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Proctor & Gamble Sneaks 2 Ads Into 1 For Post-Super Bowl Old Spice Goodness – ReelSEO Online Video News
Feb 2nd
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Proctor & Gamble Sneaks 2 Ads Into 1 For Post-Super Bowl Old Spice Goodness
ReelSEO Online Video News The following is an index of our more popular video search engine optimization (Video SEO, VSEO,… Many of us here at ReelSEO are still settling back into our routines following the awesome SMX West… Google has been giving users "instant previews" … |
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Gaze into Your Virtual Facebook Mirror
Jan 31st
If you feel compelled to curate more of your Facebook life, there’s an app for that: Timeline Movie Maker. Go to TimelineMovieMaker.com and click the green button. As with most Facebook apps, this one asks for your basic info, email, profile info and your Timeline stories. Then Timeline builds a one-minute movie for you. It’s similar to Intel’s Museum of Me, a virtual museum of you – all it needs is access to your Facebook data.
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The other week, Facebook launched 60 new social apps, including food-sharing app FoodSpotting, shopping app Fab.com and pin-terrific app Pinterest. Each of these apps focused on getting you, the user, to do something. The Timeline Movie Maker app brings the focus back to you, so that you can think about yourself.
In the age of social media, our Facebook profiles can become a virtual house of mirrors. Yet this concept isn’t new.
Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai (1948) is a typical film noir. Man (Michael) meets mysterious woman (Elsa). Michael learns that Elsa is a manipulative femme fatale who is already married, in this case to a gentleman named Arthur Bannister. Despite many warnings that this chick’s bad news, Michael pursues her. There’s a bizarre murder scheme that Michael somehow involves himself in, with the hope that he’ll get the girl, Elsa. Of course, nothing goes as planned – and in the end, somebody’s gotta die. In this case, it’s Arthur Bannister, Elsa’s husband. The film ends with the famous surreal shootout inside a hall of mirrors, the Magic Mirror Maze. Elsa is mortally wounded after killing Bannister. (To be sure, in classic Hollywood films of the 1940s-1950s, mirrors are “generally seen as symbols of mental disorder and more specifically fragmented personalities, sometimes to the point of multiple personality disorder,” according to HistoryofEconomics.com.)
In the myth of Narcissus, the hunter who was renowned for his own beauty starred into a pool of his own reflection. He continued gazing in it for too long, not realizing it was a mere image. Because he couldn’t leave the pool, feeling too entranced by his own reflection, he eventually died.
As Facebook continues rolling out new apps and uses for Timeline, users can once again relive their self-obsession of adolescent years gone by. So go ahead, create a movie of yourself, reinvent the past with a photo scrapbook, and stare into your self-contained pond of never-ending beauty. Just don’t start shooting at someone (yourself?) while inside a house of mirrors.
“With these mirrors, it’s difficult to tell,” says Bannister, as Elsa fires off shots, “…but killing me is killing myself, but you know I’m pretty tired of both of us.”
Images via TotalFilm.com and Wikipedia.
For more stories on social media and self-obsession, please visit Jon Mitchell’s story, “Path, Timeline & Worship of the Self.”
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SGI Crams 2.37 Petabytes Into One 19-inch Rack
Jan 31st
The “G” in its name used to stand for “Graphics.” A few decades ago, the most delightful room for one to be in during a computer conference was the one where Silicon Graphics was showing a demo. It was like one of those dreams where you knew you weren’t really on-board the Starship Enterprise, but forcing yourself to ignore that fact and look at the pretty lights and colors. When SGI ceased to be a company unto itself in April 2009, most folks wrote off the SGI brand as an historical remnant.
Wrong. It’s wonderful to see a brand that never says die. Ever since Rackable Systems adopted the SGI name, it’s been lucky. It’s finding its way back as a high-density storage provider. This afternoon, the company is introducing a very high density storage server platform designed, its engineers tell us, to pack the maximum number of terabytes into a 19-inch rack while staying cool.
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The result is what SGI describes as a module full of “drive bricks.” Each brick can be loaded with up to nine 3.5-inch SATA or SAS drives, or 18 2.5-inch SAS or solid-state drives. If you’ve ever washed dishes in a cafeteria, you may have experienced something similar to the situation of hot-swapping drives in a storage rack. So SGI used a little something called “computer-aided design” to engineer a solution.
“Any time you get a system that is this dense, data center managers need to be able to access it,” SGI’s director of storage products, Floyd Christofferson, tells RWW in an interview. “If you’ve ever pulled out a large, very dense system, typically they only allow access from the front. The weight of those trays pulling all the way out adds a lot of strain on the internal cables. In large data centers, people would like to be able to access these hot-swappable parts, but really don’t want to do so in a way that either puts strain on the rack itself or on the internal components.”
So the slider on SGI’s Modular InfiniteStorage (MIS) units can be pulled from the back or front on a nice drawer, all without tripping up a cable or maybe tripping off the power.
Each 4U MIS chassis may have one of two configurations. One is as a storage server with one or two motherboards, each with dual-socket Intel Xeon E5-2600 “Sandy Bridge” processors clocked at up to 3.3 GHz. The remaining space can be populated with either 72 3.5-inch or 144 2.5-inch drives. Alternately, the unit can be maxed out with 81 3.5-inch or 162 2.5-inch drives.
So with these many drives packed that close together, how do they keep from becoming a virtual radiator unit? We asked SGI’s chief storage architect Lance Evans, who told us there’s a secret in being tight but not too tight. When you push air into certain spaces under pressure, it’s like breathing in through your mouth with your teeth shut tight.
“Imagine a cross-sectional slice through the chassis. At any given point along the front-to-back axis of the chassis is a certain cross-sectional air channel,” explains Evans. “The smaller those channels are, the higher the pressure that the air channeling system has to be able to generate to pull more air through. Second, you have to be very careful about where that air flows. It needs to be able to flow over the components that are generating heat. If we have airflow through the machine, but it’s not passing over components that are creating heat, then it’s really not doing us much good. Every last little bit of air that you pull in, you need to be able to use effectively to cool the machine.”
So SGI designed a high-pressure air movement system, comprised of six 60mm twin-axial, high-RPM fans positioned in the middle. They’re stationed in such a way that, if one of the fans fails, it doesn’t result in backflow.
Doing some math on the fly, Evans estimated the total power requirements for a fully populated SGI MIS rack at about 20 kW. That’s on the high side of normal, compared to recent analysts’ estimates, and perhaps a bit above normal for rack requirements circa 2009. But with firms like Dell now warning customers to expect as much as 30 kW per rack, MIS may be a viable solution for fitting big clouds into tight spaces.
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Google’s “Trusted Photographers” Turns Business Photos Into A Self-Serve Product
Jan 26th
Google is hoping to expand its Business Photos product with the launch of a new service called “Trusted Photographers” that essentially makes the process entirely self-service. Local businesses that are interested in having interior photos taken can use the new Business Photos website…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Facebook Turns Adults into Adolescents; Is Google+ Next?
Jan 26th
Today Google+ announced that it is now open to users ages 13+ (in all countries except for Spain, South Korea and the Netherlands). Until today, Google+ had been 18+. When Facebook began in 2004, it was open to college students only, most of whom are 18+ years old. Facebook now allows any users who are 13+ to register.
A study published last year by researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada looked at how parents acted on Facebook. Their study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. They discovered that parents revert to adolescent behavior, which suggests that there’s something inherently adolescent about social media.
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“The online environment influences people of all ages,” Emily Christofides, a PhD psychology student who worked on the study with doctoral student Amy Muise and psychology professor Serge Dsmarais, told Science Daily. “Both parents and teens share and show more about themselves than they might in other social settings, and the same psychological factors underpin that behavior.”
The researchers found that popularity was a key factor in discerning how much information the user disclosed.
“The people who are the most popular are those whose online identity is actively participated in by others,” said doctoral student Amy Muise. “So the more you share, the more others respond.”
The study found that adults were less conscious of the consequences of sharing personal information on Facebook than their adolescent counterparts.
Will Teenagers Flock To Google+?
Google+ just added “favorite individuals” and organizations to the community, many of whom already have millions of fans on Facebook. Teen pop star +Selena Gomez boasts more than 26 million Facebook fans. +Teen Vogue has 1 million Facebook fans. Teen TV network +Nickelodeon has over 4 million Facebook fans. Will they migrate from Facebook to Google+, now that all their favorite stars are there?
A study from Alexander Interactive surveyed 2,000 teens ages 14-17 nationwide, and came away with some surprising results. Teens were actually interested in switching from Facebook to Google+, saying that Facebook was more news-oriented whereas Google+ actually felt more social. Teens were frustrated by the clutter of Facebook, especially the news ticker a.k.a. “scrolling stalker.” They did love Timeline, however, which could keep them on Facebook.
Facebook isn’t going to give up on its ultimate dream: To become a mall. And everyone knows who hangs out at the mall.
Will Google+ follow in Facebook’s footsteps, becoming just another cluttered social network for the adolescent and “young at heart”? Or will those adolescent behaviors stay on Facebook where they belong?
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Angry Birds Crash Into Facebook
Jan 25th
Asia Tech News reports that the smash hit Rovio game Angry Birds is coming to Facebook on Valentine’s Day.
The release will happen fast, rolling out to all 800 million users at once as opposed to a slow Facebook feature rollout like Timeline, which first became available to New Zealand users, then to all – and now it’s being forced upon everyone. The big launch takes place in Jakarta. Indonesia holds the world’s second-largest Facebook population, trailing only the United States. With its entrance into the Facebook ecosystem, Angry Birds will transform into a social game complete with leaderboards so users can challenge their friends.
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Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 700 million times, and is on its way to pass one billion in 2012. It has expanded from just an iOS and Android game. It is coming to Samsung Smart TVs as part of the Internet-connected TV future. Facebook is the next obvious move for the fast-growing game. Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka says that Angry Birds will even have a payments solution for Facebook.
Zynga games CityVille, CastleVille and FarmVille currently own three of the top five spots Facebook app spots, according to today’s AppData. The Facebook game platform is expanding post-IPO, adding games like Hidden Chronicles which appear to rip-off of EA’s Gardens of Time. Zynga’s latest game, Dream Heights, appears to swipe much of Tiny Tower. Is a Zynga version of Angry Birds in the works? Let’s hope not.
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“Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Gets Them Into Google’s “Search Plus Your World”
Jan 23rd
I’ve written that Google has plenty of public data to allow parts its new Search Plus Your World feature to be inclusive of rival social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Now, those networks are proving that true, through a new “Don’t Be Evil” tool that lets anyone…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Groupon’s Next Step Into Social Shopping
Jan 23rd
Andrew Mason wants to know what your friends like to buy.
Groupon is expanding its Goods section with last Friday’s purchase of Mertado, a Silicon Valley-based social shopping start-up focused on letting consumers buy products through social networks such as Facebook. Mertado’s goal is create shopping experiences that “build bridges between content, commerce and community.”
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Groupon has been working on personalizing its daily deals since going public back in November 2011.
“Mertado has shown a great level of innovation in the social commerce space–for example, the launch of Mertado TV, combining lifestyle video content and product selection,” a Groupon spokeswoman tells the Chicago Tribune. The Mertado website will officially shut down on February 28, 2012.
This announcement comes right on the heels of Facebook’s addition of 60-plus social apps to Timeline, which include shopping sites eBay, Payvment, LivingSocial and Fab.com.
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Apple’s iPhone Strategy Cutting Into Android Market Share
Jan 18th
Apple’s strategy to take over the lead in the smartphone market from Android is working. In new numbers from research firm Nielsen, 37% of recent (within the last three months) smartphone buyers chose the iPhone, well above the 25.1% that did so in October 2011. Android still holds the market lead but the margin is beginning to shrink.
Android rose to the top of the smartphone heap by sheer volume. It has a plethora of original equipment manufacturers pumping out new devices every week that are distributed across the four major U.S. mobile carriers along varying price points. Why has Apple caught up? Well, because it now does that too.
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For the most of the life of the iPhone, what was its major limiting factor? Primarily, the fact that it was only available at AT&T. In March of 2011, the iPhone 4 came to Verizon and the world seemingly rejoiced. While Verizon iPhone sales have been solid, they have not been quite as killer as Apple or the pundits had originally thought. People have expensive contracts and early termination fees to contend with and the notion of jumping from one carrier to another does not make sense for a lot of consumers.
Those AT&T contracts are starting to expire. That does not mean users are dropping the nation’s second largest cellular operator in droves, but freedom of choice has finally be awarded to would-be iPhone buyers. There are also a variety of price points available. The iPhone 3GS is now free from AT&T on a contract. The iPhone 4 is $99 on Verizon and AT&T with a contract while the iPhone 4S is available across AT&T, Verizon and Sprint for $199. That makes the iPhone available to more than 260 million Americans whereas it used to only be available to the 95-100 million or so on AT&T.
Market depth plus price point … more smartphone sales. It should come as no surprise and we have been curious to see these numbers since Apple made the announcement of the 4S last October. It is also no surprise that the 4S is leading the charge. Of new iPhone buyers, 57% chose the 4S.
Of all smartphone owners (not just recent acquirers) that Nielsen surveyed, 46.3% are Android owners. Apple has risen several points in the overall market share to 30%. Research In Motion’s BlackBerry has dropped precipitously in these types of surveys, going from near 22% at this time last year to 6% of new buyers in Q4. Windows Phone and Windows Mobile (which indeed still exists) made up for 3.8% of new users and 5.9% overall in Nielsen’s numbers with Windows Mobile making up for 4.6% of that.
The nature of the smartphone market is cyclical. Apple made its big push with iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S in the fall. The company is likely to do that again this year with a late season rollout of the iPhone 5. Meanwhile, it is time for Android to reassert itself as version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich makes its way to new devices across carriers. The seesaw battle will continue and when we see Nielsen’s numbers for Q1 or Q2, the tone of this story might be quite different.
It is not like Android is losing much steam. Of recent acquirers, more than half chose Android at 51.7% in Q4. The growth of Android and Apple comes to the detriment of, well, everybody else, but especially RIM. Of all smartphones purchased in Q4, 88.7% were either iOS or Android. That leaves several billion dollar companies such as Microsoft, RIM and to a certain extent Hewlett-Packard to battle over a very small slice of the pie.
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Samsung Breathes Life Into Tizen By Merging With Bada
Jan 18th
The long evolution of Tizen continues and is about to get its biggest boost yet. Samsung is going to merge its Bada platform with the Tizen project, bringing the Linux-based operating system to more smartphones and developers across the world.
Tizen is the Linux smartphone operating system that was once called MeeGo that, in turn, was once the confluence of Maemo and Moblin from Nokia and Intel. Nothing tangible has ever really come out of the Tizen/MeeGo project except for a few demo phones and the Nokia N9 and N950. With Samsung throwing its manufacturing weight behind the Tizen development project, that may be about to change.
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A Twisted Road For Tizen
The growth path of Tizen has been nothing if not amusing. First, Nokia and Intel got together to merge Linux platforms. MeeGo was born. Nokia then found itself with a serious problem of a “burning platform” and had to jump to Windows Phone and cut its ties with the MeeGo project. Intel was left to shop MeeGo around looking to gain some traction. It eventually found a home with the Linux Foundation, which subsumed the project under a consortium with a wide array of so-called supporters, Samsung included.
Samsung’s participation comes through the LiMo group. When we wrote about the purported “Death of MeeGo” last September and the rise of the LiMo group, we pointed out that Samsung would have a great opportunity to build a framework around Bada development with the backing of the Linux developer ecosystem. Near five months later, that is exactly what is happening.
According to a report from Forbes, the integration of Bada and Tizen will give developers the same tools to develop for each platform. That would make perfect sense. Call it “streamlining Linux mobile operating systems.” Basically, the entire project, from the very beginning, has been to absorb other Linux platforms. Overall, one would think that would give Tizen more functionality and a broader developer base, but that is not what has happened. Every time Tizen has absorbed and changed its name, the development timeline has been set back. Now that Samsung is bring Bada to the project, will this change?
Great For Tizen While Samsung Hedges Its Bets
The great thing for Tizen about the Bada integration is that Bada actually exists on smartphones across the world. Bada was built by Samsung to be a low-end smartphone operating system intended to go head-to-head with Nokia’s Symbian and S-series devices. Tizen and MeeGo were never really designed for low end devices. Bada integration could give Tizen a wider swath of the smartphone vertical with more apps and developers across smartphones of different hardware specifications.
The irony has the potential to be delicious. Nokia ditched MeeGo and is eventually putting Symbian to bed. MeeGo then turns to Intel and the Linux Foundation that turns to Samsung and Bada. All of a sudden the low-end smartphone market is flooded with Bada/Tizen smartphones from Samsung competing directly against Nokia.
By taking a broader role in Tizen, Samsung is giving itself more options. The company does not shy away from producing smartphone of varying sizes, costs and platforms making everything from flagship Android devices to Windows Phones and bottom of the market devices running both Android and Bada. Tizen and Bada give Samsung its own recourse against the potential Google/Motorola partnership and the rise of other dominant players in the Android ecosystem.
According to Forbes, there will be “at least one or two” Tizen devices from Samsung this year. Look for announcements to be made during the summer with release schedules for the end of the year.
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