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Microsoft Vine Giving Twitter & Facebook Commercial Purpose? Posted: 28 Apr 2009 02:04 PM PDT Is Microsoft’s latest product, Vine, the answer to solving the issue of practical status update applications? The new social web application from Microsoft was revealed today during a beta test in Seattle, offering hyperlocal and personalized information for users and groups. On your computer screen Vine acts as a dashboard that you can use to keep up with other members in your community, whether they’re family members, office or team members, or your best buds. The application itself comes in the form of a map, where your contacts will appear via their location, along with their updated status. You can send alerts or reports, which can be sent and received either through the Vine web application or through SMS on your mobile phone. So everyone is wondering if Vine is a Facebook or Twitter competitor. At this stage in the game, I think the real question is whether or not Vine integrates with these two services, both of which are the prominent services used to update one’s status. While Facebook integration has already been included, Twitter integration won’t be added until later. But is this a way for Microsoft to compete with Twitter and Facebook? Microsoft is an investor in Facebook so partnering up with the social network makes sense for Vine. This is an interesting way in which Microsoft is delving back into the social networking realm. For the time being, Microsoft is pushing Vine as a tool for emergencies, mainly to be used by families and already established, organized groups (i.e. emergency services on a school campus, etc.). This vantage point makes a lot of sense for a company like Microsoft, given its demographic and the general feelings towards geo-data being shared with others. The commercial use for Vine may have a higher potential than if it were being promoted as merely a social networking tool, as consumers tend to be more willing to give up the particulars of their location-based data when it’s for safety purposes. Given some of Vine’s other features, which enable you to pull news stories and other events related to their community, Microsoft could very well have found a way in which to practically integrate social networking status updates into a very commercial product. Status updates act as easy and mobile ways in which to take data outside of a social network, and placing context around those status updates is a necessary step to taking social networking and microblogging to the next level. Aside from creating context for the world of status updates, I also think that Microsoft Vine has potential due to some of Microsoft’s other products, including Silverlight, SharePoint (for business networking) and even Microsoft’s mobile platform. What do you think; is Vine the answer to giving microblogging commercial purpose, or is this another Microsoft flop?

Mint Measures Your Financial Fitness with New Tools Posted: 28 Apr 2009 06:00 AM PDT How financially fit are you? It’s a very important question these days, and the tools to keep you financially healthy are all the rave. Mint, the web-based personal finance tool, is releasing a new section of its site called Financial Fitness in order to give a wider range of features to its users. Financial Fitness really takes Mint’s existing personal finance tools to the next level, making the new segment a natural progression for Mint. Financial Fitness consists of five personal finance principles and lays these out for users to note on a weekly, monthly and annual basis. These five principles include: Know your Money Spend Less than you Earn Use Debt Wisely Invest Your Savings Prepare for the Unexpected These are the core aspects of Mint’s Financial Fitness, and based on the various activity you have in each principle, your financial health will vary. As Mint already had basic personal finance tools to show you what’s going on with your money, Financial Fitness merely helps you answer the question, “what to do with your money.” The new feature allows you to really stay on track with your financial goals, aggregating all the data Mint already has for your personal finance and in turn helping you to make better decisions. For example, Mint can see which credit card accounts your using or which mobile network provider you have. If you frequently end up wasting money on late fees for your bills, Mint can suggest other credit card company that doesn’t have late fees at all. Taking the knowledge it’s learning from a wide array of users and turning it into a custom recommendation service that also keeps you on track is precisely what Mint is going for here. Additionally there will be rewards given out for those that are financially fit. No details have been revealed about the rewards to be doled out for those that stay on track, but we’ve heard that the points and rewards system is akin to a gaming format. It’s a concept I’ve been expecting to pan out with Mint, other personal finance tools and even media recommendation services for some time now. With Mint in particular the Financial Fitness section is important because it makes the previous Mint offering more valuable and it proves the necessity of services such as Mint from a business perspective. Mint is also hoping that the current recession will make consumers more fiscally aware, and the company is really pushing its service as a supplement or alternative to paying for a financial adviser that you may see only a handful of times throughout the year. I really like the idea of having an automated service that keeps you on track between meetings with financial planners, and I’m certain the two aspects of finance will become more intertwined in the coming years.

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