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Digital Privacy is On the Hotseat Posted: 15 Aug 2008 02:37 PM CDT Recently I’ve begun discussing privacy more regularly and this is going to increase as Congress continues to discuss new measures that could have a significant impact on a number of large companies in the industry. Last week I discussed how your offline life could soon be public thanks to the combination of Facebook Connect and RFID technology. This is taking place in the not so distant future and even Amiando, an event registration software, has stated their intention to leverage Facebook Connect. Over the next 12 months, digital privacy is going to move to the center stage as activities that have gone unmonitored for the past decade are being debated in Congress. Yesterday, a BusinessWeek article revealed more details about at least one bill being ushered by Representative Edward Markey: Dubbed the Online Privacy Bill of Rights, the law may require companies to get approval from consumers before collecting information about their Web-surfing habits, a process known as behavioral targeting that helps Web sites more strategically place ads. The legislation may also demand that companies disclose more information on how they collect and use people’s Web-use data. Behavioral targeting is the primary concern for Congress but further investigation will most definitely lead to new policies. As such, large companies from Facebook to Google are beginning to perk up as Congress prods around. Some of the investigations have even driven Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, and AOL to enable users to opt-out of advertising all together. As the debate begins to heat up over user privacy rights, Social Times will be increasing our coverage of the topic. This is an issue of critical importance. I have even gone so far as to success the formation of an organization that oversees digital privacy and handles investigations related to digital privacy rights. Do you think digital privacy requires the creation of a formal organization?

The Social Web Economy: Advertising Professionals Posted: 15 Aug 2008 09:48 AM CDT This is a continuation in the series on “The Social Web Economy“ In order for there to be an economy, there has to be money and advertisers are the ones that hold it. Advertising dollars are probably the most prized possession in the social web economy. Without it there is no business and all that remains is venture capital dollars. The advertisers spend money with four out of the five types of companies in the social web economy: agencies, ad networks, widget & application platforms, and media companies. Advertising dollars are coming from two primary sources: advertising agencies and from brands directly. While some developers are paying other developers for installations, this amount should be considered negligible in the long-run. Advertisers are the life blood of the social web economy and it is one group of people who attract advertiser dollars: sales people. So who are the advertising professionals working for? They work for the agencies and the brands. In the current economy they tend to be at the forefront of advertising when they invest advertising dollars in social media. One of the biggest challenges for these individuals is convincing traditional brands that they should be advertising in non-traditional channels (social media). Fortunately for these individuals, within the social web economy there isn't much tension for these individuals. Life is nice when you are the one that holds the money! The primary challenge for advertising professionals is reporting back the results of social media and social networking campaigns. New metrics solutions are emerging to make this easier but the industry still struggles to quantify "engagement". When you report to a brand that is used to spending money via the television, how do you explain advertising on Facebook's news feed? This is an industry wide challenge that all parties need to work together on improving. Next post in series: “The Social Web Economy: Business Development and Sales People”

SocialThing Acquired by AOL Posted: 15 Aug 2008 12:31 AM CDT The big news tonight is that AOL has acquired the lifestreaming service, SocialThing. This acquisition is by AOL’s People Networks division. Frank Gruber, who is one of the primary product managers in that division, announced the acquisition on his blog tonight. There’s no word on how much the company was acquired for but you can pretty much guarantee that it’s nowhere near the $850 million AOL spent on Bebo. It’s most likely closer to the million dollar range, but at this point that is nothing beyond speculation. SocialThing is a competitor to FriendFeed which I was first introduced to at South-by-Southwest back in May. As the Compete.com graph below illustrates, SocialThing has been facing some fierce competition from FriendFeed who continues to gain traction. So how is AOL going to leverage SocialThing? One way is to simply leave it as is, as a standalone website. Currently AOL has a diverse set of web properties that exist under their own brand names, but many of those could be cut back in the near future (as Valleywag points out). The other way it could be integrated is through Bebo, making SocialThing the center of users’ activities on the site. Meshing together such a diverse set of offerings can be extremely challenging though and frequently acquisitions by large companies spells the death of start-ups. Not that this will happen with SocialThing but the company most definitely has a challenging road ahead as AOL tries to piece together their social assets. This could prove to be a great step toward merging everything together. For now we’ll have to wait and see.

Is There a Mobile Divide? Posted: 14 Aug 2008 08:37 PM CDT In the middle of a phone call today, something dawned on me. Just as there is a “digital divide”, there may also be a “mobile divide” based on the types of phones people have access to. Hear me out on this one. While a small portion of us debate (as pictured in the video below) the battle between iPhone and Google’s soon to be released Android Phone, a much larger portion of individuals still have phones that they don’t access internet on. While there is most definitely an upcoming shift, the majority of users still do not use their phone for browsing the web. According to a recent study by Nielsen, only 15.6 percent of users in the U.S. access the mobile web and this country leads among all other countries. While a large portion of mobile users will begin accessing the mobile web, the majority remain disconnected. While this doesn’t impact the mobile disconnected population the same way that the lack of internet access at home does, having access to all information on the go most definitely provides an advantage. It’s no wonder then that four of the top ten websites accessed via a mobile device in May of this year were e-mail sites. Business in general has become mobile and as such I would suggest that those not accessing the web via their mobile device are at a competitive disadvantage. My guess is that most people that visit this site have viewed a website on their mobile device. It’s very easy to become spoiled with technology. While traveling, you’ll find me immediately turn on my phone as my airplane touches down and I’ll read my email and get all the latest news. I’m not alone as I frequently observe my fellow flight passengers doing the same thing. While being “hyper-connected” can create more stress, it also can improve productivity. While mobile web usage will surely grow dramatically over the coming years, I think that it’s important to recognize that the majority of the world still does not browse the web or use mobile web services via their mobile device.

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