only available on networks like AT & T, Sprint or T-Mobile. If you're still interested to know how it works even though its not available in our region, read on.

The ChaCha service is in fact a human powered search service that can be accessed on the web, SMS or even just by calling a number and asking with conversational english. The service works like this: the user sends a query via web, SMS or even voice to the CHA CHA service at 800-224-2242 (voice) or 242-242 (text) by specifying the question to be asked.The service will then filter the questions by topics and will forward the questions to the Guides(staff working for ChaCha behind the search engine that are versatile with the topic queried) for the answering process.When the guide answers the question, the service will then return the resulting answers by text to your phone regardless if you sent the query by web, SMS or voice call.

Image Source: https://www.chacha.com/

According to the article byElinor Mills on Cnet News.com , the service returns accurate and fast answers. There is an example of how the SMS service is like on their website. Click here and then click on the "How It Works" tab to see the demo.

The service had been launched since january and its been receiving possitive feedbacks by the users. I would say I am very much attracted to the service as if you're quering a topic on finding perhaps a restaurant somewhere near the location that you want to ask about, the service will not only return the name of the restaurant but is also able to return the address and also contact number of the restaurant for your convenience. There are also rumours that they will be adding voice replies to queries in the near future. Imagine the idea of picking up your phone and dialing a search engine, that would be so cool! Perhaps even my mom who is not phone savvy could benefit from it.

Google Mobile search without typing.

2008-04-01T22:45:00.013+08:00

Googling Google featured an article about Google having some mobile action up their sleeves as they added the link http://www.google.com/m/lcb to be disallowed in their robot.txt . As it is most likely still in testing or development stage, perhaps that's the main reason why Google is hiding such a great idea from the public eye till the official launch.

Code named "LCB" , it is supposedly a Google Mobile Service allowing users to search for businesses by categories like Food or Restaurants , Travel, Transportation, Retail, Entertainment, Sports and Googleplex just by entering the location you are at in the US. I'm not sure what googleplex might be but I'm predicting either some complex or building owned by Google or probably a future Google service mobile kiosk that is placed around town that enables users to portabily use the facilities or services provided by Google at these kiosk terminals . As clarified by Dr.Payam , Googleplex is Google's HQ. The other categories are rather straight forward with the simple Google-ish layout and should be an easy to use service based on the pictures leaked below.

Image Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=978

Phones being such an important gadget in everyday life will be another good platform for advertising. Google knowing the importance of this would most likely have studied the benefits of having a location based information retrieval system on mobile platform and how it could help them grow beyond just web services. Having all the information of businesses based on the location of the users at their hands is beneficial to both users and business owners.

It is a win win situation as Google will earn revenue's from the advertisements of the businesses and the owners will get the right exposure and target audience required. This service will benefit users as they are able to utilise the service to find locations of businesses around them and perhaps even reduce the time needed by the user to make up their minds on choosing which business or service suits their needs.

The only issue I can think of currently is about the users privacy. Perhaps as long as the users are the ones who input their own locations and not tracked by telco networks or Google, privacy will not be an issue. Overall, if this system is implemented properly and successfully in the US, it'll be a great to see Google extending this service to this part of the region . We would only know how effective the system will be once it is launched but I would say this is definitely a service to be watched out for.

Google clicks on strategy.

2008-03-14T11:55:00.023+08:00

With Google's main revenue coming from advertising, they made a strategic move of purchasing DoubleClick Inc this week for $3.1 billion(The Wall Street Journal).Having 2/3 of the market share of the search advertising market, this makes Google the leader in online search advertising. With the acquisition of DoubleClick Inc, Google will now also have a take on banner displaying ads which were previously not offered in Googles advertising services.DoubleClick Inc having big names like Friendster and MTV as their customers would bring Google's advertising services to another level as Google's adwords were previously targeted to smaller businesses with text ads.

"We are thrilled that our acquisition of DoubleClick has closed. With DoubleClick, Google now has the leading display ad platform, which will enable us to rapidly bring to market advances in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies, while improving the relevance of advertising for users."
Eric Schmidt, Google's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Google which is looking to expand its online ad offerings had chosen this strategy because of fears that the consumer slowdown could spill over into online ads which represents most of Google's revenues. $3.1 billion might not be a small amount but Google saw not only what the current company is able to provide now but its more of a future plan. What Google lacks in online marketing can be found on DoubleClick Inc which Google will make full use of in future. Complimenting each other with Google having money and brains and DoubleClick Inc having a vibrant advertising business for banners,video's and other forms of display ads will not only be targeted at generating immediate sales but also to promote brands in the long run.

With the acquisition of DoubleClick, Google launched another new service in their group of services. The new Ad Manager service that is offered is currently in the beta testing stage.This used to be a charged service offered by Doubleclick but is now offered free by Google. The service is currently by invites only and provides the adverts free of charge. With the free ad manager, it'll allow web site publishers to advertise faster and fill unsold slots on their sites.

The Ad Manager helps reduce problems with managing advertising on pages as it is capable of helping you in the decision of picking the highest paying site from your available advert inventory.The adverts are hosted on Google's servers and web publishers can access them through a web browser.The Ad manager is flexible enough to allow publishers to sell their own advertising and for ad space that they can't sell, they can opt to use Google's AdSense system to fill those unsold slots.This benefits both parties as the advertiser pays Google for the service and Google places these ads on the web publisher sites for free.In return, the web publishers earns from the clicks.

Image Source : http://mashable.com/2008/03/12/google-ad-manager/

Having kept Microsoft away from buying DoubleClick Inc and launching Ad Manager is definitely a great strategy as it would have created more competition in the online advert between Google and Microsoft as Facebook which has more than 9 million registered user is already working with Microsoft to offer advertising to their users. Having lost Facebook to Microsoft, Google's winning bid this week for DoubleClick Inc is a great lost to Microsoft because if Microsoft were to also acquire DoubleClick, they would be having a strong grip on advertising on social network sites which are currently a big crowd puller on the Internet. Google's new Ad Manager service might not be working with a crowd puller like Facebook but they definitely have a new revenue model that can generate as much revenue or perhaps even way after the Facebook hype is over.

Virtual World Advertising dying? I don't think so...

2008-03-11T10:10:00.003+08:00

Second Life is one of the few online advertising and marketing medium that are chosen due to its popularity on the internet. Second Life had possibly turned from a virtual world to a parallel world because they have their own economy, seven million inhabitants and growing and there is actually newspaper agencies in real life that had created a similar online version dedicated specially for covering events in Second Life, an example is Reuters. Companies like Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Adidas and Toyota saw the potential it had and jumped into the bandwagon by utilising Second Life's wide participation of virtual visitors to pull in the hype and also bring awareness to their products in the real world in a different and more creative way. An example is the launch of Vista/Office 2007 on 30th January 2007 in Second Life .

Event billboard in Second Life
Image Source: http://www.crayonville.com/blog/?p=165

Their marketing team placed billboards around different places within second Life to encourage avatars (virtual visitors) in the game to join in the launch and watch the free concert. This is a great concept as it allows people who are not able to visit their launch in real Life get together in a virtual environment to celebrate the launch of a product as long as you've got internet and is a registered Second Life user anywhere around the world.

Unfortunately as successful as it seems, the bubble of marketing in Second Life had burst according to this article by Wagner James Au in GIGAOM . But with the creativeness of the Second Life inhabitants and also large corporations utilising the resources available, there are new ways that advertising in Second Life is being done.

I just read an online article at InformationWeek about how a real-Life publicly financed hospital in San Diego which will cost $810 million when ready had open its doors to virtual visitors in Second Life way before it's official launch in 2011 which is 3 years from now. While the real-Life hospital is still under construction in San Diego, anyone with a Second Life avatar can experience for themselves and tour the Palomar West Medical Campus of its facilities and some of their amenities.

With CISCO as their technology partner in the project, they are able to show visitors how the hospital is going to utilise RFID bracelets as not only a patient tracking device but also be able to guide the patient automatically to the right floor in an elevator based on their appointment information programmed in their bracelets. I'd say this is a splendid idea as feedbacks from visitors would not only help in the future usability of the systems but also allow them to test run the concepts that they would like to utilise before the actual system is completed.

I would say this concept had revived the interest in concepts of virtual worlds like Second life as even Google and Yahoo had decided to create their own versions of Second Life according to an article on TechCrunch. With the participation from both this big names in internet searching ,perhaps this will be another medium that will change how advertising and marketing is done in the future.

USB money.

2008-02-29T00:27:00.018+08:00

How would you like to be able to pay for something you plan to purchase online just by sticking a small USB stick into the USB slot? In Korea you can do just that. Shinhan Bank in Korea together with Visa had developed a USB type card with embedded IC chip and build-in public authorisation and Internet credit payment programs which allows user to pay for online transactions just by slotting in the USB card and not requiring users to fill in card details.

The card also utilises a near-field communication (NFC) chip for in store payment.NFC is a short-range wireless connectivity technology commonly deployed in a chip and embedded in handsets such as mobile phones in other countries for contactless payment, just like Visa Wave that is available in Malaysia. Besides that, the USB card can also be utilised as a post-paid transportation payment system.

Shinhan USB Card
Image Source: http://english.etnews.co.kr/news/detail.html?id=200712280013

In my opinion, I think it's got an equal share of pros and cons. The advantage is that it'll save you time if you are in a rush whether for online or offline transactions. The post-paid transport payment is great especially when you don't have change or when your Touch-N-Go is out of credit. There is no credit card number that can be stolen just by the appearance of the USB card. All information in the card can be digitally encrypted and transaction security is the responsibility of the merchant.

The disadvantage is that it's still as easy to steal as a normal credit card. Due to it's size, there are chances that you'll misplace it, just like the many USB sticks from the university computer lab sitting in lost & found. It is not suitable to be carried in your wallet as it is definitely thicker than a normal sized credit card, so hanging with a lanyard is probably the other option. These are just a few sudden thoughts that I compiled. It might not be long before it hits our shores, but whether its just a fresh idea or another practical option for our payment,we'll have to try it to find out.

Android platform, free phone operating system?

2008-02-17T21:09:00.014+08:00

Having just gotten my hands on a new Windows Mobile 6 phone and also loving how attractive Apple's new iPhone interface is , I searched the net to find out how I could integrate the interface of the iPhone into my WM6 phone. While searching for the applications, I came across what would be the very first open source operating system for mobile phones - the Google Android Platform . I finally found what I'd say is the best of both worlds all rolled into one :) the only thing is that it's going to be awhile longer before it's going to be launched. Here's a preview below :

GOOGLE ANDROID demo on Youtube

After going through the video and seeing what it can offer, I'd say it's definitely a viable competitor to the existing systems namely the Symbian operating system, Microsoft's Windows Mobile and also the Apple's iPhone interface.Being built on Linux and the ability to code apps with java gives developers the freedom to develop any application on the operating system and replace the existing ones without distinguishing them as original or third party applications. With the Android API and SDK's available online for any developer to utilise for free, it encourages developer to develop anything that their creativity brings. There's even an on going competition for developers to develop the best applications for android which will make him or her possibly $10 million richer!

I believe with the emergence of open source operating systems for the phone and applications that works with it will in the future make phones more user friendly, just as illustrated in the new threaded sms function in the demo of the Android prototype phone.It displays sms just like how we get to view chat messages in our usual chat like interface in our Internet messenger for easy tracking and viewing of messages received from a specific contact. Perhaps in the near future even companies like Nokia, Samsung, Motorola or HTC and the likes will finally be able to build more personalised branding of their very own interface and not specifically being forced to accept the limitation of Symbian or even Microsoft. Somehow I do hope the successful development and future implementation of open source operating systems for the phones will further improve phone productivity and bring down the price of phones in the near future. Of course till then, it's only my own wishful thinking.