Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Mashable: “Facebook’s ‘Reconnect’ Strategy is Brilliant” plus 21 more

Mashable: "Facebook's 'Reconnect' Strategy is Brilliant" plus 21 more

Facebook's 'Reconnect' Strategy is Brilliant

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 03:02 AM PDT

facebook_reconnect Recently, in addition to giving you suggestions to which friends you might add to your profile, Facebook also started enticing users to reconnect and engage less active users. The campaign has partly backfired, as some of the recommendations were dead people and ex-lovers, but I still think it's brilliant, and a good sign that Facebook has a clear strategy laid out for the future.

Facebook currently has a problem that plagues only the biggest online services out there, but a serious one nevertheless: it's getting too big. Its growth hasn't been spectacular in the last couple of months like it once did, but one has to wonder if it's simply nearing the natural limit for that type of service. Once you've conquered a huge portion of domestic (US) users, and international users, where do you turn to?

Existing users. Facebook's algorithms, while still not perfectly tuned, recognize that some users aren't using Facebook regularly, and entice their friends to reconnect with them; write on their wall, send them photos, and the like. It's the perfect campaign. If a company sends you an email that says "hey, you've been inactive, but why not give our service another go," you'll probably disregard it. But if a friend posts a photo of you or some of your friends, and the only place you can get it is Facebook, you're far more likely to log in – and get hooked – once again.

I'm an active Facebook user, and this latest strategy is also working well on my end. I see suggestions for friends I already have; I'm interested in why Facebook's suggesting them; I go check out why they haven't been active; in the end, I really did reconnect with some of them.

So, instead of simply waiting for someone to utter that dreadful sentence: "Facebook has a lot of users, but how many are active?," Facebook is working on reengaging their inactive users, recognizing that they're just as valuable as new users. Smart thinking. If they manage to tweak their algorithms and stop gross errors from happening, that is.

Reviews: Facebook

Tags: facebook, reconnect

Appboy: Social Network for Mobile App Lovers

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 09:40 PM PDT

This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

appboy-sm Name: Appboy

Quick Pitch: Social network for mobile app developers and users. Personal appstore. Add, share, comment, vote, socialize, submit app ideas, and get discovered.

Genius Idea: Appboy bills itself as a social network for mobile app developers and users. It lists apps for various mobile platforms (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Palm Pre) and users can comment and rate apps and create their own custom app stores. Developer can add their own apps to the store for additional promotion and users can submit ideas for future applications.

Users can create their own custom app stores that contain apps they like and earn a 5% commission based on app sales that originate from their stores.

For developers, Appboy offers another avenue of promoting your product and gaining more attention.

The app-idea feature is pretty intriguing. The idea is that users submit app ideas and the community votes on what ideas it likes. The best ideas will be made into actual apps (though it isn't clear who will take on the development task or how that task will be funded) and will win $250. It's sort of like Threadless for mobile apps.

appboy-lg

Having another avenue to find and rate mobile applications is always helpful — especially as app stores become larger and harder to navigate. Appboy's focus on multiple platforms and the way it tries to encourage interaction from both users and developers shows the promise of a cool mobile app community.

Where do you go to find out about the latest mobile apps? What do you think of the concept of custom app stores? Let us know!

Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the "new CloudApp()" contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines)."

Reviews: Android, PHP

Tags: android, app stores, appboy, blackberry, iphone

San Francisco Bay Bridge Shut Down, TwitPic Captures Accident

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 07:56 PM PDT

San Francisco's famous Bay Bridge is being shut down by the California Highway Patrol in both directions. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "pieces of the cantilever section section fell during the late-afternoon commute."

Interestingly enough, Twitter was first on the scene, as the commuter Joe Marshall (@larfo) snapped this Twitpic of the Bay Bridge debris. The image, taken about two hours ago, clearly depicts the San Francisco Bay Bridge with what appears to be cables down and bridge mass spewed everywhere.

bay bridge twitpic

The Chronicle reports:

"A chunk of steel lay in the middle of the far left lane of the upper deck and an object that appeared to be a cable was on a Ryder truck dangling from the side of the span.

Authorities have not said how long the closure will last."

While this is certainly not the first time that a Twitter user tweeted breaking news before mainstream media outlets — there's plenty of incidents like the Jakarta bombings and Hudson plane crash to reference — it certainly serves as another telling example of the power of Twitter as a communication platform.

Image from wallyg on Flickr

Reviews: Flickr, Twitter

Tags: bay bridge, San Francisco-San Jose, twitpic

City of Los Angeles Goes Google for $7.2 Million

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 06:21 PM PDT

google sign It looks like those Going Google billboards are actually good for something, as the Los Angeles' city council has just unanimously approved a Google Apps deal worth $7.2 million.

According to CNET, LA would become one of the largest government agencies, outside the District of Columbia, to make the switch to using hosted Google email and application services.

However, security concerns over storing information in the cloud did factor into the process and have yet to be 100% aleviated. Apparently the deal hinges around an agreement with Computer Sciences Corp, a contractor who would need to agree to pay a penalty should there be a security breach.

If the deal does go through it would be quite the coup for Google and their Going Google campaign. With both the US Government supporting the initiative and the city of Los Angeles joining the Google team, Google is building up an arsenal of large and impressive customers that should make it easier to attract more top dollar enterprise clients.

Image from Peter Kaminski on Flickr

Reviews: Flickr, Google

Tags: going google, Los Angeles

Michael Jackson's This Is It Dominates Online Ticket Sales

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 05:01 PM PDT

This week marks the premiere of Michael Jackson's This Is It, a documentary about the late singer's final months.

If you're one of the fans getting your ticket early online, you're not alone: according to Deadline Hollywood, This Is It has accounted for a whopping 61% of all online ticket sales this week. Of those buying, almost half reported developing a renewed interest in the artist's work after his death in June.

On the other hand, it opens this week without too much blockbuster release competition. But with Where the Wild Things Are still fresh and a few other well-performing films in theaters now, commanding 3/5 of online ticket sales is definitely pretty impressive.

What are your plans to watch This Is It, if any? Let us know in the comments.

[Image courtesy of Kadix on Flickr.]

Reviews: Flickr

Tags: Film, michael jackson, Movies, This Is It

Google Similar Images Launches to All

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 05:00 PM PDT

Way back in April, Google relaunched Google Labs, the place where the company tests its new and experimental features. When it relaunched, it added a very interesting experimental feature to Google Image Search: Similar Images.

A recap if you don't remember similar images: it utilizes image recognition technology to help filter search results. If you find an action shot of soccer/football star David Beckham and want to find more like it, for example, you can use Similar Images to filter your results and find similar images.

The feature has been in Google Labs for over half a year, but that's no longer the case. Google has announced that Similar Images has now become a standard feature of Google Image search.

It was only a matter of time until Similar Images made its debut in Google Search. It's a very useful and surprisingly accurate feature that really helps you filter images. We can expect to see a lot of users utilizing this feature very soon.

Reviews: Google, Google search

Tags: Google, Google images

DJ Hero Launches to Virtual Record Spinners Everywhere

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 03:44 PM PDT

Activision adds another chapter to its already impressive music game franchise today with the release of DJ Hero.

Like Guitar Hero before it, DJ Hero challenges you to "master" a virtual instrument, in this case the vinyl turntable still in use by many a DJ even in the digital age.

Also like Guitar Hero, it features an easy to pick up but difficult to master type of gameplay mechanic. DJ Hero's accessibility will appeal to enthusiasts and would-be club jockeys to plain old music fans alike.

Featuring 93 original mixes and 102 total songs at launch in genres from hip-hop to rock and R&B to dance, the basic edition of the game won't come cheap at $120 including the turntable controller. A special Renegade edition including unreleased JAY-Z and Eminem material and some other goodies will set you back a whopping $200.

Still, if you're a music fan eager to take a stab at DJ technique standards like scratching, crossfading, sampling, and applying effects, it's cheaper than picking up a pair of Technics 1200 and building a record collection. The title is available now for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, and Nintendo Wii.

Are you thinking of picking up DJ Hero? Have you played any other music games and if so, what are your favorites?

Tags: Activision Blizzard, DJ, DJ Hero, games, music games, turntables

MySpace Courts Microsoft for Music Content Deal

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 02:44 PM PDT

The talks are preliminary according to AllThingsD, but they nevertheless reveal more of struggling social network MySpace's strategy for re-inventing itself. And although MSN Music already has its own content network, executives are considering retooling it with MySpace's help because of its lackluster performance.

This follows MySpace's launching of its extensive Music Videos archive and news that it's pursuing a partnership with Facebook in order to share its content within the rival social network. All of the above smacks of a strategy that's far less about social networking and far more about building a compelling clearinghouse for music and music video that's wrapped in a social layer — and hooking up with partners to get that content much wider distribution around the web.

Whether the MySpace-MSN deal ends up being sealed or not, it seems like the best strategy the social network has come up with yet to try and revive its ailing traffic and make itself not only relevant but indispensable in an age that could certainly use a sort of MTV 2.0 for the internet generation.

What do you think all the recent MySpace news says about its strategy moving forward? Can the waning social networking giant reposition itself as a social entertainment destination?

Reviews: MySpace

Tags: facebook, microsoft, msn, music, myspace, myspace music, social networking

Lawyers + iPhone Ad + Illegal Immigration = What on Earth Is LawFirms.com Thinking?

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 02:19 PM PDT

Here's what sounds like a recipe for PR disaster: combine a website that is a directory of lawyers with the hot button issue of illegal immigration with an ad for a fictional iPhone app for those "lost and disoriented in the desert."

But, this is exactly what LawFirms.com has done, creating an ad for an "app for that" called iCoyote that "packs all of the features of a real immigrant smuggler into the iPhone. Using GPS, navigate through the patrol packed desert without worrying about that pesky Border Patrol."

There isn't actually an app you can download – the idea of the ad seems to be to create buzz and get people to use lawfirms.com to find an immigration lawyer who can get you into the US legally. Or, you can take the ad's advice and get an "iWife," because the app "will take care of finding marriage prospects for you. Aggregating and analyzing data from a variety of online sources [to] match you up with only the most promising US Citizen candidates."

The ad is filled with "features" and remarks like these:

The company does subtly back peddle from the ad, writing in a disclaimer that "any potential political views conveyed on this page do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of LawFirms.com or Experthub, Inc, but rather, the tasteless sense of humor of two employees that are likely to be fired."

Whatever. The ad seems to do a good job of offending both sides of the illegal immigration issue – on one, encouraging illegal immigrants to evade border partrol, on the other, poking fun at the hundreds of people who die every year trying to sneak into the US. It's hard to see where the win is here, unless lawfirms.com is going by the "any press is good press" mantra. It is a site, after all, for lawyers.

We've contacted the company to ask what exactly it is they're going for here. We'll post an update when they respond.

Tags: advertising, iphone, MARKETING

HOW TO: Become an Expert in Your Industry

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 01:07 PM PDT

knowledge Susan Payton is the Managing Partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an internet marketing firm specializing in blogger outreach, social media, and PR. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and teaches marketing courses at Marketing EggSchool. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.

Today it seems that no matter what industry you're in, your competition is stronger than ever. How do you stand out and get that sale when people aren't as loyal to brands as they used to be? How do you get their attention in an ever growing sea of noise when they're so often swayed by price rather than quality? One answer is to become recognized as an expert in your industry, someone other people seek out for information.

The most important part to becoming known as an expert, of course, is that you know a lot about whatever it is you do. That could be construction, public relations, HR, dogs — whatever it is, in order to gain the requisite knowledge to be regarded as a thought-leader in your field likely requires years of schooling or real-world practice, or both. In addition, when your goal is to be recognized as an expert you need to always keep learning, and to constantly share that expertise. But first let's talk about why you might want to be an expert.

Benefits of Being an Expert

Being an expert in your field makes you the go-to person for your industry. There are many people that I trust inherently on different subjects simply because they know their stuff, and they're not trying to sell me anything. They just want to be helpful in their own space. These are people that I learn from, but also whom I would buy from because I trust their knowledge and expertise.

Being an expert helps you:

- Establish yourself as an industry leader
- Help others
- Become a trusted resource
- Get interviews and media coverage
- Gain access (via conference/speaking invites, etc.)
- Convert followers to sales

Keep Up-to-Date

Only a fool assumes he knows everything and can't learn any more. No matter how much you know, content and ideas are changing, especially if you work in a fast-moving industry like social media. News happens, ideas shift, people try new things. It's important for you to stay on top of the latest updates.

Though this list is by no means complete, here are some places you can turn to stay up to date on the most recent news, trends, and ideas in your industry.

Blogs & News – Blogs in your industry are a great place to find out the latest tools and news. If you're not already reading blogs, do a web search for [your industry + blogs] (like Chiropractic Blogs, for example) to locate some blogs that cover your business niche. Find ones that you like and subscribe to them by RSS so you won't forget to read them.

You can also use Technorati or PostRank to find blogs in your industry. PostRank can be used to weed out the best post from the blogs you follow, as well.

It's not a bad idea to set up a Google Alert to search for news about your industry. Paying attention to news headlines is a great way to stay abreast of changes in your field.

Online Education – There's no reason you have to enroll in college (again) to keep learning. There are a variety of online resources at which you can take free or cheap webinars or e-courses to keep the wheels churning.

If you're looking for generic business information, the US Small Business Administration has free online courses for small business owners, for example, or if you want great advice on internet marketing, look to HubSpot. Search the web and pay attention to the blogs you read to keep abreast of opportunities for online learning.

Social Networks – Increasingly, social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, and Delicious are where people are sharing news and information that matters to them. By following the already established experts in your niche, you'll gain access to the information they possess, which will in turn increase your knowledge.

Conferences & Events – Every industry has conferences, trade shows, and other events, at which other experts in the industry gather to share their knowledge. Attending these meetings can help you in your quest to continually learn new information. You can find out about conferences by reading industry blogs, searching events sites like Upcoming.org, or finding local user groups on Meetup.

Imparting Your Wisdom

By sharing your knowledge with others, you'll quickly become known for your expertise. This can translate into sales, job offers, gigs, or other opportunities, as you build your personal brand as an expert. Here are some ways you can share what you know.

Blogs – The easiest way to start sharing is by creating a blog. Blogs are fantastic if you've got a ton of information in your head and need a place to dump it. The bonus is: you can help others through that information. Blog about what you know. Share news, offer advice, give your opinion, and make yourself the go-to resource for what you do. The key to successful blogging is to consistently put out good, original, and useful content that encourages readers to engage with you and with each other.

Social Media – Social media sites are designed for experts! I can't tell you how many times I've had a question about something, tweeted it, and gotten free advice back, later, the people who provided me with expert advice are the people I buy from when I need their services. By providing free advice on Twitter or Facebook, you will build a base of fans that both trust you and look to you for expert advice. These fans will seek you out and recommend you to others seeking advice and information — in other words, by sharing your knowledge and gaining trust, your network will grow on its own.

Among the ways you can share your expertise using social media, are creating a lens on Squidoo that is home to all the great knowledge you've gleaned over the years, bookmarking blog posts and articles that relate to what you do on Delicious, and sharing those links on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, or Reddit, and responding to queries on Yahoo! Answers or LinkedIn Answers.

Create Online Courses – The benefits to teaching online are many, says Mike Volpe of HubSpot. "Leveraging inbound marketing with educational content is more efficient and a lower cost per lead than outbound advertising. Our inbound marketing programs are 5-10 times more efficient lead gen and sales channels than our outbound marketing programs."

One way to offer an online course is through recently launched, Prfessor.com, which offers software that makes it possible for anyone to host an online school where they sell (or give away for free) courses on virtually any topic.

Video – Don't underestimate the power of video. For those who do well in front of a camera, sharing free how-to videos on sites like YouTube or Vimeo can lead to increased awareness. It also demonstrates to television producers how well you do on camera, which means online expert videos can lead to television appearances.

Speaking Up – You should already be attending industry conferences, trade shows, and user group meetings, and you should make sure to assert yourself as a knowledgeable voice in the community while at those events. Whether that means lining up formal speaking engagements — which will be easier to do the more you grow your personal brand as an expert — or just networking and sharing your expertise with other attendees, speaking up is helpful in building your expert brand.

Consulting – Offering consulting services can do two things: first, it can make you a little money, and second, it can help you establish yourself among industry insiders as someone who knows their stuff. One consulting gig can lead to many based on referrals and having a list of business owners willing to give you a recommendation can be invaluable. If you plan to offer consulting services, put information about your services on your blog and in your social profiles, and consider offering phone consultations through Ether.com.

Build On Your Expertise

It takes a while, but you will see a snowball effect as you build your brand as an expert. More people will come to you for advice or consulting, and more media types will reach out to you for interviews. Learn to leverage your knowledge and convert it to sales. Speaking at conferences, teaching courses or seminars — both online and off, and consulting for businesses will help you grow your personal brand.

What other advice do you have for would-be web experts? Let us know in the comments.

More business resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
- Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business
- HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter
- 3 New Facebook Strategies for Building Your Personal Brand

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, firebrandphotography

Reviews: Delicious, Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, blog, iStockphoto, news, video

Tags: experts, how to, personal brand, personal branding

Android 2.0: The Next Version of Google's Mobile OS Is Coming [Video]

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 12:42 PM PDT

eclair-sm Just yesterday, Android developers were discussing the fact that Android 2.0 (codenamed "Eclair") would be out this week, but that Google hadn't updated its SDK with 2.0 support.

Today, Google is rectifying that problem by announcing that the latest version of the Android SDK now supports Android 2.0. Along with it, Google has also released a video showing what's new in Android 2.0.

If you're a current Android developer, you can add Android 2.0 to your SDK toolkit by using the SDK Manager. New developers first need to download the Android SDK and then use the SDK Manager to add the Android SDK Tools, revision 3. These tools include support Android 2.0 and offer Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard support for Mac-based developers. For developers who use Eclipse as their IDE of choice, ADT version 0.9.4.

Meanwhile, if you're curious about what's new with Android 2.0, you can check Google's highlights page and this video:

For users, some of the new Android 2.0 features include:

Multiple accounts per-device
Exchange Support
An improved virtual keyboard
Support for flash, digital zoom and white balance on the camera (provided your camera has a built-in flash)
Improved web browser with HTML-5 support and better search and navigation
Improved calendar

The first phone that will feature Android 2.0 is the upcoming Droid from Verizon and Motorola. It's not yet clear what existing Android phones will be able to upgrade to Android 2.0, or when carriers will issue those software updates.

What do you think of the next version of Android? Developers, do the new features make you more willing to invest in the platform? Users, what new features are you most excited about using? Let us know!

Reviews: Android, Google

Tags: android, Android 2.0, android sdk, eclair, Google

iDon't Care: Video Spoofs Motorola Droid's Anti-iPhone Ad

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 11:55 AM PDT

idontcare The Motorola Droid "iDon't" ad that went viral online last week certainly sparked a lot of conversation about the upcoming device. Thus, we had to know that an adoring Apple fanboy/girl would take to his/her Mac and Final Cut Pro to counter the critical ad, and that's exactly what has happened.

"iDon't Care" spoofs the iDon't style, complete with the same music and an R2D2 reference. "iDon't Care" uses iDon't lines with comedic effect that iPhone and Apple fans will absolutely adore. We'll let the Android and iPhone fans duke it out in the comments, but regardless of your mobile affinities, you have to admit that "iDon't Care" is a clever, fan-generated retort to the original spot.

Watch it for yourself below and let us know what you think of the spoof.

[via Digits]

Image from Toasty Ken on Flickr

Reviews: Android, Flickr

Tags: android, droid does, idon't care

CNN Tech: Mashable Joins the Lineup

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 10:25 AM PDT

cnntech CNN.com officially relaunched its website this week, and we're pleased to announce that the updated CNN.com/TECH section now includes headlines syndicated from Mashable. This is in addition to a new column I'll be writing on the site, going live Wednesday.

We're in the middle of an exciting transition as social media and the mainstream begin to overlap in all sorts of interesting ways: this underlines our belief that social media isn't some marketing fad, but rather a fundamental change to the way we consume and interact with content. We've been covering this transition for four years, from the rise of social networking to the birth of the "social media" movement as people began to use these tools of personal connection to pass content around the web.

The fact that CNN is paying close attention to social media's rise – including the addition of far more social interaction on its site – is surely another step forward.

Tags: cnn, mashable, social media

Little Buddy Child Tracker Makes Spying on Your Kids Easy

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 10:24 AM PDT

littlebuddy-sm Want to spy, er, keep track of your kids? Best Buy's house brand, Insignia, recently released a new device that can help you do just that.

The device, known as the Little Buddy Child Tracker (available here) is a small portable GPS tracker that can be stored (or snuck) into a backpack, lunchbox, or pencil case. Parents can then log onto the web and see where their child is at all times, or receive SMS alerts if they leave a designated area.

It looks like you can track where your child is using a Google Maps Street View type feature, designate a perimeter that your child is supposed to stay in, and make a note of different destinations. The end result supposedly is that your kids are safer (assuming they don't chuck the device onto the kid next to them on the bus or clip it to the family dog), because you can always know where they are.

In reality, the idea — while attractive for the paranoid parent — is also a kind of creepy. I mean, what fun is it to be 14 and skip going to the library after school and instead hang out at Taco Bell with the high schoolers if your mom is going to be trying to track your whereabouts from her BlackBerry?

What do you think of these types of GPS devices? Would you attach one to your kid? Let us know!

Tags: best buy, gps, gps tracker, little buddy tracker

Choosing the Right Social Media Tools for Your Business [Video]

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 10:23 AM PDT

Last week, I shared with you the first in a series of videos sponsored by UPS in the style of their "whiteboard" TV commercials. The idea is to take social media concepts and explain them in 1-2 minutes, giving businesses an idea of how they can seize the opportunities created by the medium.

In the second installment, we look at selecting the right social media tools for your business, whether it's for improving communication internally, or finding a better way to manage your consumer facing social media presence on Twitter and Facebook.

There are literally hundreds of tools to choose from in this space, so, I tried to select a few that we've reviewed and fill big needs (for example, CoTweet, Involver, and Socialtext are featured). If you'd like more information about this topic, these resources might also be useful:

10 of the Best Social Media Tools for Entrepreneurs

5 Easy Social Media Wins for Your Small Business

35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action

10 of the Best Social Media Tools for PR Professionals and Journalists

Without further ado, here's this week's video on Internal/External Social Networking:

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

Tags: small business, social networking

Last.TV: Last.fm to Produce Music Television Programming

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 09:46 AM PDT

television set Earlier this month, Last.fm launched its own HD radio stations in four different cities. Now, the CBS-owned company's plan to expand beyond online music programming includes video too.

According to Music Week, the company will launch Last.TV to online and offline airwaves starting in January and will initially include content from music festivals in Europe, "either through building bespoke events or partnering with existing festivals."

Of course, it seems like music-oriented programming is a logical next step given the network affiliation, and we certainly think that there's more room for music-oriented television — especially with MTV focusing on reality-show content. Last.fm is certainly poised to pull in big acts and appeal to younger audiences already using the online service, but it will be interesting to see how this actually comes together.

Would you watch Last.TV online or on your television set? Let us know what you think about the news and what it would take for you to tune into Last.fm branded content from CBS.

Image from dailyinvention on Flickr

Reviews: Flickr

Tags: cbs, Last.FM, last.tv, television

Zombies in Bikinis Attack App Store [Video]

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 09:21 AM PDT

zombiebikiniiphone-sm There are now more than 100,000 approved apps in Apple's App Store and while lots of them are great, there are also those that make us pause and go, "huh?"

Just in time for Halloween, Smort has released a new iPhone game that totally exploits (and satirizes) the App Store's "race-to-the-bottom." The game is called Attack of the Zombie Bikini Babes from Outer Space [iTunes Link]. The game combines three of the App Stores biggest gaming trends: zombies, girls in bikinis, and aiming projectiles at stuff. It's hilarious.

The Game

Check out this trailer for the game, it pretty much explains how it works:

In essence, you throw squirrels and raccoons and gasoline bottles at bikini clad zombies that emerge from a spaceship. There are two slingshots, so it takes a certain amount of skill to get your aim and timing down. The zombies aren't really bikini babes as much as they are homages to the Grindhouse-girls from Russ Meyer films or other B-movies from the 50s and 60s.

The whole game is very tongue and cheek, but also very addictive.

Our Review

As you can see, I'm a fan of the game. I think it has a great sense of humor and does a great job satirizing the App Store, while also offering a fun overall experience.

Price and Availability

Attack of the Zombie Bikini Babes from Outer Space is available in two versions. The Lite [iTunes link] version is free and lets you play a few rounds of the game to get a feel for the overall game. The full version [iTunes link] is just $0.99.

For anyone looking for a good way to waste some time, have a laugh and hit zombie's in bikini's with pelts of squirrels, Smort's Attack of the Zombie Bikini Babes from Outer Space is that game.

Let us know what you think of the game in the comments!

Disclosure: Mashable's Ben Parr is currently working with Smort's parent company Smule on an unannounced project.

Reviews: App Store

Tags: iPhone games, smort, video reviews, zombie bikini babes from outer space

The Next App Store: Google Wave

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 08:51 AM PDT

Google Wave may still be in its infancy, but it's already looking towards the future – a future that includes monetization. And part of that monetization will apparently come from an iPhone (or Android)-like app store, where developers can market Wave apps and consumers can buy them, with Google presumably taking a cut.

According to The Next Web, Google confirmed an app store is in the works at an event in London on Monday. The blog speculates that "a Wave marketplace could stock in-Wave applications, along with desktop applications, browser extensions and a world of devices, from laptops, phones, tablets and more with built in Wave support."

The development doesn't come as much of a surprise, as Google Wave already has an extensions platform for adding functionality. Back in June, we wrote that "we wouldn't be surprised if entrepreneurs created robots or gadgets for businesses they could charge for, and expect applications that rival the usefulness of Twitter apps."

However, an app store is only attractive to developers if there are users. Between iPhone and iPod Touch, there are more than 40 million of them – hence, why you now have more than 100,000 apps, with every other mobile platform far behind. Wave was just rolled out to 100,000 users last month, who are slowly getting invites so they can add friends and colleagues.

We have a long way to go until a Wave app store becomes a reality, let alone a viable business, but it's an interesting possibility to think about.

Reviews: Google, Google Wave, Twitter

Tags: Google, Google Wave

HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 07:47 AM PDT

roi-flickr-sm Last month, we reported on a survey that found that 84% of social media programs don't measure return on investment (ROI). The comments in that post indicated that a lot of individuals and businesses want to be able to measure the ROI of their social media strategies and campaigns, but they don't know where to start.

Companies and executives are finally beginning to really jump on the social media bandwagon, and that's fantastic. However, for social media to fully work (for everyone), businesses and brands need to be able to evaluate the impact their social media use is having, both positive and negative. Measuring social media ROI isn't impossible, but it can be difficult because many of the pieces that need to be evaluated are difficult to track. This guide is designed to help you track down those pieces and determine the ROI you're getting on social media.

ROI Reality Check

Oliver Blanchard's Social Media ROI Presentation is a witty, fun introduction to ROI in terms of social media. If you're confused about what ROI is (or rather, how it is measured), in the context of social media, check out his presentation (below), before you proceed with this post.

Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

Defining Clear Goals

As a standard formula, ROI is pretty basic, ROI = (X – Y) / Y, where X is your final value and Y is your starting value. In other words, if you invest $5 and get back $20, your ROI is (20 – 5) / 5 = 3 times your initial investment. In the financial sense, ROI is measured purely in the context of dollars and cents, however, the principles can really apply to any type of investment — monetary or not.

Having concrete goals and concrete baselines is crucial to calculating your return on investment. So before you set out to measure and monitor your social media returns, you need to have a clear idea of what it is you want to accomplish.

Once you have your goals defined, you need to gauge the baseline for your levels before starting or changing your social media strategy. For example, if your goal is to increase social media mentions of your company, in order to measure the ROI of any actions taken toward that goal, you need to know where you stand now. You can't evaluate the ROI accurately without a baseline.

Metrics Tools

Although ROI ≠ metrics, traditional web metrics like traffic counts, number of comments, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, etc. are an important component when calculating your ROI.

The trick is to not rely solely on the numbers, but on what the numbers end up leading to. For instance, does your increase in website visitors correlate with higher sales? Are people that find your website from Twitter or Facebook then clicking on your product pages or going to the e-Commerce section of your site? That's the sort of data you want to be able to look for.

Back in January, we did a round-up of 50+ Tools for Measuring Web Traffic. Here are some of our favorites and some additional social media related measuring options:

Google Analytics — It's free and it can provide a really powerful baseline for a variety of different factors. You can track incoming links and then the activities of the users they send, which can be helpful.

Omniture — Omniture has a slew of services available for businesses, including components that track Facebook and Twitter metrics.

TweetMeme Analytics — This is useful if you use TweetMeme's retweet buttons on your sites. It's a lot like Google Analytics, but focused on TweetMeme.

PostRank Analytics — This suite of tools measures social engagement on other platforms and services. What's nice about PostRank is that instead of just a raw number, you can actually see the messages and comments from other sites that contribute to your stats. This can be really important for sentiment analysis (more on that later).

HootSuite — HootSuite is a great Twitter manager but also offers impressive analytics. The nice thing about the click data you get from an app like HootSuite (or bit.ly) is by looking deeper you can more easily see if those clicks translate into transactions or impressions on your other sites.

Be sure to check out our post on Tracking Social Media Analytics for help with these tools and for the type of data you want to look for. Also check out some other reasons to use a URL shortener.

Sentiment Analysis

Having a metric for something like Twitter mentions is pretty meaningless if you don't know if those mentions are positive or negative. This is where sentiment analysis is interesting. Sentiment is also a useful baseline to look at before implementing or changing a social media strategy and calculating your ROI.

We've written a lot about different sentiment analysis tools for Twitter and here are some highlights:

Viral Heat — Viral Heat is an affordable social media monitoring service that includes a sentiment breakdown for Twitter mentions.

Twendz — Twendz is a very basic real-time Twitter sentiments tool.

Tweet Feel — Tweet Feel is another real-time Twitter sentiments search-engine.

Crimson Hexagon — Crimson Hexagon is an Enterprise-level social media tracking tool. The algorithm they use for their VoxTrot Opinion Monitor is really impressive stuff, and will help you determine what consumer sentiment is toward your brand based on social media mentions.

Sentiment Metrics — Sentiment Metrics is another tool aimed at enterprises or larger businesses. We mentioned them in our round-up of reputation tracking tools last year.

Social Media Product Suites

These products can be extremely useful in measuring ROI on social networks but are primarily designed for bigger brands and corporations. Still, in terms of all-encompassing tool sets, these tools have the edge.

Vitrue SRM — We've covered the Twitter Pages component of Vitrue SRM (Social Relationship Manager) before, but the whole suite is really dedicated to managing and getting the most information out of your social media accounts. Vitrue does analytics for links posted on Twitter or Facebook and can also plug into third-party services like Omniture and Google Analytics. Vitrue SRM is basically a CMS for controlling and monitoring your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

ContextOptional — ContextOptional offers both a Social Reporting Dashboard for monitoring engagement and activity and a Social Moderation Console for Facebook.

Salesforce.com — Salesforce.com's Service Cloud 2 line of products is really designed to integrate Twitter and Facebook results and pages directly into a company's CRM. Although this isn't ROI in the most clear-cut terms, by improving customer service and getting a handle on problems quickly, brands can save themselves from potentially costly mistakes. Those savings can be taken into account when computing your ROI.

Making the Data Usable

This is the hard part. After you have defined your baseline, you need to take the metrics from your monitoring tools and see how they correlate to higher sales, better customer retention, or whatever your primary markers for output are.

If your ultimate measurement is sales for instance, look at your sales level. If it has increased, look at the number of referrers on your e-commerce site (assuming you can track this data) from your website or Twitter or the number of coupons used that were given away in a Facebook campaign to start calculating which sales stemmed from your social media campaigns.

Do you see any trends? Is traffic up to your store after posting on Facebook? What about Twitter? Does store traffic correlate with more sales when evaluating that same data? Does a higher sentiment analysis on Twitter lead to more sales or more visits?

Finding trends and tracking them back to their point of origin is the key to measuring ROI.

What do you think?

What do you use when measuring social media ROI? Is ROI the best term for measuring impact of social media, or should something else be used? What have you found to be good indicators of things that work and don't work when using social media? Let us know!

More business resources from Mashable:

- 5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Business
- Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business
- 6 Must-Follow Steps for Selling in Any Economy
- 5 Small Businesses Successfully Using Social Media

(Photo Courtesy of Cambodia4Kids on Flickr)

Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Google Analytics, HootSuite, Tweetmeme, Twitter

Tags: analysis, contextoptional, crimson hexagon, facebook, metrics, ROI, salesforce.com, social media roi, twitter, vitrue srm

Watch NASA's Ares I-X Rocket Test Flight Live

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 07:45 AM PDT

nasa_ares Update: NASA has canceled today's launch due to weather (specifically triboelectrification).

The last major televised NASA event was a slight disappointment (probably because everyone expected a huge, visible blast, which just didn't happen), but it doesn't mean we'll stop getting excited about space exploration.

Today, NASA is poised to test launch a new rocket: the Ares I-X. It's a suborbital prototype of a new booster that should launch NASA's new craft (which will replace the current shuttle) Orion. The launch will last for a couple minutes, but that doesn't make it a small event: it costs $445 million. The view, claims NASA, will be "spectacular."

If you're not near NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida where the launch is taking place, you can still see it live. The weather hasn't been perfect, so the time of launch was moved a couple of times. If the launch indeed happens today, it has to be soon, so tune in to NASA TV now.

Tags: Ares I-X, NASA

Facebook Password Reset Confirmation Email Contains Virus [ALERT]

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 06:57 AM PDT

Another new virus is spreading through social networks, this time, via Facebook. This one – known as Bredolab – masks itself as a "Password Reset Confirmation Email," appears to come from Facebook, and attaches a file that purports to contain a new password.

That file is actually a trojan horse that will download a host of nasty files from the Web and infect your computer with them. Email security firm MX Lab explains further:

"Bredolab is a trojan horse that downloads and executes files from the Internet, such as rogue anti-spyware. To bypass firewalls, it injects its own code into legitimate processes svchost.exe and explorer.exe. Bredolab contains anti-sandbox code (the trojan might quit itself when an external program investigates its actions)."

The way to avoid this one: if you didn't request your password from Facebook, there's no reason you should be getting a password reset confirmation email, so don't open it. Further, even if you did, Facebook would not send your new password as an attachment. Finally, f you're still not sure, take a look at the full details of the email – if the mail server's don't belong to Facebook, you know the message is not legit.

Reviews: Facebook

Tags: facebook, security, social networking, virus

WOW: iPhone Reaches 100,000 Approved Apps

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 04:21 AM PDT

iphone_3gs It hasn't been publicly announced by Apple, who like pointing out milestones that make them look great, but if you look at the stats over at unofficial iPhone App directory App Shopper, there are currently 101,751 approved apps available for the iPhone.

In August, we reported that there were 65,000 iPhone apps available. It took about 2 and a half months for that number to reach 100,000 – truly a remarkable feat. Have in mind that this is the number of approved apps; the actual number of available applications is a bit lower; according to App Shopper, it's currently at 93,035.

As far as the competition goes, it's hard not to rub it in. One needs only a quick look at (for example) Palm's App Catalog or even the powerful Nokia's Ovi Store to see where they stand compared to Apple's numbers. Windows Mobile has been around for over six years, and its Windows Marketplace for Mobile opened up a couple of weeks ago with 246 apps.

Apple will probably officially announce the news soon. As far as what it all means in real, hard cash, just think about the August estimates that the iPhone app economy is worth 2.4 billion dollars.

Tags: app store, apple, iphone

New Technologies

Wednesday, October 28, 2009