Insights&Inspiration

Part 1: Facebook Status Updates for Awareness

For years now users have been hooked on Facebook app games.  The miracle somehow occurred that developers and marketers teamed up from the beginning with the bright idea to utilize all of their faithful gamers’ Facebook status as a marketing medium by blasting brand messaging via status update everytime their cow takes a poop or their fish dies.

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Well, another year has come to an end and I am urged like many to put together a post reflecting on the past 12 months, as a lot has gone on personally, professionally, and in the world around me that I feel is worth noting.

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Twitter has been serving as a wonderful resource for me – a place where I can pick through and gather useful information on my varied interests, including largely digital marketing and technology trends and tips; web design and development trends, tip and tutorials; and all that crosses these lines (social media, viral marketing, etc.).   The tweeps I have chosen to follow frequently share valuable links and tidbits that help me to further educate myself in the various categories of information I am drawn to. (more…)

To me this move signifies what may be the beginning of the fall of Facebook.

I believe Facebook just became to Twitter as Myspace has become to Facebook -  a copycat, a poser that is recycling used technology because they don’t want to fall behind in the race and be forgotten.  When Facebook came in they had it nailed – a general concept that people were beginning to really latch on to meshed with a completely original, vastly improved interface with deep functionality. But technology and the demands of users morph over time, and Twitter has developed an approach that users seem to really get. (more…)

When I heard the announcement of Google Wave, I was particularly excited. Not only because I trust that anything coming from Google will be just what the doctor ordered, but also because I have become interested in researching project management and collaboration tools that can fit today’s needs – and specifically my needs.

A Little Background

For those of you who are not familiar, you can read about Google Wave here.

Google Wave is Google’s latest project, and began with this question: “what might email look like if it were invented today?”.   So they reinvented email in the form of Google Wave, and it has become a communications platform encapsulating various communications technologies – a platform on which groups of people can share, collaborate, socialize, and interact. And developers are currently working on APIs that will further enhance the service.

So Once Wave Takes Hold…

Emerging as a tool that brings together all of the communication technologies that we have become so fond of – namely email, IM, and social media, it got me thinking:

• What will Google Wave’s impact be on the communications platforms we have been become so used to using to date – email, IM, and more recently, the various social media platforms that are so widely used today.
• Will Google Wave take over the online communication universe in the way that it took over the internet? Or do companies now know better to where they will recognize the threat and immediately begin to develop similar technologies that will enable them to compete with Google Wave? Will the result render all “old” communication mediums – email, IM and social networking platforms – useless?
• Will the Waves be publicly searchable, to where the keywords in the conversations can be tracked and measured? In that case, if we begin to use Google Wave in place of email, that means our emails will also now be trackable and measurable, and possibly public. This is certainly a new concept.
• So I then wonder, will we just become accustomed to everything we ever electronically write being public, except for possibly the select few conversations we choose to make private?
• And what will come of sites like Facebook and Twitter? Will they be able to maintain their unique position in the social media landscape, or will Google Wave’s capabilities become so powerful and versatile that it will render sites like these useless as well?

In Summation…

The thinking behind Google Wave is brilliant – how would we design email if it were invented today. Answer: incorporate all of forms of online communication that we currently use separately for various different reasons, and instead create a one-stop shop for collaborating, socializing, communicating and sharing.  Simple and brilliants.

I’m excited for what Google Wave will bring – and I don’t know how Google intends on handling this Pandora’s Box it may be opening – but am very curious to see how it all unfolds.

Post and share your thoughts on the topic!