TWiD is coming from the rest of the Futures team this week as Jean-Paul is off having JP 3.0 (his third child).
What’s happened this week:
· The new UK government have wasted no time in embracing social media and crowdsourcing by setting up the “Spending Challenge Channel” asking Facebook members to make suggestions on spending cuts.
· Facebook has also been in the news for launching what is definitely NOT a panic button. They have also announced they are to phase out virtual gift ads, and they won’t really be missed in the UK. Does this suggest they are closer to a ‘Facebook Credits’ roll-out?
· App developers are now producing more Android apps than iPhone. This gap is likely to increase as Google have launched a program to open up app creation to those not fluent in code!
· ScreenReach is mobile and TV working together, giving us an interactive experience (and some redeemable vouchers), is this the future?
· The ‘hot-right-now’ location based game Foursquare may add in ‘choose your own adventure’ game layers?
· However, there are still warning signs that they may be crushed by bigger players in the social space adding a location based element to their existing services. Facebook’s acquisition of Nextstop surely means they are inching closer to launching a location based offering?
· Apple’s Siri service is teaming up with Wolfram Alpha to create what could be a virtual personal assistant and researcher.
What we have learned:
· England have won the World Cup (if you judge it on Facebook following).
· What do you do first thing in the morning, brush your teeth or check your Facebook? 34% do the later, as it turns out almost 40% of 18-34 women are self-proclaimed Facebook addicts. Other fascinating stats include 48% of people claim to get more news via Facebook than through traditional channels.
· A report suggests that the natural progression for increased social media revenue is to take TV ad money via social recommendations and commentary.
· iAds has already resulted in fantastic click through rates and revenue opportunities for developers, although others are really struggling to find any to click!
· Domino’s Pizza is confident that a rise in profits is due to its social media activity.
· Will HTML5 mean the death of apps? Is the mobile internet browser, the new super app? YouTube’s revamped mobile site suggests this might be the case.
· According to the BBC News there are over 5 billion mobile phone connections worldwide.
Cool stuff
· YouTube have teamed up with Ridley Scott to produce a film of Life In A Day It will be made up from footage generated by users on the 24th July.
· Yamli Translate is the most advanced translator service we’ve ever seen.
· Unleash your creative genius, and then pass it on, is this social art? Just like at school, www.drawandfoldover.com
· An artist has made an amazing portrait using his iPad painting app.
Where to find more:
· A nice infographic showing the economics of Facebook. Zynga made $250m through Facebook last year – as much of $150m of this was profit, making it more profitable than Facebook itself!
· One of the best tools if you want to manage your Twitter account, and clear up Twitter stream.
· 10 fascinating facts you didn't know about Apple... is that Isaac Newton on the original logo?!
- Sam (thanks to JP and the Futures team)
