Pronounced “social,” the project from Microsoft’s FUSE Labs is not designed to compete with Facebook though it is launching with a similar premise, allowing students to share and search content with their peers for research purposes.

“FUSE Labs’ So.cl project is now accepting all users interested in joining the site,” Microsoft said in a statement. “So.cl is an experimental research project focused on the future of social experiences and learning, especially among younger people. So.cl combines search and social networking for the purpose of learning and is the latest experiment from FUSE Labs.”

So.cl search is integrated with public Bing APIs to display web pages, images, or videos search results data.

To connect to the social site, you must enter your Facebook or Windows Live login information. So.cl lets you initially define your interests based on themes (like music, sports, travel, art, food etc.).  Once you set up your profile, you can start to monitor the activities of several people, follow and be followed by other users. You can also comment and publish text, photos and video. The central search engine is powered by none other than Bing, searching these themes with a live chat option.

“We expect students to continue using products such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other existing social networks, as well as Bing, Google and other search tools,” Microsoft said on the social site. “We hope to encourage students to reimagine how our everyday communication and learning tools can be improved, by researching, learning and sharing in their everyday lives.”

A Competitor to Google+

So.cl combines several functions of social media, search engines and an interface very similar to Google+ from which you can share content. Although the So.cl interface has a more than reasonable resemblance with Google+, you can also see the influence of other social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

The site resembles Pinterest in that users can create boards. It’s similar to Facebook in that it provides the ability to follow other users, and like Twitter in a way to follow general interests such as film or design.  And just like the initial days of Facebook, the network is only meant for universities and students.

Despite the glaring similarities to today’s most popular social networks, Microsoft is really building off its existing services, and even leveraging one of its most popular social partnerships to date. So.cl uses Facebook login to create new user accounts, and as Microsoft has a sizeable investment in Facebook, they’re likely to continue teaming up around certain things like social search and Skype integration.

As a standout feature, Microsoft adds “video parties” in So.cl that distinguish the site from other social networks as it allows users to search for videos, which then can be edited and shared with other users, though Google+ aims to do something similar with Hangout.

Microsoft’s Social Networking History

This isn’t the first time Microsoft’s gotten involved in social, having injected user-generated content to enhance search recommendations on Bing.  Bing’s social approach has largely been sidelined by Google’s massive reach, and has yet to prove the real potential and Bing.

Microsoft’s research team also developed location-based social networking that brings together the physical and online world for social networking services.

Future So.cl Goals

What priorities we will see in the furthered development of the Microsoft’s social network in the coming months?

On paper, so.cl is still an experimental project, but in fact it leaves little confidence that Microsoft intends to use so.cl as a research tool just for students. Rather, Microsoft likely plans to explore the social media space on a broader spectrum, targeting a niche audience in hopes of gaining early adoption through its research-enabled value proposition.

At first glance it appears that Microsoft is planning to use the experience of real search users to boost its own search engine, Bing.  Your search results are shared with others, and the results can also be access by third parties.  This means that the social interactions can also benefit other companies and partners, building a business model and potential advertising platform relatively early.

Microsoft is yet to integrate Bing search engine with So.cl, but looking at the long term, this may help revive Bing and enable Microsoft to take advantage of growing trends around social search and recommendations.

Window 8 operating system and the next version of Windows Mobile OS will also likely offer a number of ways to post on its social network, completing the circle and competing at a wider range with Google’s encompassing approach to social search and Apps.

Can Microsoft’s New So.cl Network Revive Bing Search? is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

• The Little Bird that Could: 100M Twitter Users Ripe for Ad Revenue
• Pinterest Joins the List of $1 Billion Dollar Enterprises
• The $550M Patent Trade Off: From AOL to Microsoft to Facebook
• Pinterest Goes to Amazon, BBM Friends Facebook and Twitter
• Survey Scammers Hit Pinterest Grounds, How To Avoid Phishing According to Symantec
• Yahoo Pokes Facebook With Awkwardly-Timed Infringement Suit

After getting $100 million in investment funds from Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, the new kid on the social media block got a valuation 50 percent bigger than that of Instagram when Facebook brought it for $1 billion.

So what does the future hold for Pinterest that would justify a $1 billion valuation for the cloud-based vision board?  Pinterest still has a ways to go before it becomes a true platform player for social commerce, marketing and user recommendations.  Here are some areas in which Pinterest will need to develop its business:

Advertising in pictures

Pinterest is the third most popular social media site behind Facebook and Twitter, letting you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the Web. The site also includes built-in ways to incorporate mutual respect, authenticity and properly crediting your sources.

The social sharing site shows tremendous growth in its user base. Over 80 percent of pins are actually re-pins of other people’s stuff, according to findings from RJMetrics.

“Pinterest demonstrates some of the strongest user engagement, retention and virality metrics I have ever seen in an online business,” wrote Robert Moore of RJMetrics. “The company has found tremendous success among its core demographic, and the potential reach of its appeal will be tested in the coming months as attention from broader audiences continues to increase.”

Pinterest can use the existing social platform as an advertising marketing tool for businesses selling easily photographed products and services. The company can look at developing their own tools to render itself a relevant business model with its current platform and projected growth.

To do this, Pinterest can build up an e-commerce platform overlapping e-commerce and social networks where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining.

Charging Advertisers

Several brands are beginning to make Pinterest pages, pinning their own products to the site. Pinterest could potentially sponsored pins in the stream that are paid for by advertisers, similar to the model Twitter’s used to build out advertising on its microblog. Pinterest can also work with advertisers to create customized Pinterest-connected campaigns and pages.

Mobile App

Pinterest has yet to explore the mobile space, lacking a mobile app on any major platform and limited mobile-specific options for the mobile web (like pinning). Pinterest could potentially create a mobile marketplace by developing mobile apps where users/advertisers, instead of pinning products on the site, could upload product photos, price, description, and price etc. on their mobile devices itself.

The mobile marketplace could be modified further into a monetization platform where users can buy the pins and seller would be obligated to ship the product.

The biggest benefit of mobile integration is the added context of location to uploaded pins.  Pinterest is likely going to develop some recommendation tools around its site activity, and as retailers and marketers become more interested in user-generated pins, promotions for local venues can leverage Pinterest as a mobile outlet as well.

Pinterest API

Pinterest has the potential to become a notable marketing tool, but for that, the company needs an interface to interact with social and content feeds – an API could accomplish that requirement.

The API could create an environment where retailers can better integrate their offerings for two-way collaboration and sharing with their customers.

Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann hinted in recent past that the company will acknowledge an API in the near future (although the page was listed for only a short time on Pinterest’s site).  In the post Silbermann said the Pinterest profiles will be very different to those of Facebook and other social networks, and will show a snapshot of what you’re really about. Through an API, Pintrest-related app development would further spur the rapid growth of the site, which already reached 11.7 million unique users in January.

Can Pinterest Build a Business Model to Justify $1 Billion Valuation? is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

• Pinterest Joins the List of $1 Billion Dollar Enterprises
• Pinterest’s Opportunity in Spammers? An API
• Survey Scammers Hit Pinterest Grounds, How To Avoid Phishing According to Symantec
• Pinterest + Facebook: Lowes Benefits from Virtue’s Latest Platform Perk
• SXSW 2012 Weekend Highlights: Instagram on Android, Angry Birds in Space, Live Hacks and More
• Banjo’s iPhone App Reveals its Social Superpowers

Rakuten said that this investment helps the site grow in the U.S. and its 17 overseas markets, including entry into Japanese market.

“While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining,” said Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani. “We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.”

Pinterest has become the sensation of recent social media history, and has positioned itself as the third largest social network in the US.  Pinterest, where users can share their photos, has grown rapidly in recent months–the website has become the sixteenth most visited site in the US, according to Alexa.  In April alone their user base has reached more than 20 million, up from 1 million in July 2011.

“Our goal is to help people discover things they love, by connecting people through their shared interests. Bringing Rakuten on board gives us an amazing opportunity to move a step closer to this goal,” said Pinterest CEO Ben Silberman.

A partnership with Rakuten could open many doors for Pinterest to expand its presence in Asia. The company sees great potential in markets like France, Germany, Japan, Portugal and Spain.

Pinterest Weekly – New Platform to Keep Users Engaged

Pinterest remains undefined in its business model, at least publicly, and the company has yet to disclose its revenue.  But faced with such high expectations and an outstanding valuation, it’s time for Pinterest to start developing its user engagement and monetization strategies.

One step in that direction is the introduction of Pinterest Weekly, a weekly email board. The company has started sending users a weekly e-mail featuring basic account stats, like their top pins, and other popular boards in an attempt to keep them engaged between pinning sessions. This week’s feature is user George Takei’s “Cats and Dogs” as he shares “Pins You Might Like” from users’ friends.

Pinterest as a social network is more popular amongst the ladies, and has been nicknamed the “Tumblr for girls” as women trust product recommendations reviews from this social networking site. Amazon recently integrated Pinterest to their service in an attempt to drive more consumers to their retail outlet, particularly including women, and power more recommendations.

Pinterest Joins the List of $1 Billion Dollar Enterprises is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

• Can Microsoft’s New So.cl Network Revive Bing Search?
• Pinterest Goes to Amazon, BBM Friends Facebook and Twitter
• Android’s Google Play Faces Rising Competition from Amazon, Facebook and China
• The Best of Mark Zuckerberg
• Can Pinterest Build a Business Model to Justify $1 Billion Valuation?
• Facebook Waited Too Long to Go Public: Initial IPO Reactions

And the strategy paid off well.  Fab reports 15% of all visits to the Live Feed result in a purchase, and that’s an amazing conversion rate for any online retailer.  It’s no surprise Fab’s upping the ante on their social features.  There’s four important new updates to the Live Feed: you can now purchase directly from the feed, post to Pinterest straight from the feed, view your Facebook friends’ likes and purchases in real time, and see what’s trending overall in real time.

The most notable of the new features are the first two–direct purchases and Pinning.  Similar to Amazon’s one-click button, direct-from-feed purchases on Fab are sure to increase their sales.  One thing Fab wants to ensure on the site is the excitement of discovery is maintained without overwhelming the user.  That’s a tough balance for any flash sale site, and many have lost my attention by trying to incorporate new features that don’t add value or interest, or by merely adding more categories to an already saturated site.

The interesting thing about the new Pin It button is that it’s essentially replaced the Google+ button that was once present on every product page.  Fab reports 2% of referred traffic from Pinterest, even before they added the Pin It button.  If Fab wants to stay serious about their social network integration, they’ll continue to follow the users.

“What’s great about Pinterest is it’s similar to Fab in that it’s an individual’s own curation of images,” says Melissa Klein, VP of Communications at Fab.  “We have to follow the member.  They indicate on which platforms they want to share.”

In many ways, Fab is looking to become a platform for retail, layering social, search and commerce for an inclusive experience that thrives on its built-in broadcasting tools.  This is what’s helped Fab really stand out, especially in an emerging culture of curation.  We see this trend developing on Pinterest, of course, but also newbie sites like Threadflip.  Fab’s finding ways to expand the user experience beyond just purchases, building loyalty around brands and designers as well.

Another notable update to Fab is the new Smile pages, which highlight the stories behind the designers featured on the site.  “Every designer has a story, and we really wanted to shine a spotlight on that,” Klein continues.  “We’re looking at ways we can help our designers…we’re more than just a place for business, and the designers are part of our family.”

Fab.com Social Upgrade Swaps Google+ for Pinterest is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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This type of photo sharing forum allows for a multitude of varying uses. You can use it as yet another way to expand the reaches of your business, show off your collection of action figures or even as an exercise tool.

Let’s take a look at a handful creative and unique ways to utilize Pinterests features.

Storefront

These days it seems getting back to “mom and pop” shops is a growing trend. Most people would rather pay a few extra dollars to make a purchase that will benefit a small local vendor, rather than save money on mass produced, sweatshop merchandise from a huge conglomerate chain.

When eBay launched back in 1995 entrepreneurs everywhere watched their small businesses multiply with the help of internet based sales. Since then, retailers have branched out, learning how to use every tool the internet affords them. Pinterest is a prime example of one such tool. Utilizing its easy to navigate platform, vendors are able to show off their goods and provide a short synopsis of what it is they do, as well as where they are located and contact information.

This very unique way of using Pinterest not only benefits the consigner but the consumer as well. Supporters of interesting, small local shops can find treasures that may otherwise have gone unnoticed.

One such mom and pop treasure is a Ft Lauderdale local favorite, tiny and tucked out the way, this spot is one of my personal favorites for cool vintage additions to my wardrobe and a friendly beach vibe. Take a look at how ModSurf makes use of Pinterest as a storefront here.

Collection

Owning a bevy of classic comic books or action figures is considered to be an accomplishment. But what good is it if you can’t show it off?

You can use Pinterest to display your collection either in the order you obtained your treasures or in order of your favorite collectibles.

Personally, I am just the tiniest bit obsessed with Batman, so I went ahead did a search for “Batman Collection” in the search box at the top left hand corner of the Pinterest homepage. I soon found I wasn’t the only one with Batman hysteria. Check out the collections I found here.

Exercise guide

When starting a new exercise routine it is important to hold your body in proper form or you can end up with some seriously sore muscles. What about those of us who just don’t have the time to, say, attend a Yoga class?

Pinterest offers a platform where fitness savvy users take the time to pin photos as step-by-step guides to various exercise routines.

Being that Yoga is one of the more popular ways to stay in shape, we’ll stick to it as an example. There are breathing patterns, stretches and an assortment of poses to keep in mind when practicing Yoga. Pinterest allows for how-to explanations on all of this and more when performing these exercises. See a simple step-by-step yoga routine on Pinterest here.

Travel journal

Whether traveling to India in search of shamans and the meaning of life, or a weekend getaway in Cancun over spring break, Pinterest offers a platform to organize and highlight your trip.

You can start by pinning photos of spots you are thinking about visiting and letting other Pinterest users who may have visited those areas comment on your pins, giving insight to local favorites and the better tourist attractions.

Once you have mapped out your trip, go there! Take photos of your own, pinning them up minute-to-minute, daily, or after your trip is over, it’s up to you.

Great examples of travel journals I came across can be found here.

Tutorial 

Do your friends all clamor for a glimpse of your hairstyle? Why not share those talents over the internet in the form of a tutorial?

Pinterest allows you to strategically place photos and their descriptions.

A good example of a tutorial I found on Pinterest is a how-to guide to braiding hair in a very interesting way. In this tutorial we learn how to do an upside down french braid in 10 easy steps, check it out.

Whatever you can take a picture of, you can show it off on Pinterest. Get feedback from other users of the site and possibly become featured on the Pinterest homepage. By putting it out there you can get the attention your pictures deserve and if nothing else you can use Pinterest to store your photo’s giving you room on your digital camera or mobile device to keep clicking away.

5 Creative Ways to Use Pinterest, from Work Out Guides to Tutorials is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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Yammer has unveiled a new Universal Search feature that allows enterprise users to search Yammer content from within pre-integrated third-party software, including Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce.com, SAP and Microsoft SharePoint.  The activity data from these and other business software offerings are also displayed on a ticker.

The universal search feature will work both in cloud and behind the firewall, and comes with an API for custom integration.  Yammer’s social networking software now integrates with AffinityLive, Badgeville, Box, NetSuite, Planview, Salesforce.com, Expensify, GageIn, Kindling, Microsoft SharePoint 2010, SAP, Sparqlight, Spigit, Subscribe-HR, TripIt and Zendesk.

The addition of Microsoft Dynamics on the social software enables updates and events within Yammer’s activity streams. The Dynamics plug-in allows users to record activity around accounts, campaigns and opportunities in Yammer search results.

Integration with SAP ERP Central component allows updates from SAP’s software to appear as activities in Yammer’s Ticker.  SAP customers who have installed the SAP Connector will see updates of all components, including HR, ERP and CRM.

“By continuing to integrate with the best-in-class enterprise applications employees rely on to get work done, Yammer is delivering on its vision to be the social layer across all systems of record,” said David Sacks, CEO of Yammer. “With this robust partner ecosystem, we’re providing our users with the ultimate collaboration experience.”

In addition, Yammer has a new Analytics Dashboard that will allow customers to easily manage participation, conversations and activities across their Yammer networks. The dashboard provides statistics like the number of affected members, messages, best performing groups and log data.

Other improvements include the introduction of slide-out navigation in Yammer iPhone and Android mobile apps for easier access to features such as user profiles and groups and access to more file types.

A Better Way to Collaborate with Customers

Spending on social communication and collaboration tools is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 61 percent through 2016, as reported by Forrester Research. The market is expected to reach $6.4 billion by 2016 compared with $600 million in 2010.

Social vendors are assimilating their social apps with broader collaboration platforms, such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Salesforce.com, Oracle and SAP to boost external interaction with customers and partners.

Yammer’s Yammer Pages, Yammer Files and Yammer Ticker collaboration tools are integrated with Microsoft SharePoint to store, edit and discuss files within Yammer in real time.

Other enterprise social networking providers have been pushing new features of their own.  Jive Software recently introduced the Jive Social Intranet Solution, a collaboration tool offering full-featured, internal social networks for businesses. Its suite of applications collaborate various business tasks such as group discussions, document-sharing, blogging, polls and more.

Yammer Update Adds Enterprise Apps, Expands Social Network Ecosystem is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

• Trends 2012: The State of Enterprise App Stores
• Jive Brings Gamification to Social Collaboration
• Microsoft Reveals Dynamics to Azure Cloud Transition Roadmap – Sort Of
• SAP Goes Social, Box Gives 50GB Free to Android Users
• Yammer Adds Big Data Social Analytics – Or Does It?
• Trends 2012: Integration-as-a-Service

These stunning figures are quite attractive to publishers, marketers and software developers seeking new ways to engage with end users.  Tapping this increasingly mobile audience is a critical component for businesses and multichannel merchants in the coming years. But mobilizing your website is not the end of the story, rather this is just the beginning, and there are a few things to consider when planning your mobile strategy. We have assembled a pack of pundits’ tips and tools to address the unique needs driving mobile trends, helping you stand out during one of the largest technological shifts the world has seen.

From the Experts

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Traffic

Focused on building an open mobile platform, Mobify shares a few ways to capitalize on mobility and social media marketing. Their eBook, titled 14 Essential Mobile Marketing Tactics, is authored by Igor Faletski and James Sherrett of Mobify Research and Development, and emphasizes the need for smart strategies to drive mobile traffic:

“A good experience will accelerate the virtuous circle of discovery, sharing, traffic and additional sharing. A poor mobile experience will result in a lost opportunity for revenue, brand engagement and customer loyalty,” reads an excerpt from Mobify’s e-book. “With mobile traffic playing such a prominent role in social media, creating a long-term strategy to engage in this field is critical building a successful business.”

Content and Navigation

I don’t care about org charts and links within links that will take me to the moon, nobody does.  So maximize the mobile screen size to feature actual content.  If I have a tablet with a bigger display, I expect content-rich graphics to take advantage of the larger size. The best way to put this is to use the “outside in approach.”  Keep in mind what the customers want and need first, and not with what you have.  Moreover, insert navigational options behind visibly labeled buttons or images that will allow users to explore content in other pages to dive deeper. It is also critical to consider that most users prefer vertical navigation versus horizontal scrolling.

You may also want to incorporate mobile alerts to swiftly direct users to content faster. On a more technical note, limit the use of Flash.  iOS devices don’t support Flash, and Adobe is already transitioning away from it as well.  Use HTML5 or JavaScript to achieve the same effect. It is also safe to use HTML for contact phone numbers instead of putting in the actual numbers. Simply tapping a number is more efficient for users.

Communication

Communication is also a vital tool to create a good mobile experience.  But most of the time, this is the element that mobile marketers tend to forget.  Don’t just scale down your website and squeeze in as much as possible into mobile devices’ little screens. Utilize mobile development systems to prune your offering to the most critical features only. In this Forbes article, Communications Coach for global brands and writer of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Power of Foursquare, Carmine Gallo points out the common gap from marketing to customer services for companies using Foursquare:

“If customer-facing employees do not know about your promotion (whether it be foursquare or any marketing initiative) then you risk upsetting your customers because they’ll ask about and get a blank stare in return. This happens more often than you think. I ask about promotions all the time and I rarely find employees who have been told anything about it. Here’s how it happens. A business owner will read this article and tell his marketing person, “We’ve got to get on that foursquare thing.” The marketing managers will do what they are told and that’s where it ends. Everyone covers their bases but they forget the most important step: communication.”

“Foursquare is a free and simple way for any brand—large or small—to participate in the mobile social media revolution,” he adds.  ”But if you fail to educate your staff and customers, you have no chance of launching a successful campaign.”

Usability and Feedback 

Usability is another huge factor that can either attract or deter users to or from mobile websites. The challenges you have to consider include slow page loads and interfering web and app pages (those links that will direct you to “download this app” before you can access the main site).  Getting user feedback on the performance of the site and how you can improve it will help you revisit features that need to be changed or updated. Don’t assume that everyone knows how to navigate the site.  It’s healthy to check in with end users regularly.  It will also send a message that you are serious about delivering an outstanding experience.

In a recent interview, Strangeloop President Joshua Bixby gave up the juicy details on how to spot areas of improvements for mobile websites.

“This really depends on the type of site. Obviously, for ecommerce sites, you’re always going to care about revenue and conversion, but these aren’t necessarily as important for mobile as for desktop traffic. For all you know, your mobile user is standing in your bricks-and-mortar store doing some price-checking or reading product reviews. They’re going to convert in your store. For these users, what you care about is engagement, not conversions, which is where KPIs like bounce rate and page views come in.”

Bixby gave a concrete illustration of the probable gap that businesses should examine.  “Site owners should look closely at bounce rate, page views, and time on page for their mobile traffic,” he explains.  ”These numbers should be commensurate with their desktop traffic. If they’re way off — say you’re averaging 2.3 page views per mobile visitor and 5.9 page views per desktop visitor — that could be an indicator that the mobile site is doing something to drive users away. In that case, you should analyze how fast your pages are loading or how usable they are.”

Market Integration

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Retail

The boom behind mobile websites is aggressively being supported by different markets. And what are billions of smartphone users around the world do aside from texting, making calls and sending emails? They navigate the mobile web and make purchases.

I am a self-proclaimed couch shopper who relies on buying things online. It was early last year when I started using my smartphone to shop online, and I loved how I was updated with bids, reviews, promos and discounts even when on the go. This year, I can hardly recall the last time I used my PC in purchasing something over the internet. According to a recent Nielsen report, retail mobile websites beat apps among US smartphone owners for for shopping needs, from researching products and reviews, to comparing prices, finding retail locations, and redeeming coupons.

Local search and advertising

John Burbank, Nielsen’s President of Strategic Initiatives, has some potent observations from the study saying, “the majority of smartphone owners used their devices for shopping this past holiday season.  Mobile shopping has reached scale and is only going to grow as smartphone penetration continues to rise.”

“Retailers need to think of their business as a multi-channel environment that can potentially include mobile, online, and bricks and mortar stores,” he adds. “Winning with shoppers requires a consistent experience across channels that reinforces the values you represent as a retail brand, whether it be price, service, reviews, selection, style, or other key attributes.”

Another thing is to optimize online information for local mobile search. Users within a few meters from your physical store could actually be tempted to drop by and buy goods.

Advertisers are reaping the revenue rewards of employing mobile marketing tactics. Traditional advertising will soon be a thing of the past. While some fear that moving to mobile is a big risk, penetrating this market means gaining more subscribers from a broader population that hardly use PCs for web access.  Mobile marketing was an early trend for this space, and it’s already spawned a plethora of third-party tools to get the job done.

Tools for mobilization

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Beefing up mobile websites is not an easy task to be completed overnight. It may require time, a string of trial and error and help from other products with tool sets designed to mobilize websites.

Mobile ads, payments and distribution

Stationed in major cities around the world (Bangalore, London, Tokyo, Nairobi and San Francisco) of the world, InMobi is a one-stop shop for mobile advertising that helps marketers target users on mobile websites and inside apps. They craft interactive ads via the recently acquired Sprout platform, and power mobile payments through SmartPay. Their clients include major global brands like Universal, Zoosk, Disney, Vivendi, Fox, eBay, GroupOn, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Marriott, Lufthansa, CitiBank, HSBC, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Unilever, P&G, Ford, Nissan, AT&T, Samsung, Dell, Google, Unicef and the long client list goes on.

The Indian-bred company has grown at a record pace and is now valued at over billion dollars, thanks to a Japanese funding round worth $200 million.  InMobi has significantly ushered organization to milestones. Google’s mobile ad revenues rose from $1 billion in 2010 to $2.5 billion the same period in 2011.

Testing and development

Also a single-stop destination for those who are looking to build mobile websites, Fiddle Fly, offering an array of services from SEO compatibility, performance optimization, Google Analytics, social media integration and the end-to-end mobile website engineering scheme of designing-developing and deploying.

One you have set everything in place, from content to navigation, it’s time to evaluate the readiness of your mobile website. A free testing tool is mobiReady. It assesses mobile readiness of a website (just provide the URL) with the aid of industries’ good practices and standards.

And as more mobile platforms shift away from Flash, here are some alternatives and tools that can be utilized, especially by small businesses.

HOW TO: Mobilize Your Website, from Design to Monetization is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

• Sprout Integrates with DoubleClick, Offering Full-Service Ads
• HTML5 Gains Investor Appeal, InMobi Takes in Sprout
• How To: Take Advantage of HTML5 Trends and Tools
• Mobile Browsing Trends: Opera Mini Reemerges as a Top Tool
• iPad Gives Apple a Leg Up in Mobile Market Share, Encroaching on Android OS Rein
• Location-Based Services Dictate Shopping Behavior

Spotify teamed with AT&T, McDonalds, Intel, and Reebok for the latest series of branded apps, and the global partnership with Coca-Cola was also announced.

“Our goal is to make Spotify ubiquitous,” SPotify CEO Daniel Ek stated.  “We want to be everywhere.”

Though apps on Spotify aren’t new, the branded apps bring something different to the table.  The AT&T app, “Surround Sounds,” lets users view maps and locations tagged for where popular songs were recorded.  Reebok’s app creates workout playlists, and Intel’s “Sifter” recommends songs, bands and artists based on what users’ Facebook friends are listening to.

Also, Facebook is said to be integrating a “Listen” button on artists’ pages, expected to make Spotify the preferred listening tool for the social network, though this particular feature is said to be available for other services as well.  The Listen button will also be seamlessly integrated into the Facebook Timeline.

“The new button will give music fans an easy way to listen to songs through their favorite services, such as Spotify and MOG, directly from Facebook Pages,” a Facebook spokesperson explained to VentureBeat.

MOG reaches the land down under

MOG, the on-demand subscription music service, and Telstra, an Australian telecommunications and information services company, announced an exclusive partnership that brings MOG’s music to Australian shores.  This is MOG’s first international deal.

“It’s thrilling to broaden MOG’s reach and bring Australian’s the best music listening experience available on multiple platforms,” said David Hyman, CEO and founder of MOG. “We’ve been working toward global expansion for some time and prioritizing markets based on opportunities. Australia is a key, major music market ripe for disruption and we’re pleased to be the sole provider of on-demand music for the leading telecommunications provider in Australia. We can’t wait for music lovers to experience MOG’s entire catalog of on-demand music from wherever they are and we’re making it easier than ever to do so.”

Pandora’s box reveals secret project

Pandora has been secretly working on a project that not only categorizes music but dissects songs to determine how they fall into specific genres.  With Intel’s sponsorship, Pandora was able to work on the Inside the Music project that tells listeners how songs are categorized in the Music Genome Project, Pandora’s proprietary taxonomy of music DNA.

“For more than a decade, we have been capturing in great detail every aspect that gives a song its unique character, whether it’s the melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, vocal performance or lyrics,” Pandora founder Tim Westergren said in a statement. “We’re pleased to partner with Intel to give people a unique opportunity to discover even more about the music and artists they love.”

Spotify Goes Great with Coke, Launches Branded Apps is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

• US vs UK: Music Cloud Storms Brew Over Fees, Licensing for Spotify and Pandora
• Rhapsody Buys Napster Service, Enters European Market
• Music Reaches Cloud 9, SoundCloud Secures $50M
• Music Cloud Wars: Are The Best Things In Life Always Free?
• Facebook. Music. Spotify. Can It Really Be?
• Rdio Redesign Goes Social to Compete with Spotify

According to a report from Nielsen, 86 percent of U.S. smartphone owners and 88 percent of tablet owners use their devices to watch TV.  Moreover, about 69 percent of tablet owners use two screens regularly each week, and more than 26 percent use single screens several times a day.

Social activity growth in conversation and check-ins on TV programming has increased to about 91 percent year over year, according to a study by social TV tracking service Trendrr.TV.

Adding to the emergence of Social TV, another report says about 72 percent of respondents used Twitter, Facebook or a mobile app to comment on shows. The recent study from marketing agency Digital Clarity found that use the devices to communicate with friends while watching TV.

“TV shows with small audiences can generate enormous traffic on Twitter,” said Digital Clarity’s founder, Reggie James. “Social TV is a new platform for engaging with a TV show and has turned TV programs into online events.”

February’s social TV mega event- the Super Bowl – was the latest example where saw the trend of ad spending on national network and cable TV. Advertising time during the Super Bowl this year was estimated to cost $3.5 million per minute.

Social TV Content Providers

Media companies are now developing new ways to take advantage of Social TV trends that have heightened the level of commitment among loyal viewers.

The online gaming platform TwitchTV announced the launch of its live tournament applications for mobile users across iOS and Android. The main functionality of the TwitchTV mobile application is the ability to view all available streaming content on the web in high definition and in full screen mode.  It also includes a search engine and easy navigation between the different game platforms.

Users can follow their favorite channels directly from the video stream and see a list of channels that are broadcast live. They can also chat with other users while viewing the videos.

TweePLayer, dubbed the first DVR for social media, provides social media content associated with TV shows, advertisements, conferences, films, political events and more. The platform uses social TV data to stream time-shifted context for video players like Hulu, so you can see tweets about a program when you watch the replay online.

As TweePlayer expands to include social content beyond Twitter, it’s rebranded itself with a new name: Tomorrowish.

“Fans post millions of social media messages about their favorite TV shows every day, and we’re bringing those conversations together in context to make it easy to find the best posts,” said Tomorrowish CEO Mick Darling. “Live TV and social media content is a great combination. Time-shifted TV viewed with the curated content of Tomorrowish’s time-shifted Social TV makes this combination even more powerful and fun.”

Tomorrowish is a system designed to retrieve past conversations from Twitter to sync with any program that we are seeing, regardless of the time. The company’s Machine Curation tool helps content providers engage their audiences and their social networks by displays the most relevant posts.

Social TV is also a Great Marketing Platform

Social TV is also a great marketing opportunity, providing a new way to approach potential customers and build relationships based on affinity, and the value of sharing, participation and exchange.

Companies can access personal user preferences to improve television advertising. In addition, companies can determine the best strategy to approach marketing via connected TVs, use social ratings analytics tools to find and target lean-forward audiences and leverage the second screen to drive synched, deeper brand engagement.

Darling recognizes social media’s impact on TV, and hopes to differentiate his startup by following the viewers.  Instead of leveraging social TV to keep people glued to the TV in real time, he wants to bring the conversation to the content, no matter when or where that content’s being consumed.  As a result, Tomorrowish is also able to infer a great deal more data about consumer viewing patterns, like when they pause and resume playback, which parts of a program are most or least likely to get paused, and what context emerges from viewer responses at any given part of the program.

Building a market around that data is an important next step for Tomorrowish, as they determine the best way to make the leap from startup to full-blown revenue.  In the short-term Darling’s company is focused on TV, creating an experience that doesn’t force viewers to disengage from the social scene if they miss 5 or 50 minutes of a real-time program.

“Long term I’d like to see Tomorrowish be the default place where people go to have watercooler conversations about all media content,” Darling says.   “We’re great for TV but we’re good for conferences, political events, education, government meetings and everything in between.  If there’s media and a discussion, we can be the thing that ties those two together.”

Where’s the Data Fit into Social TV Platforms and Ads? is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

• New Media Minute: Social TV Buzz Doubles Year over Year; New Program Guide Weaves in Real-Time Buzz
• MySpace Channel + Justin Timberlake: A Comeback In The Making
• How Social Is Your TV?
• High Demand For Real-Time Video Driven By Consumer Demand
• Drop the Crusade To Bring the Old Facebook Back
• Where Does Online Video Go From Here?

The question now is, what’s Facebook planning to do with Instagram?  The company says Instagram will remain a separate project, but we all know that story could change.  Photo-sharing is something near and dear to Facebook, and this could be a great in-move for Facebook’s long term mobile strategy.  As we saw with Facebook’s earlier acquisitions like Gowalla, Facebook’s clearly interested in developing mobile tools around social-local networks, and for Instagram, it’s all about the data.

It’s all about the data

Instagram, which only recently expanded its iPhone app to the Android platform, has its own limitations in terms of social capabilities, access (not even an iPad app), but showed the promise of scale, along with a nice search function for hashtags and a burgeoning ecosystem.  Combining the best of Facebook and Twitter (within the confines of a mobile photo-sharing app), Instagram virtualized the photo experience with artistic touches around filters, some of which are premium [update: Instagram has shifted away from premium filters].  This adds a great deal of value to the photos themselves, generating metadata based on tags, comments, location and sharing behavior.

This is an area Facebook’s been working on for some time, with auto-tagging options for its in-network images, and it’s likely only a matter of time before these additional features get layered into Instagram’s mobile app.  We’re certainly curious what this buy means for Instagram’s Service Level Agreement, privacy and end user experience, and it’s something worth monitoring.

Timeline integration is a no-brainer here–Facebook’s latest profile revamp has been a goldmine for app incorporation on a large scale, reformatting user interaction and activity beyond Facebook’s actual website.  Tying Instagram’s mobile reach even tighter to Facebook’s Timeline is something we can expect regardless of Facebook’s true intentions with the Instagram buy.

Where’s this leave Google, Twitter?

While we can speculate on Facebook-Instagram integration all we want, we know it’s a good idea.  Facebook beat its competitors to the punch with this acquisition, building up its search and recommendations capabilities to say the least.  Perhaps Google could take a cue from this and find a way to better incorporate its own photo features through Google+.  From a multimedia standpoint, Google has all the pieces necessary to build its own Facebook-Instagram combo killer, injecting search at an even higher level.

But that still leaves Twitter, the “other” primary platform in Instagram’s success.  Like Facebook, Twitter’s made its own proactive acquisitions for purported rivals, squashing or incorporating the technology into their own platform.  But will Twitter need an Instagram to call its own?  Possibly.  Facebook, Google+ and Twitter have all sought to include more features around photo-sharing, largely based on mobile context like location and social tags like user identification and searchable hashtags.  But Twitter is still dwarfed by Facebook as a photo repository, and has minimal functions around photo-specific actions within its site or mobile app.

The race is on for the mobile-photo showdown, as image, location and social data drive interactions across the social space.  Only time will tell if Facebook made a smart move in spending $1 billion on a mobile app, and what its ulterior motives are moving forward.

What Facebook’s Instagram Buy Means for its Mobile Strategy: Data, Search is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

• HOW TO: Export Your Instagram, Glancee and Lightbox Data
• Lightbox Is the Latest Mobile Photo Acquisition for Facebook as IPO Nears
• How Facebook IPO Affects Its Ad Network: the Need for a Mobile Ecosystem
• Instagram: Rise of the Billion Dollar App [Report]
• Ben Horowitz and Dalton Caldwell Speak Out on NYT Instagram Post
• Facebook IPO Set For May 17