Exploring Marketing Technology

Opinions are all my own

  • New Wikipedia crawler provides powerful semantic search

    As recently as May, the online press was calling the technology behind Powerset a possible “Google-killer,” as well as an acquisition shoo-in. In June Microsoft proved the second prediction when they bought Powerset for roughly $100 million.

    Microsoft acquired, at the very least, a fascinating toy. Here’s a video showing the power of this company’s semantic search tool:


    Powerset Demo Video from officialpowerset on Vimeo.

    The next time you need something out of Wikipedia, see if you can find it more quickly using this impressive application.

    “Hearing” and Understanding

    When I call the technology a toy I’m joking, of course. Accounts are that Microsoft is incorporating Powerset’s app gradually into Live Search. There is another use that’s hinted at in the way semantic search renders answers. It’s a far more exciting prospect than another web-based search engine.

    Consider the implications of this technology once voice recognition via cell phones improves.

    As I’ve speculated before, we’ll witness the true power of mobile computing when the voice barrier is broken. This voice barrier is a two-fold problem. As with human cognition, there is the problem of accurately hearing, and even more difficult, the problem of understanding.

    Powerset’s semantic search shows progress in tackling that second half of the equation.

  • Obama to revive fireside chats for a Web 2.0 world

    Today Change.gov announced that President-elect Obama will likely be giving weekly YouTube speeches, similar to the weekly radio White House addresses of the recent past, and, more tellingly, the radio-based fireside chats that FDR used so effectively to inform and comfort Depression Era listeners.



    In the early summer, during Online Community Month, I discussed how Senator Obama’s campaigning style differed significantly from other candidates, including Hillary Clinton. Others have termed this new approach networked leadership.

    Today’s announcement appears to be another example of how our president-elect is leveraging new technology to organize, and, well, lead.

    It gives me hope.

  • Americhip understands that a hands-on audience is an engaged audience

    You’d think, the way I gush over Americhip’s products, that I have a stake in their success. I don’t, and in fact I feel like publicizing their innovations can inspire others to try and top them. Once again, I feel like their competition really has their work cut out for them.

    I’ve written before about the still mostly mysterious phenomenon of our unconscious “calling the shots” when we get our hands involved in an activity. It’s like something out of a story of the supernatural, but it’s a phenomenon well-documented since the 1980’s.

    Americhip shows us three ways to exploit this hand-to-brain pathway. The first is pretty conventional for anyone who has ever scratched off a lottery ticket. But the other two are still fairly new. Click on the image to get an explanation of each.

    Have any of my readers used one of these techniques, or received a mailing or magazine insert with such a technique that really stood out?

  • Digital out-of-home has unique power to interest consumers

    Boring old out-of-home is a surprisingly promising medium for engaging consumers. This can be seen in its recent growth. Due in large part to the advent of digital billboards, spending for out-of-home advertising has grown by 8% for the last three years (surpassed in growth only by online advertising).

    Digital Billboards Are “Interesting”

    The ability to vary and customize digital billboards has yet to be fully explored. But even with relatively “dumb” billboards, consumers are paying attention. Research conducted by SeeSaw Networks (June 2007/July 2008), and reported in MediaPost recently (registration required), highlights the power of today’s digital billboards to generate consumer interest. Here’s one of the findings in that research:

    Advertising On The Media Is Interesting
    Medium Percentage of Base
    Digital Signage

    53%
    TV

    51%
    Magazine

    51%
    Billboard

    37%
    Internet

    34%
    Radio

    33%
    Newspaper

    33%
    Mobile Phone

    27%
    Base: Among those who have seen ads in the media in the past 12 months

    As media options continue to explode — and consumer attention progressively splinters — reaching people where they work and play will be even more important to marketers. I’m excited to see how innovations in out-of-home step in to fill that need.

  • Is academia failing us by not teaching Web 2.0 skills?

    Your help is needed. I just received this email from a colleague:

    Jeff,

    Are there curricula available from schools, online, etc. where one can learn about and improve your interactive skills? All facets of the interactive world. I’m at the University of Nebraska Journalism School and they don’t currently offer too much education in this area and the students and even faculty are asking “Where to you go to learn and study more about a career in this rapidly growing field and learn the necessary skills?”

    Thanks,
    Dan

     

    I’ve already been made painfully aware of the vacuum in academia, as far as educating students on the skills needed in a Web 2.0 world.

    One example: Last month an intern with a marketing firm I know told her boss she didn’t have a Facebook account because, “That online social network stuff is a waste of time.”

    Yes, I know Facebook can become a monumental way to screw off instead of work, but in a world where we are only as useful to our employers as the information we can access –and the network of talent that will help us gain this access — this is dangerous ignorance. Facebook has a place because it helps us maintain and expand our network of trusted sources.

    So, okay. I’m off my soapbox.

    Now I’m appealing to my network: Where are the best educational programs for tomorrow’s knowledge workers? And are there ways that students in far-flung places — such as Nebraska — can convince their teachers to add these curricula to their own?

    Comment here, or through my Twitter or Friendfeed accounts and I’ll be sure to consolidate what I’ve learned here.