Fanta Fuels The Fun With 3D Mobile Tennis Game That Connects Players Via Bluetooth

Wow.... this is cool. Thanks branding unbound




The Wii is so last week.

Coca-Cola's Fanta brand of orange soda is launching a mobile site with multiple branded mobile applications that have fun (and Fanta) spelled all over them, specifically for consumers in Europe.

One is a "virtual tennis" mobile game that connects two phones so players can compete via Bluetooth.

Players print out a "court" from a special microsite. They then can then view the court through their camera phones and hit the tennis ball by using the phones as virtual rackets (kind of like the recent augmented reality application from Ford's "Ka" automobile in Europe.

Another, called the Fanta Stealth Sound System, uses audio messages like "uncool," and "let's get out of here" in high-pitched frequencies that are only audible to people under 30.

Fanta virtual tennis mobile application “Fanta's brand positioning is about focusing on moments of enjoyment throughout your day, and the mobile phones are with you from when you wake up until you go to bed, ” Jeff Arbour, SVP of North America for The Hyperfactory (the solution partner behind the tennis game) tells DM News. “We thought [that] a light easy game that represented the brand's identity and personality” would work.

It's all part of an integrated print, online, on-pack, POS, viral and mobile marketing push, to begin in January.

Read all about it, here.

A Guide to The Contextual Web

Thsi article is long, but so good i had to copy the whole thing. Big thanks to ReadWriteWeb... oh and a great xmas/new years to all.

Written by Alex Iskold / December 22, 2008 9:00 PM / 18 Comments

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It's the end of 2008 and everyone on the Web is hurting due to the economy. But we know that things will get better, because slow-downs eventually bury the old and give birth to new evolutionary ways of doing things.

One of these evolutions started quietly in 2008. We are witnessing the rise of a new kind of web: contextual. You might not have heard or thought about it much yet, but you are already using it today. Search remains the killer app on the web, but context is quickly become a viable contender. Why? Because context is what happens instead of search.

What Is The Contextual Web?

Until recently on the web, most sites have not been software - only data, a bunch of flat HTML pages. The software that you used to look at them was, of course, the web browser. The problem was that the browser had no idea what the pages contained, and it did not know what you were doing. Because the browser could not infer your context, it could not help you explore related and relevant information.

The contextual web experience is fundamentally different because there is an understanding of what the user is doing. The combination of the information on the page and the user's behavior creates the context. Once you understand the user's context, you can be more helpful. So, contextual technologies have the potential to bite into the pie that today belongs to search, because it is able to bypass search.

Consider the difference between looking at the IBM home page and a movie page on Netflix. The context is very different, and so likely is the user's intention. The user may be looking at IBM because she is looking for a job or researching IBM products. When the user is looking up a movie, it is because she is thinking about renting it.

The Key Properties of The Contextual Web

The Contextual web will happen when browsers and websites evolve to recognize what users are trying to do. It is the web with less choice and more meaning, where instead of Googling all the time, we Google once and then the rest of the information is available to us automatically, based on our current context.

Here are the key properties of the contextual web experience:

• Relevancy: understanding the user's context better drives content relevancy.
• Shortcuts: contextual shortcuts reduce the need for raw search.
• Personalization: context is based on user intentions and history.
• Remixing: relevant information from around the web is instantly available.

What are some specific examples of contextual technologies that are improving our web experience right now?

Markup Technologies

One of the keys to inferring user context is understanding the underlying information that the user is looking at. This is why the contextual web is related to -- and, to be more precise, is powered by -- semantic web. We have written a lot here on ReadWriteWeb about semantic technologies. Notably, we discussed the difference between the top-down and bottom-up approaches to semantic web, both of which are important for understanding the contextual web.

The bottom-up approach to context is about annotating pages. For example, all modern browsers can detect if the page you are looking at contains an RSS feed. This happens because the browser looks for a tag in the head of the page, which declares type . The fact that the page offers an RSS feed creates an obvious context: subscription. So, the browser then invites you to subscribe using your favorite RSS reader.

Another form of markup that has been discussed recently is microformats, which offer an XHTML-compliant way of embedding metadata about people, places, events, and reviews in existing web pages. Even though microformats are not ubiquitous today, there are clear benefits to using them. The image below is from an excellent post by Mozilla UI lead Alex Faaborg about leveraging microformats in the browser.

Building on the hAtom microformat are Web Slices, introduced by Microsoft in Internet Explorer 8. Web Slices enable publishers to notify users when the information in their web pages changes. For example, Weather.com can create a Web Slice that tells the user when a local weather update is available. eBay can deliver a Web Slice that notifies the user when the price of an auction changes. Similar in concept to RSS, Web Slices focus on updates in part of the web page, enabling publishers and users to communicate directly via the browser.

There are other markup formats that help provide context. For example, popular add-on Cooliris[disclosure: this is the company I founded], is called ABMeta. This format allows publishers to annotate pages that contain information about books, music, movies, wine, restaurants, stocks, and other everyday things. offers a markup format for signaling that a site contains images. By placing a bit of XML code in their home directory, site owners enable users to experience their images using the stunning 3D visualization developed by Cooliris. Another markup format, developed by AdaptiveBlue

All of these markup-based approaches face the same issue: publishers have to do the work of actually annotating the pages. And while the semantic web community has been very vocal about the benefits of annotation, the majority of the web is still flat HTML.

Widgets

In the meantime, we are seeing a surge in applications that deploy a top-down approach to inferring user context and being helpful. Instead of relying on markup in pages, these applications use heuristics and APIs to recognize the information that the user is interacting with. Based on their recognition, these smart tools then offer contextual shortcuts to the relevant bits of information. Speaking broadly, today there are two primary categories of top-down contextual applications: blog plugins and browser add-ons.

Blog plugins offering a contextual experience have been around for some time, starting with preview technologies. One of the first recent unsuccessful attempts at a preview technology was delivered by Browster. Despite its failure, its successors, CoolPreviews, SnapShots, and Apture, have done much better. While CoolPreviews literally focuses on a preview of the page, SnapShots and Apture deliver a compact summary of the information behind the link. The basic premise behind the previews is sound: if the user is not interested in what is behind the link, the preview can save the user an unnecessary click. Because the user context (in this case, the link) is known, relevant information can be brought to the surface and delivered to the user instantly.

Closely related to previews are widgets that offer contextual shortcuts. Like previews, these widgets work by being anchored to links. Examples of this technology include Yahoo! ShortcutsSmartLinks from my company AdaptiveBlue. Instead of providing a preview of the underlying content, these technologies offer links to related content around the web. The example below shows a SmartLink on a New York Times movie page, which invites the user, for example, to buy the movie on Amazon or rent it on Netflix. and

Our last example of contextual widget technology comes from Colorado-based Lijit. Lijit has developed a search technology that focuses on the individual. You claim your presence around the web, on blogs, Twitter, Flickr, etc., and then others can search your pages on specific topics. Say you are on someone's blog and want to do a search on that person; it makes the most sense to search through this person's pages first; after all, you are in this person's context.

Remarkably, Lijit offers another contextual nugget, called Re-search. It is simple, but a great example of the power of context. If you search for a term on Google and end up on a blog that has a Lijit widget, a header appears with additional results and a prompt to search for more. Lijit automatically infers your context, does a search, and offers additional helpful shortcuts.

Browser Add-Ons

Widgets and markup technologies are making inroads into the contextual web, but an even bigger inroad is being made by browser add-ons. Since Firefox introduced its platform for delivering additional features to the browser, many thousands of browser extensions have been developed. A lot of these extension focus on enhancing the browsing experience by leveraging context. Probably the granddaddy of them all is Greasemonkey, an extension that allows users to install bits of JavaScript that alter the look and content of web pages they visit. We wrote an introduction to this popular add-on and recently followed up with a post on 7 New Greasemonkey Tweaks.

While Greasemonkey scripts are mainly regarded as experimental tools for power users, quite a few other extensions are aimed at building a business around contextual enhancements to the browser. One example is a company called WebMynd, which focuses on enhancing Google search results. WebMynd's extension automatically pushes down Google ads (clever!) to insert its contexual gadget. It allows users to simultaneously search posts on Twitter, book matches on Amazon, video matches on YouTube, and many other sources. An example of what shows up when searching for "semantic web" using the gadget is shown below.

We have mentioned Cooliris several times already. The most popular Cooliris product is the browser add-on that shows stunning 3D views of photos and videos around the web. Cooliris works contextually by automatically recognizing popular photo sites like Flickr, Google Images and Photobucket. Another contextual add-on that works by recognizing content on pages is Glue. This add-on shows you friends and other users who have visited the same book, music, movie, restaurant, wine, and other pages around the web. The context here crosses the content you are viewing with your social graph. Unlike lifestreaming applications that deliver you information about your friends out of context, Glue only brings to the surface information that is relevant to your current context.

A very different example of a contextual web add-on comes from Slovenia-based Zemanta. Its add-on makes it easy for publishers to add contextually relevant links, photos, and video to their posts. Zemanta works by applying its semantic engine to the body of the post and automatically recommending related content. Using Zemanta, bloggers are able to instantly add relevant content to their blog posts, in turn creating a relevant web experience for their users.

Our last two examples of contextual add-ons are Zentact and App Discover, both recently launched. Zentact -- developed by the folks who brought us another contextual phenomenon, MyBlogLog -- aims to solve a problem of staying in touch with people who matter to you. First, you import and tag your email contacts with different tags that reflect their interests. Then, as you browse, Zentact pops up a reminder to contact a person if it deems the page relevant based on the tags. It is a simple yet powerful example of the contextual web.

App Discover works by recommending related applications to the sites that you are visiting. Today, it requires publishers to add markup to their sites, but one can easily imagine how this technology could work top-down. The example below shows App Discover recommending TweetDeck when the user navigates to Twitter.

Browsers

Without a doubt, web browsers are in the best position to deliver the user's contextual web experience. While add-ons are taken in a variety of directions, the two dominant browsers, Internet Explorer and Firefox, have already incorporated the basic contextual experience: shortcuts. Internet Explorer 8 features technology called Accelerators.

According to Microsoft, Accelerators give you ready access to the online services you use everyday, from any page you visit. Accelerators are defined as little chunks of XML based on pre-defined variables and defined by the browser. Some examples of variables available to Accelerator are the active URL, the active domain, and selected text. The most common action that Accelerators do is perform contextual search based on the user's selection. Another common Accelerator function is the in-place lookup, such as looking up a map based on a given address.

The problem with Accelerators is that they are not really based on a selection; that is, they lack semantics. When you highlight an address, you still have to decide which Accelerator to use. If you have dozens of Accelerators installed, this quickly becomes hard to manage. Firefox has recognized the issue with the menu-driven approach and instead offers its contextual technology via text. Called Ubiquity, this contextual technology is still only available as an add-on today but is likely to be a part of Firefox core soon.

Marketed as user-generated mashups, Ubiquity is actually a contextual technology based on language. As with Accelerators, the user is able to select a piece of text and then invoke Ubiquity and type a command. In the screenshot above, Ubiquity is used to insert a map into an email. Hundreds of Ubiquity commands have been implemented to date. ReadWriteWeb has already written about Ubiquity commands.

Will Context be the Future of the Web?

So where is all of this heading? Are these technologies signal or noise? We believe we are witnessing the birth of a fundamentally new kind of web, a smarter one, a contextual one. Unlike the old web we are used to, this one understands what we are doing and helps us. It is a web in which we search less and find relevant content faster. This new contextual web is still very young and unevenly distributed, but it is definitely here.

The fact that these contextual technologies are springing up is not accidental. The Contextual web is made possible by our push into semantic web and the rise of web services/API culture. The combination of basic semantics and API is fueling all of these contextual applications. Bit by bit, the web is getting smarter, friendlier, and more enjoyable.

Web browsers are in the best position to deliver these new contextual experiences to users because of their wide reach. The fact that Microsoft made Accelerators its flagship feature for Internet Explorer 8 and that Mozilla is putting much effort into Ubiquity tells us that contexual browsing is a priority. This is really good news, because these technologies bring great benefits to the user.

It is great to see that in these tough economic times, evolution is brewing. The tremendous effort that all of these companies are making with contextual technologies is beginning to come to fruition. It may be that we are seeing glimpses of what the next generation of the web will be like.

And now, as usual, let's turn the tables. Tell us examples of your favorite contextual browsing technologies. Do you think context will be play significant part in the next evolution of the web?

Barclays launches first 'brand concept' bank in Piccadilly

Thanks Brand Republic - Banks going places

by Staff, Brand Republic 19-Dec-08, 08:55

LONDON - Barclays has launched what it is calling the first "brand concept" bank branch in the UK, piloting digital technology underneath the iconic Piccadilly Circus lights in London's West End.

The site at Piccadilly Circus was acquired by Barclays earlier this year and has been developed into a site covering 8,000 square feet of retail space over three floors.

Making extensive use of new technology and design, the branch opened its doors yesterday and will be officially launched at the end of January.

With the opening of the branch, Barclays becomes the first bank in Europe to pilot Microsoft Surface technology, which will allow users to grab digital content with their hands and navigate information about Premier banking with simple gestures and touches.

The techniques are reminiscent of the Tom Cruise film 'Minority Report'.

A major feature of the branch and the first aspect visitors will see is 'Being:London', an interactive and evolving installation representing London and it's people.

It will graphically represent the city on a large video wall using content from blogs, showcasing Londoners' interests, ideas and concerns. Personal consoles will allow people to contribute to the installation and explore relevant information from Time Out.

Outside of opening hours, the front of the branch will be transformed into the 'Night Life' installation screen.

It will pick up the image of passers by using face recognition technology and cameras, creating moving silhouettes on the screen with thought bubbles containing random messages.

The Piccadilly branch has full banking functionality for all types of personal and business customers with extensive customer space and dedicated private rooms.

Cashier counters are kept open with no glass screens while an innovative curved queue rail softens the waiting area.

Mike Amato, chief distribution and product officer for Barclays, said: "This is the first time that a bank has opened a store such as this.

"We have taken inspiration from retailers such as Apple and Nike and developed a space that attracts and engages individuals while conveying what the Barclays brand represents.

"Our plan for Piccadilly has been to build not only a branch of the future but a branch befitting the iconic setting.

"We have embraced innovative technology and design to attract the interest of the Piccadilly community in an innovative and generous way."

Customers waiting will also be met by floor-walking staff equipped with handheld PCs to answer queries without the need to wait in line.

A large self-service area includes a foreign ATM dispensing dollars and Euros, and deposit machines for cash, cheques and coins.

The branch will be open seven days a week, 9am to 7pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm on Saturdays and 12pm to 5pm on Sundays.

Barclays is undergoing an ongoing refurbishment of the entire branch network in the UK, which currently stands at 1733 branches, after extensive staff and customer consultation.

DIGITAL CHARITY TOOLBOX: 50+ Ways to Get Your “Give” On

Thanks Mashable for this extensive list of digital charitable initiatives

Qui Diaz is director of strategy at Livingston Communications and specializes in social media for social causes. She proclaims ‘the good’ on her blog, Evange.List.

As the economy goes, so goes giving to causes that need donor dollars to keep doors open. While we bemoan sacrifices of luxury goods, our global social sector is faced with shortening the line or thinning the soup – neither of which are acceptable options.

Because charities are rising to the challenge to engage us online, it’s a breeze for us – the cash-strapped consumers – to meet them halfway.

Why not buy gifts that give back when shopping online, or take a minute to sign and forward a Facebook petition? Those of us who have a penchant for technology and digital matters can go one further by integrating the “social” good into our “social” media discussions.

If you have a few dollars – or minutes – to spare in the next couple days, kick it to one of the digitally-adept causes listed below. Micro-giving trends prove that a little goes a long way, so you can rest assured that whatever you invest – time, talent or treasure – will yield a return. And of course, you get what you give: By changing the Web, you actually are helping to change the world.

Know of other “giving” opportunities with a social or digital play? Please add them to the comments!

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Free! Give Without Spending a Dime

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YouTube Project 4 Awesome - Today Only! - YouTube is dedicating its powerful platform to charity for a full day, and winning nonprofit videos can win $1,000. All you need is a video about your favorite cause.

Feed A Need with Reddit – Add your qualifications to Reddit’s “Database of Awesome” and be ready to give 2 hours of your time to one of the project’s partnering charities.

Crowdsource Ideas for Change in America - Submit, discuss and vote on ideas at Change.org. The top ten ideas will be presented to the Obama administration and developed into full-court press national campaigns.

Click for the Cure - Click daily at The Breast Cancer Site and sponsors pay for mammograms. After 300 mammograms are secured, the site will donate $20,000 to help fund the cure.

Be A Voice For Darfur - The Save Darfur Coalition’s Facebook petition application ushers in a new era of accessible advocacy. Most importantly, adding your name can help draw attention to - and end - the tragic six-year-old genocide in Darfur. (Disclosure - my agency is currently helping with this campaign.)

SocialVibe - Select your charity (e.g., One Laptop Per Child), your sponsor (e.g., Apple), grab and display your badge on your social profiles, and earn points for donations to your charity.

Search for Good - Pick your charity, use GoodSearch as your search engine, and Yahoo! gives for you.

Dress Up Your Reader - iGoogle themes for poverty, environmental and education groups (etc.) abound. Almost 1,800 readers are currently sporting the theme for Action Against Hunger.

Instant Message for Good - The more messages you send, the more ad revenue Microsoft Live Messenger kicks to the charity of your choice (American Red Cross, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and more).

Map Your Play - More than 15,330 playspaces are already mapped on KaBOOM!’s Playspace Finder mash up, and you can help by adding the good, bad and ugly play spots near you.

Teach Your Granny to Text - And one day she might be donating to her favorite charity through SMS (WeAreWhatWeDo.org).

Fundraising Templates - More nonprofits are offering DIY fundraising pages, making it easier for evangelists and supporters to become rainmakers (charity: water).

Free Giving Campaign Site - Use Givvy.com’s free campaign page for your workplace giving program. FirstGiving.com offers a free template that is useful for fundraising with friends and family.

Friend and Follow - More than merely setting up camp in social networks, nonprofits and individuals are running campaigns through Facebook Causes and Twitter (@nonprofitorgs). The Nature Conservancy, the Humane Society of the United States, and last month’s TweetsGiving are great examples of community engagement to raise dollars and awareness.

Spread Your WOM - Word of Mouth still prevails as the best form of communication, so use your causes’ “sharing tools” to get the word out (e.g., Girl Effect, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Power Shift ‘09).

Try a Niche Network - Join a “do good” socnet for a more tight-knit community of people and nonprofits collaborating on similar issues - Change.org, Idealist.org, Care2.c0m, Razoo.com, Nabuur.com and The Big Give to name a few.

Tell Your Story - Good stories help nonprofits raise money, so lend your tales. (American Cancer Society, Road to Freedom, and the1010project.org. And Every Baby Has a Story at March of Dimes)

Change the Web 2009 - Join a new initiative to “transform the web through social change,” complete with a contest which kicks off in January.

Meet the Changebloggers - You just might be one, too.

Just Be a Geek Who Gives - This Slideshare presentation from Beth Kanter - a leading voice for nonprofit tech/social media - will illuminate and steer your online influence in new ways.

Find more “free” ways to give at #GiveList, Social Actions, and We Are What We Do.

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$35 or Less

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One Dollar Nation - An online community focusing on education and poverty, built on your pocket change. Cost of entry: $1 per month.

#Tweetmasfuture - This Twitter-based fundraising campaign starts today. The goal: get North Americans to re-allocate a portion of our massive Christmas spend to help eradicate poverty.

The One Dollar Give - Each day in December this group blog is featuring a post from - and asking you to donate $1 dollar to - a different charity.

Help Feed 100 People for only $3.29 - Glenda Watson Hyatt (a.k.a. The Left Thumb Blogger) is leading a drive for the Union Gospel Mission’s Christmas dinner fundraiser. You can chip in by “buying Glenda a cup of coffee” via PayPal.

Text to Give - Causes are mobilizing through mobile, and mgive makes it easy to give $5 through SMS. Partners include Toys for Tots, Special Olympics, United Way, AmberWatch Foundation, ASPCA, Starlight Foundation and more.

StopPovertyNow.org – Buy a pixel for $10 to help the Grameen Foundation end global poverty. It’s the Million Dollar Homepage with a heart.

Social Actions - This site helps you wade through thousands of volunteer and giving opportunities on the Web (aggregated from more then 40 different sites). Donate $20.09 and to help them reach $20,009 by 2/9/09. And connect with their 33+ Twitter action channels.

Add a Place at Your Table - For the cost of another guest at your table ($35) you can help end childhood hunger in America. Donate and download your free place cards.

Triple Your $10 - Through December 31, all donations to PATH will be triple matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, McKinstry Company Charitable Foundation and an anonymous donor. Look for other matching gift “specials” - up to $1 million in online donations will be matched by a donor for the International Rescue Committee.

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Get Something for Your Money

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Ammado Video Contest - Win up to $2,500 for your video production of ammado.com’s Giving Circle (cash prizes for top three submissions).

Indebted Digital Challenge - Win $10,000 for best video game idea that addresses the fiscal crisis, and work with mtvU to produce your vision.

Wireless Innovation Challenge - Do you have brilliant ideas about how wireless technologies can address social issues? Vodafone Americas Foundation is awarding $600,000 to top ideas for U.S. nonprofits and universities.

Call for Human Rights - Join Amnesty Wireless, get a free Samsung M300 Camera phone ($199 value), and Amnesty International will buy out your current contract (up to $175). Plus, 10% of your monthly charges will go back to Amnesty.

Nothing But Nets –The UN Foundation’s bed nets are helping to prevent malaria – a leading killer of children in Africa. Buy your “Buzzkill” T-shirts and other swag from their Nets Store using the promo code “Holidays” and get 20% off your purchase. Or just buy a net.

Take the KnowH20 Water Quiz - And when you’re finished, you get a Think MTV/PlayPumps International badge.

. . . or Play an Online Game in Exhange for Water Donations - Warning: Not for the geographically challenged (World Wildlife Fund). See more Games for Change here.

Have a Green Holiday - The Pollutions Solutions enviro-tote comes filled with $25 in coupons for green living, 6 glass containers, a Klean Kanteen and other goodies . . . and cookies . . . all for $135 (Environmental Working Group).

Buy the Soundtrack - Call + Response is a nonprofit “rockumentary” exposing today’s slave trade - an industry that annually rakes in more than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined. The 17-track soundtrack is newly available on iTunes.

Subscribe to Good Magazine - 100% of your payment goes to the nonprofit of your choice.

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Give Gifts That Count

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Shop Like You Mean It - New online marketplaces make it possible to buy fair trade and eco-friendly gifts while supporting the people who make them (Nest, WorldofGood.com, iGive, Global Goods Partners), or give supplies, toys and loans directly to the people who need them (Oxfam America Unwrapped, Heifer International).

Bidding for Good - cMarket’s online auction site enables you to bid on or sell everything, from toys and tickets to electronics and jewelry. Proceeds go to schools and nonprofits nationwide. eBayGivingWorks.com is similar.

Coupons - We-Care.com is an online store of 700 merchants (e.g., retail). Click their coupons and a percent of your payment goes to your preferred cause.

Gift Cards for Good - Buy and send these e-gift certificates online. Recipients cash them in as online donations to any project featured by GlobalGiving. Network for Good and CharityNavigator provide similar gift cards, redeemable for donations to any nonprofit.

Kiva Gift Cards - For microfinance fans, give these gift cards to friends who will redeem them for microloans. Lend4Health offers gift certificates towards microloans for biomedical treatment of children and adults with autism spectrum disorders.

Changing the Present - Create a wishlist or gift registry out of charitable donations.

Two Books for the Price of One - Give one to a friend, one to a child in need (First Book).

Four Shoes for the Price of Two - Help TOMS Shoes give 30,000 pairs of shoes to kids in need (buy one pair and a second is donated).

Ornaments from A.R.T. - Make a donation in the name of a loved one to Art for Refugees in Transition and they’ll send your friend a holiday ornament, too.

Check out additional gifts targeting nonprofits and social change via the Case Foundation’s Guide to Good Giving and the Social Edge Holiday Gift Guide for Social Entrepreneurs.

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In Person a.k.a. Off-Line

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Do it Pro Bono - Join a network of professionals making a difference in your community through the Taproot Foundation or Idealist.org. Or volunteer directly through a nonprofit like HELP USA or AARP’s Create the Good community.

Host a Star Party - An off-line gathering to plug into the night sky, and get in the know about light pollution (International Dark-Sky Association).

Hit the Streets - To Write Love on Her Arms is seeking street team members (via Fancorps.com), and you can rock out to TWLOHA’s music player while you’re browsing.

When you contribute to one of the above causes - or any other cause - multiply the effect by telling others. Your blog, Twitter and social network real estate is the best gateway for advocacy, influence and word of mouth - the greatest gifts you can give.

30 Alternative Tools To Twitter Search And Tracking Memes On Twitter

Thanks Smart Advi$e.info for this post on some nice microblogging search and tracking alternatives

30 Alternative Tools To Twitter Search And Tracking Memes On Twitter Posted by Web Strategist ShriNagesh November 30, 2008

If you are as disappointed (annoyed) about twitter search as me, here are 30 alternatives to twitter search and to track memes on twitter.

Monitter lets you monitor the twitter world for a set of 3 keywords and watch what people are saying.

Tweet Grid you can create a Twitter Search Dashboard that updates in real time.

Hashtags : Real-time tracking of tagged tweets organized though hashtags (example: #twittertools)

Quotably : Type in any username and follow conversations in a threaded format

Twitter Search (Previously Summize): is a powerful twitter conversation tracker. Search for terms by user, language, attitude, tag, to and from user

Terraminds: allows you to search people or updates for specific words

Tw* Tool Tracker, A Twitter account tracking Twitter aficionados and tool developers

Tweet Scan : Find out who’s saying what, search for replies, words, whatever by user

Tweetburner allows you to “keep track of what happens to the links in tweets shared with you, by you, by your friends and every other twitterer.” The service shortens URLs and gives you statistics

Tweetmeme : Find out “what’s hot” on Twitter (Think Techmeme in Twitterland). Updates in real-time and looks spiffy! Shows some of the most popular memes on Twitter

TweetSpeak, TweetSpeak lets you listen to tweets

TweetVolume, Lets you compare words or phrases and see how often they have been mentioned on Twitter

Twemes, Twemes is another way to tag tweets

Twerp Scan, Twerp Scan helps you find people with high ratios that might be spammers on your follow list

Twist, This service creates charts that let you compare trends in Twitter. The charts can be embedded onto your blog.

Twistori, A social experiment tracking tweets using I love, hate, think, believe, feel and wish

Twitigg is listing of popular stories submitted on twitter.com sorted by number of submitters, updated constantly. (Like Digg it)

Twits Like Me, Returns a list of Twitterers (based on your tweets) who probably share your interests.

Twitstat offers real time Twitter analytics. You need to follow @twitstat for your tweets to be recorded. Includes the Tweitgeist of frequently twittered words

Twitter Blacklist, This website provides a list of known spammers of various kinds on Twitter

Twitter Quotient, Are you a Twitter hero or zero?

Twitter Troll : Find popular terms used on Twitter in real time

Twitterboard: Displays conversation analytics, links and feeds from Twitter

TwitterBuzz, Shows the most popular links posted on Twitter over the last day

Twitterment: allows you to search for specific terms to see who has written a post with that term. You can even see a graph that shows the hours of the day when that term is used most or compare terms

TwitterPoster, is a mashup created from Twitter that provides a visual representation of the degree of influence of Twitterers

Twittertale tracks the usage of naughty words in Twitter

Twitterverse shows the most popular words and phrases on Twitter

Twitturly is a service for tracking what URLs people are talking about as they talk about them on Twitter.

TwitterTroll is another Twitter search engine that searches tweets

top 10 consumer web apps

And thanks again ReadWriteWeb. My personal favourites have to be QIK, lastfm and Ning... probably Hulu if it would work outside the US.

It's a well-known fact that our readers are on the cutting - if not bleeding - edge of technology. But sometimes, it's important to take a step back and realize that the apps to which we've grown so incredibly accustomed are just barely beginning to register with the general public.

With the Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2008, we've tried to select the apps that have burst onto the radar of the everyday user this year - or if not quite, then perhaps they will next year.

This was a year - after years of build up - in which two major events had worldwide impact on the Web. These events focused the world's attention, had more consumers creating more online content, and had more people online searching for information than ever before: the Beijing Olympics and the US Presidential elections. Many of these apps have those events to thank for their exposure and adoption.

This is the third in a series of top products of 2008:

1. Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2008
2. Top 10 International Products of 2008

Note: We attempted to order this list from most obvious to least obvious.

1. Twitter

Twitter is the de facto leader of the microblogging scene, a realm usually rife with witty repartee between leading social media consultants and Web 2.0 developers. But when household names like Lance Armstrong, Richard Branson, Al Gore, Shaquille O'Neal, Britney Spears, and politicians across the US started using it, this year, it was clear that our selection as the Best Web LittleCo for 2007 had grown up - and entered the public consciousness.

Twitter was a constant fixture on ReadWriteWeb this year from its use as a source of news to its growing use as a customer service channel. But it wasn't without its hiccups. Midway through the year, Twitter - and its more and more frequent showings of the Fail Whale - was rapidly becoming persona non grata. In June 2008, Amazon's Jeff Bezos poured more cash into the service. And with the US elections, Twitter proved its mettle, becoming a critical forum for debate on the issues at hand.

2. Firefox

November 2008 marked the fourth birthday for Firefox, arguably one of the most successful open source projects and clearly the most popular Web browser that users have to actually install. In 2008, more and more of the consumer population gravitated to the browser that strives to deliver the Web the right way.

Firefox has continued to grow in popularity throughout 2008, but it was the download day for Firefox 3 that began to truly turn heads. Site crushing traffic to download a Web browser? Believe it. So much traffic, in fact, that it set a world record. That, and a number of other factors, had Firefox reaching a 20% market share in October of this year.

3. IntenseDebate

IntenseDebate - dubbed by RWW as the "the sophisticated blog comment system with the silly name" - provides a commenting add-in for blogs and Web sites that allows users to better manage their profiles and comments across multiple conversations. It also supports OpenID.

In 2008, distributed commenting was still a very young space with no clear leader. But when IntenseDebate appeared as the comment system on US President-elect Barack Obama's change.gov, it stepped into the public eye. Now, thousands of people are using the commenting system. This makes Automattic - the company that manages the development of WordPress - look pretty insightful for acquiring IntenseDebate this year.

4. Hulu

If Hulu - a joint video content sharing venture between NBC Universal and News Corp. - is any indication, traditional mainstream media companies are beginning to get this whole "online thing."

And with good reason. In 2008, Hulu shed its ugly duckling image and came into its own and was projected to earn a staggering $90 million in its first year. How? Again, the true turning point was the US elections. Consumers turned to Hulu as much for the political content, as for the satire - like Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show. Now, consumers are hooked and that affinity for the service is showing no sign of slowing.

5. Ning

Ning is a service designed to help anyone build a social network about anything that interests them. And in 2008, consumers flocked to the site to do exactly that - to the tune of a new social network created every 30 seconds.

As of October 2008, Ning was host to half of a million networks. And it will only continue to grow in the consumer space. Why? Much like Twitter, Ning has begun to attract celebrities who find the service a viable way of interacting with fans. Plus, with its integration of OpenSocial, Ning gains access to tech savvy consumers on a variety of social networks who already understand the dynamic.

6. Last.fm

Any app that incorporates consumer media and makes it easier to use is a winner. And that's why Last.fm, the socially driven music recommendation service, is a shoo-in for top consumer apps of 2008.

We at RWW spend a great deal of time focused on Last.fm - from the most popular songs to mashups created using its data to visualizing Last.fm friends networks - because we spend so much time on Last.fm. One thing is for sure with its redesigned site, the growing presence on mobile platforms, innovative programs, and interesting features, Last.fm is sure to continue gaining more and more fans.

7. Meebo

Meebo, always a favorite here at RWW, provides a centralized instant message platform that's accessible from any Web browser. While they've always been popular with the overly connected crowd, 2008 marks the year where Meebo has a growing opportunity to become a consumer favorite, as well.

In March 2008, we saw Meebo as having the opportunity to bring Web IM to the mainstream. Throughout the year, they continued to improve - including adding a revenue stream. And by October, Meebo had begun to roll out a partner program that will place its functionality on niche consumer sites throughout the Web. Even if consumers don't recognize Meebo yet, they will soon.

8. Mogulus

If YouTube taught people about online video and Ustream taught folks how to stream video, then Mogulus will be the service that teaches consumers how to broadcast online. And in a burgeoning HD market, where users are coming to expect crisp video and audio quality even online, Mogulus stands to become the streaming service of choice for serious videophiles.

In June 2008, we reported that Mogulus - which launched in May 2007 - was already reporting 4.5 million uniques. By September, that number had grown nearly 30% to 5.8 million. Clearly, the numbers are on the upswing.

9. Qik

Qik, the service that allows users to stream video to the Web from a mobile handset, may not be as prevalent on the consumer radar as some of these other apps. But it's safe to say it will be. While services like Mogulus have focused on the quality of the video stream, services like Qik have focused on the converse: the ability to stream content with devices that consumers are already carrying around. And that will be their key to success - the ability to deliver more content while hauling less gear.

At the beginning of the year, we wondered if Qik might be one of the breakout apps at SXSW 2008 given the number of tech types participating in its early testing. By the middle of 2008, Qik had opened its beta to more participants. And since that point, they've focused on making the service available on both mass market phones and some smart phones. No doubt, the ability to shoot video with that phone in your pocket will be as compelling to consumers as taking photos - if not moreso.

10. Cooliris

Cooliris may be the least obvious - and least recognized - of our consumer app selections, but it has that certain something that makes us sure its going to be popular with the less technically savvy. For those of you who haven't had the chance to try it, Cooliris is a browser extension that provides a 3D environment for thumbing through visual sites - like photo and video sites. What's more, it makes it fun. And that's why consumers will continue to be attracted to it.

We covered Cooliris - then called PicLens - in February 2008, finding it "a lot of fun to play with and makes searching and viewing images on the web very enjoyable." By June 2008, they had added Amazon items and YouTube videos. Even the iPhone got the Cooliris treatment with the Cooliris iPhone app. Most recently, Cooliris has unveiled features that allow users to personalize selections - and that allows Cooliris to sell more advertising. Visual browsing is still coming into its own, but Cooliris is leading the charge in a way that consumers will embrace.

Now, it's your turn. What's your opinion on these selections? Are we off? Did we miss something? Are you seeing consumer adoption elsewhere?

top 10 Semantic web products

Thanks ReadWriteWeb. Hoping to make 09 the year BMF releases some semantic powered activity.

n 2008 we saw the Semantic Web gain traction, giving us plenty of choice when selecting the 10 best Semantic Web products of 2008.

This is the first in a series of posts we'll publish over December, listing our choices for the top web products of the year. Then at the end of December, we'll post a Top 100 list - which we'll be promoting over 2009 and opening up at some point for public voting. Without further ado, let's jump into the top 10 Semantic Web products of 2008.

Earlier this month we posted an update to 10 Semantic Web applications that we have been tracking for a year now. Some of those make this list, as well as some from our follow-up post 10 More Semantic Apps to Watch. We also have a couple of other products in this list, which for one reason or another didn't get mentioned in our watch-lists.

You may disagree with our selections, so do tell us in the comments what you think.

Note: the products listed below are in no particular order

1. Yahoo! SearchMonkey

In May this year Yahoo! launched an open developer platform for searchSearchMonkey. Yahoo hasn't had the happiest of years, but its willingness to innovate in search is to be commended. As we reported at the Web 2.0 Expo in April, SearchMonkey is a component of a major overhaul at Yahoo! across all of its properties to "rewire" for the social graph and data portability. SearchMonkey allows developers to build applications on top of Yahoo! search, including allowing site owners to share structured data with Yahoo!, using semantic markup (microformats, RDF), standardized XML feeds, APIs (OpenSearch or other web services), and page extraction. called

We think this is the best use of Semantic Web by an Internet bigco this year. So for that reason SearchMonkey makes our top 10 list. Related: The Story of SearchMonkey.

2. Powerset (acquired by Microsoft in '08)

Powerset (see our initial coverage here and here) is a natural language search engine. It's fair to say that Powerset has had a great 2008, having been acquired by Microsoft in July this year.

At the time of the acquisition, Powerset said that it needed a bigger partner to expand its product beyond its current state of only searching Wikipedia - something we had speculated about when the rumors of the acquisition first appeared. In its own statement, Microsoft stressed how useful Powerset's technology will be for improving Microsoft's own search products and to "take Search to the next level." In our analysis of the deal, we noted that it was a "bold play requiring exact execution" by Microsoft.

3. Open Calais (Thomson Reuters)

At the end of 2007, ClearForest had been recently acquired by Reuters and at that point it had a Web Service and a Firefox extension. What a change a year brings! ClearForest went on to release Calais, a toolkit of products that enable users to incorporate semantic functionality within their blog, content management system, website or application.

Since launching the Open Calais API early this year, over 6,000 developers have registered with it and the service is doing more than 1 million transactions a day. Version 3.0 was released earlier this month and version 4 is expected by January 09.

4. Dapper MashupAds

In November we wrote about the recent improvement in Dapper MashupAds, a product we first spotted over a year ago. The idea is that publishers can tell Dapper: this is the place on my web page where the title of a movie will appear, now serve up a banner ad that's related to whatever movie this page happens to be about. That could be movies, books, travel destinations - anything. We remarked that the UI for this has grown much more sophisticated in the past year.

The company believes that its new ad network will provide monetary incentive for publishers to have their websites marked up semantically. We think this has plenty of promise, so it makes our year-end list.

5. Hakia

Hakia is a search engine focusing on natural language processing methods to try and deliver 'meaningful' search results. Hakia attempts to analyze the concept of a search query, in particular by doing sentence analysis. Over the past year Hakia has been busy extending its reach - licensing its proprietary OntoSem technology to other companies in March and announcing a Semantic APIutilize Yahoo! BOSS, by integrating their semantic parsing with the Yahoo! search index. in June. It was also one of the first companies to

We think Hakia has made good progress getting its technology into the hands of third parties and making use of Yahoo's broader index, so for that reason it's among our top 10 for the year.

6. TripIt

Tripit is an app that manages your travel planning. With TripIt, you forward incoming bookings to plans@tripit.com and the system manages the rest.

Over the past year TripIt has continued to iterate on its feature set - introducing LinkedIn integration, better mobile functionality, more social networking features, and other goodies. In short, it's user experience continues to rock!

7. BooRah

BooRah is a restaurant review site that we first reviewed earlier this year and has come on in leaps and bounds over 2008. BooRah uses semantic analysis and natural language processing to aggregate reviews from food blogs. Because of this, BooRah can recognize praise and criticism in these reviews and then rates restaurants accordingly. BooRah also gathers reviews from Citysearch, Tripadvisor and other large review sites.

BooRah also announced last month the availability of an API that will allow other web sites and businesses to offer online reviews and ratings from BooRah to their customers. The API will surface most of BooRah's data about a given restaurant, including ratings, menus, discounts, and coupons.

8. AdaptiveBlue

Disclosure: AdaptiveBlue's founder Alex Iskold is a feature writer at RWW.

AdaptiveBlue are makers of the Firefox plugin, BlueOrganizer. As we wrote in January this year, the basic idea behind BlueOrganizer is that it gives you added information about webpages you visit and offers useful links based on the subject matter.

Over the past year the company has been working on a new product, called Glue. Launched last month, Glue is a more social networking oriented version of BlueOrganizer - it connects you to your friends based around things like books, music, movies, stars, artists, stocks, wine, restaurants, and more. We think the company has diversified smartly in 2008, by integrating social networking and mobile functionality into its products.

9. Zemanta

Zemanta is a blogging tool which harnesses semantic technology to add relevant content to your posts. While it didn't make either of our 'Semantic Apps to Watch' lists in November, a number of commenters pointed it out as something they use. In September we covered a major upgrade to Zemanta's service, allowing users to specify the sources they want to see in the suggestions list that Zemanta provides. Users can now incorporate their own social networks, RSS feeds, and photos into their blog posts. As we noted, this makes Zemanta a lot more appealing to established bloggers who are in less need of suggestions and more in need of automation.

Zemanta's API is also being used by startups, including semantic bookmarking service Faviki - which we mentioned in our second Watch-list. So all up, we think Zemanta has done enough this year to be included in our top 10 list.

10. UpTake

Semantic search startup UpTake (formerly Kango) aims to make the process of booking travel online easier. In our review in May, we explained that UpTake is a vertical search engine that has assembled what it says is the largest database of US hotels and activities - over 400,000 of them - from more than 1,000 different travel sites. Using a top-down approach, UpTake looks at its database of over 20 million reviews, opinions, and descriptions of hotels and activities in the US and semantically extracts information about those destinations.

And now please let us know in the comments what you think of our selections. Do you think we've picked the best 10 Semantic Web products of the year?

How to Make Your Plant Talk

Thanks Next Great Thing for this post on Physcial Computing; the functional leading edge of an interactive reality. Bring it on!

December 16th, 2008 by Laura

Physical Computing: building interactive physical systems using software and hardware that can sense and respond to the analog world by considering how humans communicate through computers and how they express themselves physically.

While physical computing - a threesome of art, DIY and technology - is nothing new, it is certifiably hotter than ever. The last Creative Mornings event focused on the topic, while Make magazine continues to hold meet-ups for the uber-crafty (see their recent Holiday Hackshop). And thanks to companies like Arduino, which sells pre-assembled electronics boards and Adafruit Industries, a veritable nuts and bolts clearinghouse, it has become a breeze for designers, artists, and hobbyists to bring their digital visions to life.

One of our favorite visions is the Botanicalls project, developed by grad students at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Seeking to promote “successful inter-species understanding between plants and humans,” Botanicalls is a system of moisture sensors linked to an open-source communication platform that allows a plant to contact its owner via text message when a botanical need arises.

Whether requesting water or lamenting excessive sun exposure, plants now have a voice . And yes, that voice Twitters. (No self-respecting Philodendron would dare miss out on Twittermania!)

We think that even more intriguing than Botanicalls’ cool factor (which has been touted by everyone from Wired to Good Morning America) is its accessibility. Sold at a variety of online stores, including craft depot Etsy, Botanicalls embodies physical computing’s organic foray into the mainstream marketplace.

Not too mainstream, though. We’re pretty sure that craft hackers will always stay one step ahead of the Sharper Image. Just check out Kickabee, another stroke of basement-bred ingenuity that posts Twitters whenever a baby kicks in the womb. Now this sort of creative technology is in the hands of everyday people, and their curiosity is the new mother of invention.

twitter from the womb

Ok... thanks mashable for this, somewhat disturbing post.It's really got me thinking further about mashing the real and interactive worlds. Banging on about world 2.0 again, we've seen mars landers, horses, plants, houses and yes unborn babies sending their voices out into the ether using channels like twitter, how can we combine this thinking into the products we help our clients sell. There was a lot of talk around the 'product as marketing' thinking, how about product as interactive channel? Ideas?

Think you’re an early adopter, huh? @kickbee has you beat.

Expectant father Corey Menscher wanted to “create a device that would give me a chance to be aware of our baby’s movements”. He created a waistband for his wife which sends a Tweet everytime the baby kicks, naming the project “Kickbee”. Corey writes:

The Kickbee is a wearable device made of a stretchable band and embedded electronics and sensors. Piezo sensors are attached directly to the band, and transmit small but detectable voltages when triggered by movement underneath. An Arduino Mini microcontroller transmits the signals to an accompanying Java application wirelessly via Bluetooth. (a SparkFun BlueSMIRF v2 module that communicates serially with a Macbook Pro)

The Java application receives the sensor values and analyzes them. When a kick event is detected, a Twitter message is posted via the Twitter API. I chose to use Twitter because it is easy to initiate an SMS message to any mobile phone when a kick is detected. It also acts as a data log that can be accessed programmatically for visualization or archiving.

What do you think: a sweet gesture of solidarity with his wife, or a bit too much time on his hands?

See also: TwitterThings: 6 Unusual Entities That Tweet

Augemented reality applications

Thanks Gizmodo for this post on a really cool iphone app. This is pointy end of a fast approaching world 2.0 that i personally can't wait to see arrive.

Sekai Camera Turns On World's Balloon Help
Posted by Jesus Diaz at 6:15 PM on September 11, 2008

Sekai Camera is the killer iPhone application I was looking for: just point your camera anywhere around you to have instant feedback about whatever is on your screen. Directions, reviews, messages, offers, and any tag you can imagine will appear floating in front of you, adding a graphic overlay to the world.

Tonchidot defines their amazing Sekai Camera--in Japanese, World Camera-- as a "social tagging device" for the iPhone. It combines most technologies in the iPhone 3G, from the camera and the GPS to the internet connectivity and its microphone. When you start it, the application first checks where you are using the built-in GPS in the iPhone 3G.

At that point you can do two things. One, you can see information about places and objects around you, overlaid on the real-time video. Two, you can add your own information, whether you are an individual, a business, or any other kind of organisation. You just point and add your tag, which can include text, images, and sound. [Tonchidot via Dvice]

More on youtube about this app: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=KgTwSXK_5dg


Also very cool is the Enkin work done for android...


Enkin from Enkin on Vimeo.