Digital Marketing and Web Strategy by Bob Hazlett | One Half Amazing!

Back in May of 2009 I commented on a video from Jeremiah Owyang about the future of the social web. In the video, he theorizes that the web will go from social relationships (simply connecting with people via facebook, twitter, etc) to social functionality (apps) and onto eras of social colonization and context where your friends will go wherever you go and the messages you receive are tailored to your likes.

In one of the final phases of the social web he talks about social commerce. In that he means that communities will come together to define the products and features they want and companies in turn will bid to fulfill these needs. In essence flipping the current model of a company bringing a product to market and encouraging/hoping that you’ll buy it.

Well, that era of social commerce may be official upon us. Today, Walmart Labs (the digital division of Walmart) is launching an initiative which crowdsources a handfull of the products it will stock on its shelves. Now, it’s just a start, but can you imagine how this could evolve? You could have pop-up stores that only carry items that their followers have requested. Inventories will get smarter based on sentiment and what the crowd wants. You could even eventually see PR agencies representing large groups of people rather than large companies.

I’m sure social commerce will move quickly through various phases and iterations as the web continues to evolve. What comes next though?

If you read one thing to prepare yourself for upcoming trends in digital media and technolgoy, make sure it’s Razorfish’s annual Outlook Report.

I had lunch the other day with the ever-brilliant Future Josh. I had some ideas that I wanted to run past him. When we get together though, the conversation invariably keeps coming back to Apple. We talked about my ideas, but mostly we floundered around all things iPhone 4S, Steve Jobs’ legacy and more.

Then he said something utterly futuristic about Siri, Apple’s voice-command software, and where he envisioned it going.  Right now, on the surface it resembles a virtual personal assistant and note taker, but as we talked he unfolded how it could be more than just a helper application. Josh proceeded to eulogize that Siri was Apples decoy into Google’s search market. He believes that Apple is already making plans to fast forward what we consider basic search today. So instead of simple text searches, Apple could be positioning itself as a natural language search engine to compliment its array of products and essentially squeezing Google and Microsoft out of the picture. This idea is beyond the browser and is already made up of a large (and willing) audience.

As voice recognition and technology evolves, searches and commands could be seamless. Can you imagine a search engine that could actually sense your tone and factor such into its results? A more sophisticated example might be the day where you can ask Siri the temperature inside your house and then instruct it to increase or decrease the thermostat – all without picking up your device.

Apple won’t depend on advertising revenue to pull this off either since their model is different than Google’s. Apple creates services for its users to sell more products while Google on the other hand creates services to sell more ads. Bingo bango!

Great infographic from BuySellAds on the elements that make up the perfect banner ads. Give  a copy of this to your designers. It’s your job as a marketers though to make sure the banner is placed in front of the optimal audience. Click for a larger view.

All Google+ extensions and apps below require the  Google Chrome browser. You can find me on Google+ here.

• Replies and More – Adds a drop down next to share with additional sharing options like Twitter, Facebook and Email. The extension also allows you to easily reply to the author and mention other users in your comments. Also try Extended Share.
• Comment Toggle – Hides any comments to posts within your stream and makes them available when you actually want to see them.
• Move 2 Picasa – Exports all most of your Facebook albums/photos to Picasa. I’ve had hit and miss success with this app, so just be aware of that going in. Start Google Plus is an alternative that I’ve used, but takes a little time to move a large amount of photos over.
• Start G+ - Automatically post to Facebook and Twitter when you share something on Google+.  Additionally, it puts your Facebook and Twitter streams inside your Google+ feed. The only downside is that you cannot reply to or like a Facebook or Twitter post within Google+.  This extension is far from perfect, but it will do until Google adds these features.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to review a new Motorola Xoom. Could the Android Honeycomb tablet unseat the iPad as my go-to device? Here are my initial impressions.

Tell me about the Xoom
The Xoom is an Android-based tablet that runs on Google’s new Honeycomb 3.0 platform (the device I tested had version 3.1 on it). As you may know, Android runs on smart phones, but Honeycomb is actually the first version that Google has built with tablets in mind. Now, some phone manufactures will customize Android for their device. That’s not the case with Honeycomb. With the Xoom you get it the way Google intended and without those annoying add-ons or skins.

The Xoom has a 10 inch display with a massive 1280 x 800 resolution. It runs on a dual-core 1GHz processor (the first tablet to offer dual-core processing at the time) with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The Xoom has a SD card slot to swap and upgrade your storage space if needed. The Xoom I tested had both 3G and wi-fi connectivity. If the rumors are true, the Xoom will be able to access Verizon’s 4G network when available.

The Motorola Xoom comes with both a front and rear facing camera. The rear-facing camera is 5 megapixels and the front-facing clocks in at 2MP – more than enough for all your video chatting and photo needs. You can record HD video at 720p or play it back at a crystal clear 1080p. I was really impressed that it also has HDMI  to output to a TV or external monitor as well as a USB port to quickly swap files.

The wi-fi only 32GB Xoom is $599 (the same price for the wi-fi only 32GB iPad 2). If you’d like the option of having Verizon’s 3G network, you can get it for $599 with a contract or $799 without. Data plans range from $20 to $80/month depending on your data usage.

Where the Xoom excels
Notifications on the Xoom are marvelous. When you get a new email message or reply, a tiny box pops up with a preview of the message. Click it and the Xoom quickly switches to that application. It doesn’t butt in like iOS notifications do.

The GMail app is simple and charming. It syncs with your inbox, keeps you organized and has all the great features the web version offers. Google Talk is a great alternative to Apple’s Facetime and doesn’t lock you (or your chat partners) in to one device.

The homescreen is fully customizable with apps and widgets. The widgets give you real-time updates of your inbox, twitter stream, weather and more without having to spring the app. This is a great feature and a geek’s dream.

Android offers over-the-air updates for Honeycomb and all of your apps. No need to manually download individual apps or sync your device to get updated versions.

I spend a lot of time in the browser and the included Chrome browser trumps Safari in my opinion. I use Chrome as my default browser and the ability to sync bookmarks, logins and preferences across multiple computers and systems keeps me sane. Tabbed browsing, support for Adobe Flash and a single box for typing URL’s and searches puts the Xoom head and shoulders above the iPad 2 in this category.

And although I don’t own an Android phone, I understand the first time you use a Honeycomb tablet, it will automatically import settings and profile preferences from your current Android phone. The tablet will download and install all of the apps you’ve put on your phone en masse. No need to saddle up to your computer, select, select some more, sync, wait and wait some more to get it up and running.

Finally, and although it may seem small, but the charging port on the Xoom is easy to access and comes with a nice long cord. With the iPad 2, I feel like I could break it off every time.

Quick note: Apple is supposedly incorporating quite a few of these features (tabbed browsing, better notifications, over-the-air updates) in iOS 5, but you’ll have to wait until fall to see them on your iPad or iPhone.

Where the iPad 2 is better
Navigating. You know those videos of cats and babies playing with an iPad? It’s a simple demonstration that shows you the iPad interface is so intuitive that even a damn cat can figure it out. Honeycomb on the other hand feels like a baby horse running for the first time. Deep down you know how powerful and elegant it can become, but right now it’s very clunky and rough around the edges. Buttons and navigation are not clearly labeled and spread throughout all areas of the OS. It takes a while to get adjusted and Honeycomb has a small learning curve. I was constantly thinking “where am I?” and “how do I get back?” in the larger sense of the operating system.

Who the hell decided to put the power button on the back? I had to put the device down after 2 minutes of searching and pull out the instruction manual before I finally figured it out. As a test of my ignorance, I asked 3 friends to try and turn it on – they all failed.

The Xoom is a solid 10-inch tablet with the fit and luster of the iPad although just a little heavier and a bit bulkier. Maybe I have weak wrists, but the design forces you to hold it landscape a lot of the time. For apps like Twitter, this results in a lot of wasted screen real estate.

Flipboard is one of my favorite apps for the iPad. I spend a lot of my evenings reading and discovering new aggregated content in it’s super cool book layout. Not having Flipboard available for Android makes me ill.

Here’s why you should buy a Xoom
I feel as though Apple and Google have pitted users against each other. You’re either all in or you’re all out. You can’t have a mish mash of devices that work together in unison without having a computer science degree.

Therefore, if you’re on Google’s side, looking for a solid tablet, running a state-of-the-art operating system that is fully customizable and can stand eye-to-eye with the iPad 2, then the Motorola Xoom is the tablet you should buy.

Note: I was not paid or compensated in any way by Verizon, Motorola or their partners. I simply borrowed, reviewed and returned the device for this article.