Facebook Losing Ground with Teens
June 3, 2013
Oh, oh. Is Facebook falling down? The wildly successful creation of the young Zuckerberg is beginning to show its age, and teenagers are now refusing to be seen with it. The Motley Fool informs us, “Facebook No Longer Home to Teens.” Writer Mark Holder argues that recent media attention on Facebook’s mobile Home app and its Graph search misses an important part of the picture—the site’s shrinking audience among young people. The article reveals:
“The bigger issue not generally addressed is that all the new revenue monetization issues won’t matter if Facebook follows the path of all other social networks. Eventually users tire of the service and move onto the next hot social network. The new set of teens aren’t as interested in following the footsteps of the teens from 5 years ago akin to a nightclub typically having a limited length of popularity.”
The write-up goes on to present a chart of “estimated reach” statistics from Facebook itself, and notes:
“The chart shows that the 18-24 year old group lost the largest amount of users in the last 3 months at over 2 million. The second largest group was the 25-34 year olds at nearly 2 million users. Ironically the only group to gain was the 65+ year old group that likely diminishes the younger groups desire to stay on the site. It’s one thing to deal with a nosy parent, but showing your wild party pics to your grandparents is a whole different issue.”
I suppose. Whatever the reason, Holder takes investors to task for ignoring reality in favor of Facebook’s shiny-new innovations. Perhaps, though, the social leader can find a way to turn the trend around, or to minimize its impact. Stranger things have happened.
Cynthia Murrell, June 03, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Programming for Android Fragmentation
June 3, 2013
Google’s open approach to its mobile OS has long vexed those who prefer consistency. Mixpanel addresses Google Android fragmentation in its “Data Snapshot: The Big, Fragmented World of Android.” The article analyzes but two of the several differences between Android devices. It explains:
“The fragmented world of Android means [developers] have to work harder to reach consumers on that platform. The combination of different versions of the OS, screen sizes, screen densities, and resolutions presents developers with a matrix of variables and they have to decide what they want to support, knowing that wide support has a direct trade off in increased development time.
“This Data Snapshot takes a quick look at Android fragmentation by two of these variables: Device Model and Screen Resolution. The consumer activity by version of the Android OS chart on Mixpanel Trends gives insight into fragmentation at OS version level.”
Though Samsung dominates the Android device field (producing eight of the top ten), model fragmentation is still a big issue; analysts found the vast majority of activity is spread across the devices below the top ten. As for screen resolution, a hefty 63 percent of Android activity takes place in the top three resolutions (480×800, 720×1280, and 320×480, in that order.) However, it should be noted that a total of 11 resolutions are represented.
These are just a couple examples of the differences developers must contend with across Android devices. Google supplies some guidelines on dealing with these deviations here and here.
Cynthia Murrell, June 03, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Richard Hickman Can Restore Deleted Snapchat Pictures For a Price
May 30, 2013
The article Some Jerk Has Figured Out a Way to Recover Your “Deleted” Snapchat Photos, on BetaBeat reports that a once safe space has now been made dangerous by a Utah security firm. By altering the extension on the deleted pictures (which are in reality just being stored, but cloaked with the affixed “.NOMEDIA” extension) Richard Hickman found the deleted pictures on an Android phone. Hickman said,
“Then it’s most likely put into unallocated space, where here it’s actually allocated,” Hickman said. “It’s not that it’s deleted — it just isn’t mapped anymore. It says okay, that spot where that picture was stored is now available to be overwritten. That’s what would happen with a regular camera.” He wants to further ruin your life–he’s working on a way to trace the sender’s information and developing the same recovery capability for iPhones.”
Adding to the bad news for Snapchat users, Hickman has begun to offer his ability to people for a small fee ($300-$500). As if your digital footprint isn’t hard enough to erase, now “erased” data might not be really gone. While this may be of immediate concern to some people (Snapchat “sexters”), it should make us all think of the possibilities. Maybe online data never truly goes away.
Chelsea Kerwin, May 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
It Is About Time We Start Data Mining Mobile Phones
May 28, 2013
One of the main areas that companies are failing to collect data on is mobile phones. Interestingly enough, Technology Review has this article to offer the informed reader: “Released: A Trove Of Cell Of Cell Phone Data-Mining Research.” Cell phone data offers a plethora of opportunity, one that is only starting to be used to its full potential. It is not just the more developed countries that can use the data, but developing countries as well could benefit. It has been noted that cell phones could be used to redesign transportation networks and even create some eye-opening situations in epidemiology.
There is a global wide endeavor to understand cell phone data ramifications:
“Ahead of a conference on the topic that starts Wednesday at MIT, a mother lode of research has been made public about how to use this data. For the past year, researchers around the world responded to a challenge dubbed Data for Development, in which the telecom giant Orange released 2.5 billion records from five million cell-phone users in Ivory Coast. A compendium of this work is the D4D book, holding all 850 pages of the submissions. The larger conference, called NetMob (now in its third year), also features papers based on cell phone data from other regions, described in this book of abstracts.”
Before you get too excited, take note that privacy concerns are an important issue. No one has found a reasonable way to disassociate users with their cell phone data. It will only be a matter of time before that happens, until then we can abound in the possibilities.
Whitney Grace, May 28, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Analytics Company to Disrupt Digital and Mobile Metrics Emphasis
May 27, 2013
From Business Insider comes news of a potentially disruptive startup: “Mixpanel, A Startup That Wants To Kill Pageviews And Other ‘BS Metrics’ Now Measures 12 Billion Actions Per Month.” Mixpanel Co-founder Suhail Doshi pushes for digital and mobile companies to highlight monthly user engagement numbers instead of page views.
Mixpanel is an analytics company founded in 2009. It helps both paying and non-paying customers track engagement through actions on their sites. For example, “liking” content on Facebook is an action.
According to the article:
“Doshi admits it’s harder for content-producers to shift to his way of thinking. But changing an industry standard like pageview reporting is a slow process, and Doshi thinks his company is making good headway. ’We’re this living, breathing case that we do see pageviews are dying,’ says Doshi, who was inspired to track meaningful analytics by mentor and former colleague, Max Levchin. Pageviews are already dying on mobile devices, says Doshi, because users rarely click through to see more pages on tiny screens.”
Mixapanel’s growth implies they are doing something right. However, regarding Google Analytics, Mixpanel is making some bold assertions.
Megan Feil, May 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Prepare for Google Glass
May 7, 2013
Even though the average person sitting behind their laptop or smartphone screen may have seen the advertisements for Google Glass, they will not likely be wearing Google’s new product any time soon – and not just for price reasons. Computer World dishes the scoop in: “Schmidt Says Google Glass Still A Year Away.”
According to Google’s Eric Schmidt, they are already in the hands of the first developers and thousands will be in use over the next months; changes will be made based on feedback through these trial runs.
The referenced article quotes Schmidt’s interview with BBC:
“In general, these kinds of body-wear devices will bring about a whole bunch of such concerns,’ he said during the taped interview. ‘The fact of the matter is we’ll have to develop a whole new social etiquette. It’s obviously not appropriate to wear these glasses in situations where recording is not correct. We already have these situations with phones.’”
Google Glass may not be ready for prime time. However, Schmidt’s comments allude to the idea that the average prime time audience may not be ready for Glass yet either. The ongoing conversation about digital manners and social norms in the Information Age continues.
Megan Feil, May 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Larry Page Not Worried About Mobile: Google Has Faced Change Before
May 2, 2013
There is an article titled Larry Page Says Mobile Apps Won’t Hurt Search: ‘The Information Wants To Be Found’ on TechCrunch. It discusses Google CEO Larry Page’s attitude that while mobile may cause some changes to the use of search and the profits surrounding advertising, it isn’t anything to fret over, or anything truly new. He says in the article,
“We’ve been dealing with that issue for a long time… Fundamentally search is an amazing thing for publishers and software developers and other apps. I think, in general, the information wants to be found”…As for the effect of mobile on the company’s bottom line, Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora argued that focusing on details like Google’s current mobile CPC rates is “the wrong way” to look at these questions” “The right way” is to understand “the new reality where we have all these multiscreens.”
Arora also commented that on any given day, Google will have to provide correct answers across multiple devices to all users. He compared mobile now to search in 1999 in another article titled Google’s Nikesh Arora on Mobile Ads. Meanwhile, Page’s belief that information is out there for whoever is looking is interesting considering that some do want to charge for access.
Chelsea Kerwin, May 02, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Glass Runs on Android Announced by Larry Page
May 1, 2013
An article that appeared on engadget on April 18, 2013 was titled Google CEO Larry Page confirms: Yes, Google Glass Runs on Android. The widely anticipated Google Glass will have a display equal to a 25-inch HD screen as seen from eight feet away, 12GB of storage available to the user, Bluetooth capabilities, and a battery life of one full day’s use, according to the devices support page. Up until Page’s recent confirmation, Google Glass running on Android was only a rumor.
“The tidbit was dropped on today’s earnings call, with CEO Larry Page uttering: “Obviously, Glass runs on Android, so [Android] has been pretty transportable across devices, and I think that will continue.” The response was given to a question regarding engagement increment, but Page stopped short of divulging details about version type. We’re guessing it does a fine job of integrating snippets of Google Now, however, so make of that what you will.”
The headsets (in Cotton, Sky, Shale, Tangerine and Charcoal!), will be released to certain “Glass Explorers” in a testing phase. Certainly meant to eventually replace the cell phone, we have to wonder whether in the future, we will all wear our next mobile phones.
Chelsea Kerwin, May 01, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
RIP Mobile Computing?
April 11, 2013
I have been shocked by the number of experts and poobahs who have pronounced, “The PC is dead.” I am not sure, despite the numbers, graphs, charts, and pompous lingo “proving” that a decades old business sector is a goner. Oscar Wilde, as I recall, observed:
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
I haven’t seen anyone die from a shift in the desktop computer sector.
I tackle the death of the PC in my April Information Today column, which will run in May 2013. But I want to highlight what seems to be a subordinate assertion tagged on to the “death of the PC” mini-trend.
Mobile computing is also dead. Ah, you did not know that? I admit that I did not know it and I just don’t believe it. Navigate to “Mobile” Computing No Longer Exists.” Now this is probably not dead as meant when someone says “My career is dead” or “My parakeet is dead.” But the notion of “not existing” is an attention grabber in my physical book, which has not yet been killed by bits and bytes.
The point of the write up is, in my view, is that Google is synonymous with the future of online work, play, joy, sorrow, and various “existential” aspects of modern life. I am okay with this type of assertion. What causes amusement is:
The reason our phones, tablets and PCs are increasingly interchangeable is that the services we depend on aren’t running on them at all. They’re running on the cloud. More and more, our devices don’t store our data, handle our security or share—directly at least—with our friends and colleagues. As time goes on, the highest aspiration of most of our devices—be they phone, notebook, smart watch or face-based computer—will be as fast and responsive local caches—copies, that is—of our cloud-based existence. In this cloud-based world, the question becomes, what is “mobile” computing? If it’s just a name we give to screens that are small enough to carry around, it’s not a terribly useful distinction.
The author seems to be leap frogging the grim reality of life in the real world. For example, it will be a few years before the magic of cloud computing will work as forecast in Patagonia, on the bridge at Victoria Falls, or in my work room. I have to go upstairs and sit in the south east corner of my home to get a T Mobile connection.
The real world of government contract requirements, work on certain legal matters, almost any activity related to pharmaceutical research and mergers and acquisitions require desktop computers, often deployed in small, tightly controlled workgroups or locked in a room with no Internet connection, and access passwords provided to specific individuals. There are many other examples of desktop computing remaining relevant. In some of these real world situations, mobile computing is not supported. For example, at one meeting at a Los Angeles law enforcement agency, weapons and anything which connected to the outside world were locked in an anteroom.
I know that for many folks the world of Googley connectivity is just super wonderful. However, even at companies like Google, the real world of traditional computing is very much evident.
Net net: Mobile computing is not dead. Pervasive connectivity is not yet the norm in certain work situations. Desktop computing, as I suggest in my for fee column, is very much alive. Traditional computing does not discard the methods of the past for some very good reasons. Prognostications are fascinating. Some are offered without much in the way of check ins with the real world of today and the world which will arrive tomorrow. Mainframes are still in operation and I was told those were dead decades ago.
Stephen E Arnold, April 11, 2013
Sponsored by Augmentext
Short Honk: Google Has a New Management Expert: Its CFO
March 1, 2013
Navigate to “Google’s CFO Says Motorola’s Upcoming Products Aren’t ‘Wow’ by Google Standards.” I am okay with poobahs, failed webmasters, hot air entrepreneurs, and wizards pontificating about search and information retrieval. After all, as I have said numerous times, “Everyone perceives himself / herself as an expert in search.”
Here’s the statement, if true, I find reasonably useful in evaluating the management approach of today’s Google:
If you were hoping to see a revelatory smartphone from Motorola in the near future, you might want to tone down those expectations. Google’s Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President Patrick Pichette today said that products in Motorola’s pipeline are “not really to the standards that what Google would say is wow — innovative, transformative.” The surprisingly honest admission came during Pichette’s session at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference. When questioned on where things stand with Motorola at the moment, Pichette didn’t mince words. “We’ve inherited 18 months of pipeline that we actually have to drain right now, while we’re actually building the next wave of innovation and product lines,” he said.
I know I would be motivated if I were working at Motorola, a former client from my ABI/INFORM. Motorola was an expensive item. Is it like the HP Autonomy deal? I don’t know from nothing. But I do know that managing does not pivot on public criticism. Samsung probably finds the method quite reassuring. Is anyone in South Korea considering this question, “Why don’t we just scroogle the Google?” Amusing to ponder how making hardware can create Barnes & Noble-type excitement.
Stephen E Arnold, March 1, 2013
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
