Wondering how well BING is doing locally so far? Well the HITWISE stats are in, and so far, it's certainly having some impact. At least compared to everyone but Google!
BING
Let's hope we see more growth over time, competition can only be a good thing for the market.
Now, how about a BING version of Google analytics (delivered locally) for us advertisers?
Communications news and views, from Starcom Australia
Friday, June 19, 2009
"Vanity URLs"
At exactly 12:01am EST Saturday, 13/06/09, Facebook offered users a chance to personalise their Facebook page with their own, customized URL, based on a first come first served basis.
Prior to this, only a select few were able to obtain personalized URLs (such as President Barack Obama, Britney Spears and General Electric). The user rules prohibited trademark infringement and other, obvious and offensive terms were blacklisted.
So how many people “stood in line” to grab their customised vanity URL? Users registered 200,000 custom usernames in their first 3 minutes of availability. By later Saturday morning, 3 million usernames had been registered. Through Sunday (14/06/09), 5.75 million usernames had been taken across the site. One user blogged: “I was nervous leading up to the final minute before the usernames were released, but I got the name I was looking for!”.
The nearly 6 million usernames registered so far represent only about 3% of the site’s 200+ million users, however as others see their friends have a vanity URL and less frequent facebook users sign on and begin to pick up on this, it is likely it will only be a matter of time before a majority of users follow this trend.
Facebook is joining the competition:
MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites already let users personalize their home pages. So why has Facebook finally decided to join in? A Facebook designer discussed how this addition will make it easier for friends and family to connect with Facebook users and as he stated “they will have an ‘easy-to-remember’ way to find you.”
What is the significance of this? How does this impact who we are and where we are and our identities?
Quoted from one blogger. “I was not able to get my first choice of vanity URL on Facebook but I’m certainly not surprised. Nevertheless, I now look forward to updating my personal Twitter background so that my Facebook contact information reflects a more inviting vanity URL rather than a cold, prison-like ID code.” - Joe
Once your username goes mainstream, it makes your “home” on the Web easier to remember. And having your “home” on Facebook (which more people are likely to visit than say, a separate website), is priceless. For example, on an advertisement for Vitamin Water, the address www.facebook.com/vitaminwater flashes across the bottom of the screen. Beyond something like Twitter where you can just follow someone, companies/brands are able to do so much more with a Facebook Fan Page as they can code it however they want.
The URL that a person, company or brand chooses reflects something about one’s online or offline identity. Whatever the choice may be, it is a way of saying ‘Here *I* am!'.
What does this cultural shift say about our future?
Our online identities could move from being just a “silly alias” online to an official identification – a single authentic label for how we identify ourselves from EVERY CORNER of the Web. And people could begin referring to you offline…in your online alias.
Take for example, 25 year old digital media artist and photographer, An Xiao. Recently when having a night out on the town at cocktail parties and gallery openings, Ms. Xiao was referred to throughout the night by her friend as her online name “thatwaszen.” As she states, “Thatwaszen – it has become my name. It’s just like when you hear your name at a cocktail party, you turn your head.”
Web life could start trickling into real life...
As a Dr. John Suler (a professor who studies cyberpsychology) stated: “I think it’s the exception rather than the rule that offline and online identities are ‘disassociated’ with each other. For many people, there is push, consciously or unconsciously, to integrate online and offline identities…to make them synergistic to each other.”
Seema Patel.
Sources reference: mashable.com 26/06/09; abcnews.go.com 12/06/09; observer.com 15/06/09; techcrunch.com 31/05/09
Prior to this, only a select few were able to obtain personalized URLs (such as President Barack Obama, Britney Spears and General Electric). The user rules prohibited trademark infringement and other, obvious and offensive terms were blacklisted.
So how many people “stood in line” to grab their customised vanity URL? Users registered 200,000 custom usernames in their first 3 minutes of availability. By later Saturday morning, 3 million usernames had been registered. Through Sunday (14/06/09), 5.75 million usernames had been taken across the site. One user blogged: “I was nervous leading up to the final minute before the usernames were released, but I got the name I was looking for!”.
The nearly 6 million usernames registered so far represent only about 3% of the site’s 200+ million users, however as others see their friends have a vanity URL and less frequent facebook users sign on and begin to pick up on this, it is likely it will only be a matter of time before a majority of users follow this trend.
Facebook is joining the competition:
MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites already let users personalize their home pages. So why has Facebook finally decided to join in? A Facebook designer discussed how this addition will make it easier for friends and family to connect with Facebook users and as he stated “they will have an ‘easy-to-remember’ way to find you.”
What is the significance of this? How does this impact who we are and where we are and our identities?
Quoted from one blogger. “I was not able to get my first choice of vanity URL on Facebook but I’m certainly not surprised. Nevertheless, I now look forward to updating my personal Twitter background so that my Facebook contact information reflects a more inviting vanity URL rather than a cold, prison-like ID code.” - Joe
Once your username goes mainstream, it makes your “home” on the Web easier to remember. And having your “home” on Facebook (which more people are likely to visit than say, a separate website), is priceless. For example, on an advertisement for Vitamin Water, the address www.facebook.com/vitaminwater flashes across the bottom of the screen. Beyond something like Twitter where you can just follow someone, companies/brands are able to do so much more with a Facebook Fan Page as they can code it however they want.
The URL that a person, company or brand chooses reflects something about one’s online or offline identity. Whatever the choice may be, it is a way of saying ‘Here *I* am!'.
What does this cultural shift say about our future?
Our online identities could move from being just a “silly alias” online to an official identification – a single authentic label for how we identify ourselves from EVERY CORNER of the Web. And people could begin referring to you offline…in your online alias.
Take for example, 25 year old digital media artist and photographer, An Xiao. Recently when having a night out on the town at cocktail parties and gallery openings, Ms. Xiao was referred to throughout the night by her friend as her online name “thatwaszen.” As she states, “Thatwaszen – it has become my name. It’s just like when you hear your name at a cocktail party, you turn your head.”
Web life could start trickling into real life...
As a Dr. John Suler (a professor who studies cyberpsychology) stated: “I think it’s the exception rather than the rule that offline and online identities are ‘disassociated’ with each other. For many people, there is push, consciously or unconsciously, to integrate online and offline identities…to make them synergistic to each other.”
Seema Patel.
Sources reference: mashable.com 26/06/09; abcnews.go.com 12/06/09; observer.com 15/06/09; techcrunch.com 31/05/09
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Wave, Bing and Punch - The week the web took a serious step forward...
Anyone remotely associated with the digital space would have no doubt heard about the recent announcements by Google, MS and News Ltd. Here's my take on the events of the past week...
First of all, the boffins at Google unveiled their latest innovation: Google Wave. If you haven't yet seen the developer conference keynote (or even the first 10 minutes of it), check it out here:
After sitting through 80 minutes of the most awkward tech nerdery ever to be presented live on stage, one thing is clear: This is the largest step forward for online communication since the commercial penetration of email.
My only concern is that it could be too advanced. Try explaining how a wave works to a 50+ silver surfer who just setup their first Hotmail account? There is no doubt that the big G has a long way to go with this product, in both education and development, but give it 5 years and basic email will be as dead as the dusty old fax machine in the corner of your office.
The second big announcement was the launch of Bing. Microsoft's overhauled version of Live Search. Without waxing lyrical about it, there are a few points worth mentioning:
The third big launch this week had more of a local flavour. News Ltd pushed the Go button on their latest effort in opinion-based journalism, ThePunch.com.au. Described as an Oz version of The Huffington Post, it's purpose is to generate conversation, and a quick snap of the current homepage shows that it seems to be doing that pretty well (considering it's 2 days old).
The site looks great and seems to have pretty regular updates from it's main journos. One thing that The Daily Beast and others do well is get regular pieces from celebrity contributors. 80% of the Daily Beast articles I get pointed to are written by Michael Moore. For The Punch to get ahead, they'll need to start swinging their left hooks a little more often. They have the roster, it's time to call on them.
A big week in the progression of online technology and media, and certainly one that we should all be excited about.
First of all, the boffins at Google unveiled their latest innovation: Google Wave. If you haven't yet seen the developer conference keynote (or even the first 10 minutes of it), check it out here:
After sitting through 80 minutes of the most awkward tech nerdery ever to be presented live on stage, one thing is clear: This is the largest step forward for online communication since the commercial penetration of email.
My only concern is that it could be too advanced. Try explaining how a wave works to a 50+ silver surfer who just setup their first Hotmail account? There is no doubt that the big G has a long way to go with this product, in both education and development, but give it 5 years and basic email will be as dead as the dusty old fax machine in the corner of your office.
The second big announcement was the launch of Bing. Microsoft's overhauled version of Live Search. Without waxing lyrical about it, there are a few points worth mentioning:
- Any competition is good for the search industry. This is the first product I've seen in a long time that comes close to Google. They've had it too good for too long.
- Search is a habit. No one ever decides to search, then pick their provider. It's going to take a big attitude shift, and a good 2-3 years before Bing becomes a serious player in this market. Writing it off now would be shortsighted on anyone's behalf.
- Bing is actually quite well built (all MS jokes aside...). The image search, video search, and contextual info along side search listings rocks. As Mumbrella pointed out, there are still a few bugs, but they'll sort that out over time...
The third big launch this week had more of a local flavour. News Ltd pushed the Go button on their latest effort in opinion-based journalism, ThePunch.com.au. Described as an Oz version of The Huffington Post, it's purpose is to generate conversation, and a quick snap of the current homepage shows that it seems to be doing that pretty well (considering it's 2 days old).
The site looks great and seems to have pretty regular updates from it's main journos. One thing that The Daily Beast and others do well is get regular pieces from celebrity contributors. 80% of the Daily Beast articles I get pointed to are written by Michael Moore. For The Punch to get ahead, they'll need to start swinging their left hooks a little more often. They have the roster, it's time to call on them.
A big week in the progression of online technology and media, and certainly one that we should all be excited about.
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