oh, how fast he left the Dachis group

sad to see he has yet to revolutionize the so-called revolutionary category

so how will the PR digital arm challenge with the traditional digital unit?

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2009/12/edelman-1.html

Google brings us something new everyday, recently they’ve released a bunch of new products/improvements, which are really interesting and revolutionary. Just take a look at the list below and WOW:

1) Google goggles

What? a visual search application (android phones only for now, sorry)

So what? You don’t have to search by text, submit an image and Google knows what it is! (sounds amazing and crazy… Google can recognize image as human eye?)

More? http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/

2) Youtube automated captions

What? A youtube function to add captions to video automatically

So what? You don’t have to manually type the captions, Google can recognize your VO and write it in English! What’s more, the caption can be translated into other languages!! (crazy enough)

More? http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/automatic-captions-in-youtube.html

3) Chromium OS

What? A operating system, other than Windows or Mac

So what? So Google is sending the ultimatum to Microsoft, they’re challenging the Win & Mac monopoly, they’re developing a real operating system FOR web, not just FOR web, should be BORN WITH the web, so everything you do you do it online, no more offline mode, and you just need a few seconds to start up a Chromium OS

More? http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/automatic-captions-in-youtube.html

4) Google on QR code

What? Google is promoting QR code (QR code is like a hyperlink in an image format, specialized for mobile phone to access a webpage without typing the long urlllllllllll)

So what? QR code is not something new, it’s been here for years, you’ve probably seen a lot in Japan, some in HK, but never popular. It’s a vicious cycle, when no one use it, no advertiser would promote it, then no one would use it. So we just need someone like Google (or God) to push it, and they did! They did a great campaign in US. This should open up a lot of marketing activities if it becomes more popular. Check out the video at the link below, it’s cool!

More? http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/explore-whole-new-way-to-window-shop.html

5) Google.com revamp

What? The most visited website ever, which consists of 2 pages only, has done a revamp.

So what? Yeah you may not aware of it, coz 1) it’s not a drastic change like yahoo.com revamp; 2) the previous one is close to perfect so it can’t improve a lot; 3) you may be redirect to your local google page (i.e. Google.com.hk) when you’re typing google.com, so try this link which will definitely bring you to original one: www.google.com/ncr

I am not going to summarize the changes, there’re lots of people doing good analysis which you can read below. But at a glance, I think the fading in effect is a bit too funny, I’m not a fan of this.

More? http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/searching-global-web-just-got-little.html

http://searchengineland.com/google-streamlines-search-options-30143

What’s more…

- Google translated search http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/searching-global-web-just-got-little.html

- if you’re using Chrome, GOOD NEWS! They’ve just released a lot of interesting extension (like firefox plugin) https://chrome.google.com/extensions

- if you’re not using Chrome, then use it http://www.google.com/chrome

the conclusion is: Google is really changing the world…

(p.s. this post is written for a weekly digital sharing article in Publicis HK)

I said google won’t let it grow!!!

http://myrecap.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/the-next-google/

finally Google acqurie admob, what a good news

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/investing-in-mobile-future-with-admob.html

perhaps this gives you more clues on Windows 7 launch party

well, but the windows 7 launch party is still to stupid to watch it over again

here with buzz report comment’s

Facebook page is becoming a standard to brands

Molecular Voices has an article about its advantages & disadvantages

and here’s 10 Successful Facebook business pages

well, talking about social media case, you must bookmark the link below

1) Peter Kim’s list of Social Media Marketing example

2) Super list: 23 Extensive Lists of Organizations Using Social Media

I guess with the links above, you’ll find lots of facebook pages example and social media marketing examples

Everybrand should has its own facebook fan page

the problem is everyone like you and me can open one

so how to prove the authenticity?

I guess this will be an annoying problem like the domain registration

but since $$ can settle the domain problem

it can’t settle the facebook fans, in which you can’t just migrate the unofficial fans to official fans

that’d be a problem

anyway facebook has a new authentication policy on facebook page

it’s a good measure except requiring you to put “badge/share” widget on the official site

there’s a good article in inside facebook you might want to read

well, afterall, you might also visit my page on facebook, become a fan

http://www.facebook.com/myrecap

what’s more exciting than the term user-generated mix with the term augmented reality

or whatever you call the “new AR”, “2d sketches become 3d reality”, “Sketch & Shape recognition”, “in place 3D sketching”

they’re technical terms, what’s really meaning to the market, the marketing term, is the “user-generated AR”

Hats off to the  folks from the Visual Media Lab at Ben Gurion University and HIT Lab NZ, they have “jail-breaked?” the iPhone to release let anyone perform on-the-fly analysis of live streaming video on the iPhone.

what it means to agency/marketers is, we don’t need to print out something, or take it from magazine to visualize the 3D, just for the sake of seeing the little funny meaningless cutie 3D object, we can just draw on it, isn’t it cool?

(be patience, watch it till the end)

reference:

http://gamesalfresco.com/2009/10/16/2d-sketches-become-3d-reality/

http://gamesalfresco.com/2009/10/16/ismar-2009-sketch-and-shape-recognition-preview-from-ben-gurion-university/

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/iphone_augmented_reality_hack.php

Online PR/Forum posting/Blogger endorsement, we find bloggers for product trial/to endorse the product, we post messages on forum to promote the product

personally i don’t like brands/agency to communicate in this way

FTC recently regulates the rule on Endorsement & Testimonials, and the rules has extended to social media the first time, which is a big milestone on regulating this virgin land.

I truly welcome this rule, let’s utilize the social media in a right way instead of treating this as another push advertising channel.

The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on blogger payola.

The agency, which protects consumers from fraud or deceptive business practices, voted 4 to 0 to update its rules governing endorsements, and the new guidelines require bloggers to clearly disclose any “material connection” to an advertiser, including payments for an endorsement or free product.

It’s the first time since 1980 that the FTC has updated its rules on the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. In addition to covering bloggers, the new FTC rules state that celebrity endorsers can be held liable for false statements about a product, and all endorsements must include results consumers can “generally expect.” Previously, an advertiser could cover their claims by the disclaimer “results not typical.”

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139457

Update on 13 Oct

Advertising Age has 3 articles to talk about this, see how important it is.

Andy Sernovitz welcomes the new rule

There’s not a single new rule in the FTC announcement. Fake endorsements have always been illegal. In traditional advertising, you wouldn’t dare suggest to your boss or client that you pay off reporters or hiring actors to give fake testimonials. (You’d be fired.) So how did we think the same thing was OK just because it’s social media?

and he points out a very important point that “Remember: This is the law, not a matter of opinion or debate among social media experts.”

Dan Gillmore thinks this is a government gone wild policy

First, the new system is unworkable in practice, which is bad enough. Worse, the rules are worryingly vague and wide-ranging. Worse yet, they appear to give traditional print and broadcast journalists a pass while applying harsh regulations to bloggers (and others using conversational media of various kinds). Worst and most important, they are, in the end, an attack on markets and free speech, based on a 20th Century notion of media and advertising that simply doesn’t map to the new era.

Dan worries about the implementation, the workability, the vague area between the regulation. I think even it’s not that workable, it’s a nice rule to have 阻嚇性. We don’t need a team of internet police to check the messages everyday, but when a complain is received, at least we have a rule to deal with it.

Then we have a FAQ article to the new rule, really useful.

Again, I truly welcome this new policy, even though workability is an issue, I think the official will have further supplement on it, but at least it’s a great start. But well, I don’t think we’ll have this rule in HK, it’s still a virgin land to brand! not a good news at all.

Check it out if you have no idea what it is

it’s like Google Analytics but measuring your electricity, not web traffic

you can visualize your electricity in a iGoogle gadget!

I believe this tool can make a difference to the world

I love the idea which is big and so practical

I’ve talked about this in Feb this year

they have an update recently which is ‘open for enrolment’

though I don’t really understand what does that mean exactly

but i think this google product is underrated, government should actively promote this, to save the world and save our money!

I just wish they’ll be available in HK asap.

I hope you like this as much as me.

For more information:

http://blog.google.org/2009/10/open-enrollment-for-google-powermeter.html

http://google.yellostrom.de/index_en.php

It’s really exciting that HTML 5 is geolocation based.

Oh yes it’s not something new, IP address tells something about your location but it’s not effective at all. Then GPS is the next big thing with you mobile, but since most desktop won’t equip with GPS, and even though these devices had the capabilities to get the current location, website developers are still facing the problem that they can not access the positioning hardware of the phone. There was almost no way for (mobile) web developers to get the location of the user.

So how does HTML5 work, they get the location information from the devices such as Wifi towers or GPS. Most of the modern phones are now equipped with GPS functionality and so the laptops with Wifi. So, it’s not difficult to get the location information from these devices. But to make use of this, the location information should be made accessible to the websites via the browser.

I think what makes it sexy is that it’s really simple, to enable this geolocation based thing, it’s like embedding a <img> tag in your HTML code and it doesn’t really require a GPS hardware

here’s a test that you can try
http://htmlfive.appspot.com/static/whereami.html
though, still not accurate enough, but interesting enough
i hope this will get more and more accurate as the wifi network is more extensive

Further readings

http://vimeo.com/6691519
http://htmlfive.appspot.com/

http://maxheapsize.com/2009/04/11/getting-the-browsers-geolocation-with-html-5/
http://veerasundar.com/blog/2009/06/coming-up-in-html5-geolocation-api-support-in-browsers/

I just created a Facebook Page for this blog

I would be much grateful if you would like to add it as fan page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/myrecap/149621723336

when I have 25 fans, I will apply a facebook username

please help =_=

update on 13 Oct, I have a username now!

http://www.facebook.com/myrecap