Imagine a WorldGam's Bloghttp://realtea.net/atom/feed2007-12-17T04:45:02-05:00A cup of brown joyhttp://realtea.net/node/582008-05-14T20:16:43-04:002008-05-20T13:31:24-04:00realteanA rap about Real Tea (not because it has anything to do with Personal Data or Privacy or VRM, but in celebration of the much missed British Cuppa):
]]>A rap about Real Tea (not because it has anything to do with Personal Data or Privacy or VRM, but in celebration of the much missed British Cuppa):
]]>SMS comes of age (IMHO)http://realtea.net/node/572008-04-02T12:07:23-04:002008-05-02T03:56:07-04:00gamJust read the Wired posting Amazon Launches Text_Message Shopping and I was excited as this seems to improve upon 1-Click ordering. This in my opinion adds even more convenience to the shopping experience. I remember when Jeff Bezos announced Frictionless Retailing and this really set the scene for what they were trying to do - well, they continue to deliver.
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Just read the Wired posting Amazon Launches Text_Message Shopping and I was excited as this seems to improve upon 1-Click ordering. This in my opinion adds even more convenience to the shopping experience. I remember when Jeff Bezos announced Frictionless Retailing and this really set the scene for what they were trying to do - well, they continue to deliver.
The full Amazon press release is available here, but here's the key part of that release: "In less than a minute and using only text messages, Amazon.com customers can find the product they are looking for and complete a purchase using TextBuyIt. Simply send a text message to "AMAZON" (262966) with the name of the product, search term or a UPC or ISBN code, and, within seconds, Amazon replies with the product or products that match the search, along with prices. To buy an item, customers simply reply to the text message by entering the unique single digit number next to the item they want. Customers will then receive a short phone call from Amazon with the final details of their order and asking them to confirm or cancel the purchase."
You can see what people are saying about it on the Techcrunch board generally positive comments, including one mentioning Frucall interesting lessons for start-ups including Xpollen.
So are we about to see a whole new set of SMS based applications. Here are a few of my favorites:
Zaptxt lets you create custom keyword searches to track your favorite RSS enabled websites via email, instant messenger or mobile device
Primiro allows you to get any content you see in a newspaper, magazine, billboard instantly on your email and in your Primiro Library, by simply sending a short SMS
Jott converts your voice into emails, text messages, reminders, lists and appointments
Frucall Free comparison shopping with your cell phone when you're in a store
Bibliography
Amazon's Insidious Plan to Create Shopping Automatons Wired Magazine Nov 2007
Amazon Launches SMS Buying Service by Duncan Riley at TechCrunch April 2008
]]>Is this VRM?http://realtea.net/is_this_VRM%3F2008-03-25T08:20:27-04:002008-05-14T19:24:38-04:00gamI found the Yahoo! FareChase Alerts widget the other day. It looked promising, but upon reading the comments, I didn't want to bother downloading it
If you check out the ProjectVRM website, you'll see that VRM is all about "providing customers with tools for engaging with vendors in ways that work for both parties".
]]>I found the Yahoo! FareChase Alerts widget the other day. It looked promising, but upon reading the comments, I didn't want to bother downloading it
If you check out the ProjectVRM website, you'll see that VRM is all about "providing customers with tools for engaging with vendors in ways that work for both parties".
Elance and Lending Tree seem to be getting this ideology correct - creating a reversal of roles where the buyer puts out their requirements and the vendor is able to respond.
TiddlyWiki provides another good example of how VRM might work - check the video at Paul Whitehouse's blog. Tiddlywiki is an Open Source project that comes out of Osmosoft (a division of BT)
The VRM wiki specifies a requirement for a Firefox plugin. With the help of Ian Bugeja and his HyperBK tool, we had a go at creating a plug-in that allowed a user to crudely specify their needs and publish those as Machine Readable APML. You'll find this at the Xpollen.org website.
"Facebook members who decide to use Market Lodge can customize their own stores, selecting from more than 1,200 products sold by about 50 different merchants. Once the personal store is set up, Facebook users can then invite others in their network to check out the stuff they're recommending. Market Lodge users can make purchases from their own stores and still qualify for the 10 percent sales commission."
Interested in something that is not as intrusive as Beacon, I installed the app. It's a Tupperware party, except Tupperware Parties were more exciting.
(For those of you who don't remember Tupperware Parties, they happened in the 70's and were where someone's mom invites you over to their house and they served finger food and cheap wine out of plastic utensils with sealable lids. Because you were little, the plastic containers were safe and you could drop them and their contents on the carpet. Because it was the 70's and dark swirly carpets were in fashion, nobody noticed that you had spilled your fluorescent colored orange drink or that you'd fed cake to their dog or hidden the finger sandwiches you couldn't eat in the fish tank. So you never got told off - great! Infinitely more fun than Market Lodge!)
]]>The Coming Ad Revolutionhttp://realtea.net/node/542008-03-02T22:46:55-05:002008-05-02T03:58:34-04:00gamEsther Dyson's recent article, The Coming Ad Revolution in the WSJ pretty much summed up my feelings regarding online direct marketing.
She notes how in the online advertising model, "users will be barraged by ads to which they will pay less and less attention" and that in today's social networks "each user determines who will get into his own garden, whether friends or vendors".
]]>Esther Dyson's recent article, The Coming Ad Revolution in the WSJ pretty much summed up my feelings regarding online direct marketing.
She notes how in the online advertising model, "users will be barraged by ads to which they will pay less and less attention" and that in today's social networks "each user determines who will get into his own garden, whether friends or vendors".
The VRM movement goes further still by providing " customers with tools for engaging with vendors in ways that work for both parties". Helping this effort, the working group on Data Portability is defining standards by which a consumer can publish themselves.
The "new value creators" in Esther Dyson's article include not only the established companies such as Jellyfish and Reardon Commerce but a host of small and tiny startup ventures such as Boxbe, AdaptiveBlue, OneSwirl, Particls.com and my own mysterious project that I will be unveiling very soon.
]]>ReplaceGoogle.comhttp://realtea.net/Replace_Google2008-01-31T22:15:55-05:002008-05-02T03:58:52-04:00realteanDoc Searls' post on the VRM blog drew my attention to this: What could be the next dominant force on the Internet?. Trey Tomeny a Dallas based entrepreneur provides an extensively thought out discussion of a Private Identity Network
Some time ago, I expressed a similar vision for being able to manage my online identity and took this further to how this might manifest as an operational model. I still believe that some of this will come to pass as more and more of our data begins to live electronically and needs to be corralled and managed.
]]>In HTTPS We Trusthttp://realtea.net/in_https_we_trust2008-01-28T04:36:14-05:002008-01-28T04:54:12-05:00realteanI recently signed up to Page Once - the personal Internet Assistant. Page once allows me to sign in to all of my accounts from one web page. It will remember my passwords and create a single dashboard for my accounts. I guess that helps.
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I recently signed up to Page Once - the personal Internet Assistant. Page once allows me to sign in to all of my accounts from one web page. It will remember my passwords and create a single dashboard for my accounts. I guess that helps.
I have not subscribed to Wesabe or Mint or really allowed my Facebook account to access all the other services I subscribe to. I have not even linked my brokerage and banking accounts because I am pretty worried about what happens when all of this data is joined up. John Andrews' posting Internet Activity Data: What’s it Worth? on RescueTime.com just informed me of yet another service mining my data for their profit.
We're all very busy establishing ourselves online for convenience and we are putting more and more data about ourselves out there. We trust HTTPS and we see the Entrust and Verisign symbols and Paypal and that seems to allay our fears. We sign up to Lifelock and Equifax and Experian credit or id theft protection, but do we really understand the dangers of trusting our personal and private data in databases that we do not control.
So this is data that is in databases, perhaps nothing to do with the information that I publish on Facebook and MySpace, but the more of my data that is out there, the richer the public domain picture of me with potentially serious consequences. Just how safe are you?
]]>Facebook Updatehttp://realtea.net/node/502008-01-28T00:38:31-05:002008-01-28T04:55:22-05:00realteanRecently gone cold on Facebook, now receiving only the odd message and transferring the conversation back to conventional email as quickly as possible - Facebook provides me with no benefit once the connection has been made. Also I really don't want to know that John is looking for friendship networking, Jess added the what underwear are you or Julia has joined the geeks doing good sf chapter ... zzzzz.
]]>Recently gone cold on Facebook, now receiving only the odd message and transferring the conversation back to conventional email as quickly as possible - Facebook provides me with no benefit once the connection has been made. Also I really don't want to know that John is looking for friendship networking, Jess added the what underwear are you or Julia has joined the geeks doing good sf chapter ... zzzzz.
Also read that Facebook has now added a Javascript client API (see story JavaScript Client Library for Facebook API on the Facebook Developer's forum. Great, more annoying Facebook applications to come.
]]>Data Portabilityhttp://realtea.net/node/472008-01-16T08:21:16-05:002008-01-17T21:59:56-05:00realteanAs I try to work out how to express myself online, to make myself machine readable, to begin to post requests, I am seeking the emerging standards in the industry.
Michael Pick's video explains the DataPortability working group's objectives pretty neatly:
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As I try to work out how to express myself online, to make myself machine readable, to begin to post requests, I am seeking the emerging standards in the industry.
Michael Pick's video explains the DataPortability working group's objectives pretty neatly:
FOAF is the other standard that I want to explore in more detail.
And finally, Robin Good provides a pretty good description of APML in his article Attention Profiling: APML Beginner's Guide
]]>Networking Myself Professionallyhttp://realtea.net/networking2008-01-07T13:34:12-05:002008-01-07T13:34:12-05:00realteanI was invited to join Naymz this morning - in the interests of science and Mark Page who invited me, I signed up. I'm getting a little tired of all this signing up and subscribing and profiling. Each time I sign up, I get the same types of messages about how I will be connextaposed with each living molecubyte in the trueniverse.
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I was invited to join Naymz this morning - in the interests of science and Mark Page who invited me, I signed up. I'm getting a little tired of all this signing up and subscribing and profiling. Each time I sign up, I get the same types of messages about how I will be connextaposed with each living molecubyte in the trueniverse.
We all have a presence in the online world whether we use the internet or not and protecting yourself from identity fraud is just one side of the story. Our digital presence also increasingly opens up new opportunities and influences real world decisions made about us. We now have a means of measuring and therefore managing the way we look online, we call it digital status. QDOS is how we measure it. It's designed to give you a starting point for managing and taking control of your online status. Be seen how you want to be seen. Welcome to QDOS. Recent research has shown that more and more Brits are making decisions based on digital status*.
Up until now there has been no way to measure digital presence, to see where you fit in to the online world. At Garlik, we've analysed the digital profiles of the nation and have made available a QDOS score for every UK adult . Your QDOS score is made up of 4 different components: Popularity, Impact, Activity, Individuality
Put simply, the more you are out there surfing, buying, selling and socialising online, the higher your QDOS score.
There is little that is as important as your good name. The importance of your name and online reputation is steadily increasing as more and more people flock to the Web. Naymz is an innovative Reputation Network that lets you establish and promote your good name online. Join Naymz to make your good name work for you!
Start enhancing your online reputation by joining Naymz and creating a profile. Fill your profile with positive and accurate information that you want others to find when they search for you online. Invite up to 10 References to vouch for you. Based on your References and other factors, Naymz periodically assigns a RepScore to your profile.
Your professional relationships are key to your professional success. Our mission is to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have. This isn’t networking—it’s what networking should be. Forget exchanging business cards with acquaintances that don’t know your work, or trying to renew professional ties when you need a favor.
LinkedIn is an online network of more than 17 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals.
Ecademy.com is fast becoming known as the Myspace for entrepreneurs. Instead of adopting the stereo-type 'Dragon's Den' cut-throat image of corporate practice, it provides a supportive online community for businessmen and women.
Ecademy is a networking tool for entrepreneurs who can otherwise be isolated from the kind of contacts that are vital for propelling business forward. On the site you can find alliances, advice, and mentors, who all aim to abide by the Ecademy ethos of 'giving before you receive'.
Just as MySpace operates as a service for musicians, Ecademy offers essential apparatus for business people and aspiring entrepreneurs. Launched in 1998 Ecademy is, and has always been at the forefront of the Web 2.0 social network revolution. Ecademy is leading the way in business social networks with community interaction at the forefront having introduced clubs and blogs back in 2002. (It's competitors are only just looking at launching such facilities now in 2007.)
Plaxo, Inc. keeps people connected by solving the common and frustrating problem of out-of-date contact information. Founded in July 2001, Plaxo provides a free service that securely updates and maintains the information in your address book. Plaxo is the universal digital assistant; available to you wherever and whenever you need it to keep you organized, on top of your life and in touch with those you care about.
Since its release in beta in November 2002, Plaxo has become widely popular, adding an average of 20,000 new users every day due to the service’s ease-of-use and simplicity.
]]>Backing out of Facebookhttp://realtea.net/getting_out_of_facebook2008-01-04T00:43:33-05:002008-01-04T00:59:53-05:00gamScoble - there and back again
There's a really interesting little story going on, Facebook vs. Scoble - Robert Scoble was banned from Facebook for breaking Facebook’s Terms of Use by running an automated script - illegal by Facebook's Terms of Service On his radio show, Robert Scoble chats about this more.
Here's another opinion by an angry man:
]]>Scoble - there and back again
There's a really interesting little story going on, Facebook vs. Scoble - Robert Scoble was banned from Facebook for breaking Facebook’s Terms of Use by running an automated script - illegal by Facebook's Terms of Service On his radio show, Robert Scoble chats about this more.
Here's another opinion by an angry man:
Getting out with your private data intact
Alan Burlinson's Blog also documents another sequence of events.
Alan decided that Facebook's service constituted a threat to his online privacy and attempted to close his account. In doing so he discovered that Facebook would deactivate his account but retain the data. The user has to go through an extra process to have that data physically deleted from the servers. Channel 4 News picked up the story and consulted the ICO and Internet lawyers and Alan finally had his account permanently deleted.
However, he does note, "If Facebook has the ability to delete accounts so easily, why don't they make it available to users? In their written response to C4 they say that "Facebook does not use any information from deactivated accounts for advertising purposes." If that is the case, why do they retain the information at all? And although they aren't using it for "advertising purposes", are they making other use of it, and if so, what?"
My interest in Facebook is waning somewhat after the Microsocial saga, it does still seem to provide high value in terms of a social networking platform, but this monetization of MY DATA for THEIR BENEFIT remains an issue. Not only that, the risks to my identity of people picking up my personal details increases the more vital public data I publish as today's article on BBC News notes, Cyber thieves target social sites
I've just signed up to Data Portability, I feel that some of the answers to my questions lie there.
]]>My conversation with QDOS supporthttp://realtea.net/conversation_with_qdos2008-01-03T23:39:44-05:002008-01-03T23:39:44-05:00gamSince I wrote the note about Online Identity I've been exchanging emails with the team at QDOS trying to work out where the value is for me as netizen. There is a human team at Garlik and smiliar to Alan Burlinson I feel that their human responsive face sets a good example in today's online world.
]]>Since I wrote the note about Online Identity I've been exchanging emails with the team at QDOS trying to work out where the value is for me as netizen. There is a human team at Garlik and smiliar to Alan Burlinson I feel that their human responsive face sets a good example in today's online world. Gammydodger:My full-name and UK postcode scores Q2767. I am cultivating an online identity ‘gammydodger’ that will allow me to maintain a presence on the web where I have control over who knows what about me. In researching my QDOS scores, I have linked my real name with my online id – this I see as a problem. The internet generation has developed an inherent ability to separate reality from their online persona - QDOS works against this and I feel that combining my online persona with my real persona increases risk. When I de-coupled all of my online sites in QDOS, my score reduced to 505. Given the potential for ID theft, I need to keep my QDOS score as low as possible.
Support@QDOS: Thank you for your email and joining QDOS. We fully appreciate your concerns about keeping your on-line identity and your real name separate and naturally understand you do not want to connect the two together. Our registration process is in Beta stage and at present we only allow you to register with a full name and postcode, however we are working on this and will be updating the process soon, allowing people to register under their on-line identities. While we develop the process, if you would like to be able to add all your links to your on-line persona of 'gammydodger' please confirm the name you registered with and we will then amend these details for you.
Rest assured your real name will not appear anywhere on the site in relation to 'gammydodger' once the name has been changed. Alternatively, if you are not comfortable with this, simply wait until the option to register under your on-line persona is available. If you keep your real identity score too, then you may find it interesting to compare the two.
For your real score, a low score could indicate that you are at low risk of identity theft, as your score would indicate that your information is not out in the public domain. However, when it comes to identity theft, it's not just about how much is out there, but what the information is. You may only have one link to yourself on-line, and a really low score, but that one link may contain all your personal details, thus putting you at high risk. Therefore, as you say, keep your real score low, and don't promote your personal details unnecessarily. Whereas, the side you want to promote, your on-line persona, that's where you can have some fun and add all your links and start comparing yourself with other people in the digital world.
Gammydodger:Do you remember the movie 'Big' where Tom Hanks says, 'a building that turns into a robot, what's fun about that?' I'm not certain that there is enough value in the comparison aspect yet. 50cent and Barack Obama are worlds apart from normal people, so the value of comparing against them may be an interesting Facebook diversion, but perhaps not the route that you want for someone who is concerned with ID. However I understand how you need to cross the chasm with this, to get individuals who are currently apathetic about their data to actually be concerned or even mildly interested in this. I don’t have an answer... the Lifelock proposition in the US seems to be popular and of course Experian, Equifax and CCP's credit watch schemes seem to work - but this is primarily credit scores rather than more general online data. Even after the 26m UK citizen breach, people are still not taking notice or able to make the link between instances like that AND id-theft. Or perhaps they are unable to extrapolate how more of their information is going to be available as time goes on. I think that Garlik have a solution to a problem that is as yet unperceived - but you know that and the QDOS score is trying to put this activity into a positive space. But the benefit is not enough. Maybe the Facebook app is going to give you some traction but like Pirates or Warbook in Facebook is it a dead end?
What made SMS take off all of a sudden? That is the utility that I think you are looking for and I am certain there is a route to giving a person a tangible and sustainable value from helping them manage their online identity.
Support@QDOS: Facebook is just an initial idea of how to get more people involved, and quite right, it may fizzle out quite quickly, but we hope that this along with the Q-ED competition for the students, will create a starting block to make more people aware of their digital identities.
We are still in Beta, and at the moment are just trying different ideas out there and seeing what sticks. Your profile name has now been updated, we hope you do enjoy shaping your QDOS and take some pleasure in beating your colleagues scores, even if you can't reach the likes of 50cent, and that it is more fun than playing with a building, also a fan of BIG, great movie.
Bibliography
Online identity - does anyone care? at realtea.net
]]>How to avoid going Aglocohttp://realtea.net/Going_Agloco2008-01-03T00:24:51-05:002008-01-03T00:38:10-05:00gamThe December announcement from Agloco wrapping up current operations provides valuable information for the start-ups wanting to play in the Attention economy.
]]>The December announcement from Agloco wrapping up current operations provides valuable information for the start-ups wanting to play in the Attention economy.
"We would like to update you on the status of AGLOCO's operations. We continue to believe in the AGLOCO concept, but our revenue is currently not sufficient to give Members a meaningful distribution. And though there are increases in membership, the resulting revenue is not enough to support operating costs. As a development team we are unable to continue to use our savings to fund the operations. If any Member would like to pursue continuing the operations of AGLOCO, you may contact us at agloco1@live.com .
We would like to thank every Member for supporting our effort to bring a piece of the Internet directly to the user. We hope that we can find a way to keep the operations going."
AGLOCO Development Team (Tuesday December 11th, 2007)
Agloco's plan was to provide a downloadable viewbar that it would use to place ad's in front of you. As an Agloco member, you would provide some basic details - name, age, location and email address - and the downloadable captures your browsing history. Based on this data, the toolbar determines the most relevant ads to place. John Chow's YouTube video describes how it works.
Agloco's advertisers would pay Agloco a commission for Search, Advertising, Transactions and Software, Service and Product distribution. All 'members' who downloaded and used the toolbar would share in the profits. And everybody would live happily ever after.
Being paid to view ads
'People being paid to look at ads' was never going to work. Today, most people have no time. The people with money to spend have less time than that. Unless you are going to pay them spectacular amounts to surf ads they just won't do it. If you've ever tried to recruit people for a focus group, you'll appreciate this problem.
A user is okay with viewing Google Ad's because it takes them zero effort and Google provides them with a high value service. The same for MapQuest, Yahoo, Hotmail, Facebook or any of the other valuable services we get for free.
As soon as you have to make the user do something (e.g. download and install), there is a steep curve where the value needs to exceed the effort. In the case of a downloadable component, you can either provide speed and convenience (as in the del.icio.us button) or you bundle it into some other component such as a browser (e.g. Google desktop).
Question - What is the correct value:effort ratio to make a user do something?
Did the Egg come First?
If you have enough consumers then the advertisers will come. If you have enough advertisers to give you revenue to share, then the consumers will come. So where to start? You either need a stunningly useful service (such as Google, Hotmail, MySpace, TripAdvisor) or you need very deep pockets. Deeper than Agloco's apparently.
Questions - How many advertisers do you need to start making money? How many consumers do you need to attract those advertisers? Then how many new customers do you need to attract the next advertiser? Then do you need a sales force to go out and sell advertising opportunities?
Is attention really worth anything?
The model relied on users making more money by recruiting more users. Viral or pyramid by another name. So this viral model could have recruited enough users to allow sufficient advertising to be sold to kick start the model
The AttentionTrust spent some time trying to understand the worth of user behavior, however there seems to be no clear model emerging of how to monetize that attention data. As I commented in my previous posting on Microsocial Ads in Facebook, if you simply pay people for clicking, then people will click and soon enough advertisers will realize that those clicks are hollow and worthless. Google contextual Adwords remain king.
Questions - Is there a way of compensating people to click on an ad without creating the opportunity to scam the system? Perhaps it is simply commissions on sales, but then the model becomes too complicated to administer unless you want to be a Mary Kay, an Amway or an Avon.
Die Siedler von Catan
Over Christmas I played for the first time the Settlers of Catan. If you know the game, then you'll understand how you could build a game around working some of these problems out.
Who has the right answers
Over the next twelve months it would be worth watching the following companies to see what their answers are going to be.
Finally here's one that seems to be in the space, but I can't make out what their value model is: MarketingPond They tell you that you can make a lot of money online and they have a lot of frogs on their site - maybe that is good enough for some people to sign up!
]]>Facebook and the MicroSocial Spamfriends Applicationhttp://realtea.net/microsocial_spam_friends2007-12-18T15:22:17-05:002007-12-18T15:43:10-05:00gamHey Facebook, something's about to go wrong again...I put the Beacon fiasco down to charming youthful inexperience and sang your praises when you publicly apologized for the mistake, however, I don't think I am going to be so forgiving this time with what is going on on the Facebook platform.
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Hey Facebook, something's about to go wrong again...I put the Beacon fiasco down to charming youthful inexperience and sang your praises when you publicly apologized for the mistake, however, I don't think I am going to be so forgiving this time with what is going on on the Facebook platform.
This morning I read the Tech Crunch Report Ads-Click Introduces MicroSocialAds In Beta. Now Get Paid to Spam Your Friends on Facebook. In summary a Microsocial Ad is a 35 character line of text that appears on a Facebook newsfeed. As a Facebook user, I can place those ad's myself and when one of my network clicks on the ad, I will get 80% of the revenue.
I must admit, the novelty of Facebook is wearing off and is getting more tarnished as it takes on the role of highly intrusive billboard. The concept of Microsocial Ads is like having a conversation with your friend and finding out that all the clothes they wear, all the items they have are sponsored and that the things they say to you are crafted statements to get you to buy the products - and that your friend's relationship with you is funded by the manufacturers. Remember Truman Burbank in the Truman Show?
What sort of sick society has this become? Ads-Click claim to be "a Global Multichannel ads trading company with more than 5859 Publishers and over 5 billion page views per month" - shame on you.
Finding the Balance between Privacy and Targeted Advertising
Is this really where we want it to go? I don't believe so and I think my concern is shared by a number of others including the folks at Wharton. In their article Who Owns You? Finding a Balance between Online Privacy and Targeted Advertising they discuss evolution of online advertising. Google and Amazon.com track customer behavior in an effort to better tailor products, advertising and services. The more info you have on consumers the better the targeting, the Facebook Beacon debacle and recovery
The article goes on: "The big issue is finding that balance, preferably at a point that satisfies both consumers and marketers and suggests that the key to online ad targeting is transparency. Companies need to be clear about what they are doing with customer information and provide easy opt-out and opt-in procedures."
Furthermore, "on the corporate side of the equation, marketers have to be sensitive to privacy issues and "do what users consider reasonable, companies are trying to be sensitive, yet trying to know their customers."
It concludes with "Given the dollars at stake (global Internet advertising to be $60.88 billion in 2010) companies are racing to figure out the privacy vs. better targeting equation. There are complicated questions to be addressed. This data is really the story of you. Who owns your information? Why give up ownership of your story? Are you opening yourself up too much? These are deeply philosophical questions that don't get answered overnight."
What next? My prediction
There is already tremendous outcry about MicroSocial Ads - see the comments listing on the TechCrunch board and Shel Israel's blog. The Responsible Marketing Blog sums the whole thing up beautifully in its pithy posting My friend, the spammer.
However, I can see that this will have a beautiful way of self-regulating its way back to a sensible solution. I see it going this way - Ads-Click launches in Facebook. The Facebook privacy advocacy groups protest. It makes the news. Kids work out that they can make money by clicking madly on links they exchange with their friends. Ads Click advertisers work out that the clicks they are paying for are worthless. The revenue opportunity dries up until someone works out what a valuable click is.
If this model actually works - then Agloco and Boxbe should be making a lot more money than they are today. I don't see any of this as being a long term solution for advertisers or individuals, but I did sign up to be an Ads-Click MicroSocialAds beta tester
My Identity was Sold by Facebook, but No Longer (310 members)
]]>Can I kick the Google habit?http://realtea.net/kick_google2007-12-16T02:14:05-05:002007-12-17T04:45:02-05:00gamI'm concerned about my privacy and where my data is accumulating out of my control. Because of Adsense on this site, I choose to use Google in signed-in mode. As I search, I am being observed - what I search for, the search terms I use and which results I follow. The very smart people at the Googleplex look at this data and figure out a lot about me from it. The best part is that they can work out what advertisements to put in my face based on that data...or is it the worst?
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I'm concerned about my privacy and where my data is accumulating out of my control. Because of Adsense on this site, I choose to use Google in signed-in mode. As I search, I am being observed - what I search for, the search terms I use and which results I follow. The very smart people at the Googleplex look at this data and figure out a lot about me from it. The best part is that they can work out what advertisements to put in my face based on that data...or is it the worst?
Anyhow, I thought I might use a different search engine, say Ask or AllTheWeb, but I am wondering if I can kick the Google habit...the trouble is that it's just so so good. Just to prove it, here are a few things you can do other than searching:
Find a flight
If you type in as much information as possible, say 'Flight SFO - LHR Dep Dec 24 Ret Jan 11', Google figures out that you are looking to buy a ticket and gives you links to the consolidators CheapTickets, Expedia, Hotwire, Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity passing your flight requirements on to them.
It appears that the rule is that you need to include the word 'flight' and airport codes and dates - the minumum phrase I have used to bring up the flight result is 'flight sfo lhr dec 27 jan 5'
Buy a car
If you enter the two words 'cars sale' and optionally a zip code and a car make, it will give you the search bar for Vehicle Search and then clicking on that gives you a listing of cars in a particular zip code.
Once you click on that you can specify the Make, Model, Condition, Price, Color, Year, Vehicle Type, Mileage, Transmission, Engine, Distance and any other keywords. Brings back cars for sale from various websites - Craigslist and Autotrader are noticably absent though.
You can see the list of cars for sale sorted in various ways and have them overlaid onto a map (you can right click on the image and click on view image to see them more clearly).
Create a wishlist
From inside Google Products you can create a shopping list, placing products into the list for later purchase - effectively a shopping cart. You can take any product in that list and move it to your wishlist. Anyone who knows your Google ID can view your wishlist - how useful.
Fly a plane
If you're in Google Earth (you need to download software for this), just hit Command+Option+A (note it must be capital A) or Ctrl+Alt+A if you’re using a Windows Machine. You'll be able to fly a a F16 Viper or a SR22 4 seater around the planet - the software uses the Google Earth Satellite Imagery and allows you to fly from airport to airport.
In Google Sets you can enter a few related terms and Google will produce a list of related terms.
I tried to give it something tricky - a list of English Pub names and it did surprisingly well, returning: The Red Lion, The Kings Head, The White Horse, The Wheatsheaf, The Victoria, The Cross Guns, The White Lion, The Windmill, The Daisy Hill Hotel, The Shoulder Of Mutton, The Village Swan, The Full Moon, The Pineapple, The Carpenters Arms.
As a final test, what better after pub names, than dishes served in Indian Restaurants - I gave it only two this time, Dhansak and Jalfrezi. Stunningly, it returned a whole Indian Menu - very impressive.
Get a discount coupon
And finally, Google Coupons - when in Google Maps, you put in the product and your zip code and lo and behold you get a listing of coupons for that product in the area. I can't seem to get this function anymore. Just to prove that I'm not completely mad, Mike Blumenthal also discusses the coupons feature in his posting Google Coupons now has a Searchable Interface.
Launches Text_Message Shopping
