The company plans to introduce the first version of Kinect authorized for use in the workplace next month. The product will be marketed through its Microsoft Dynamics division, which develops enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management (CRM) software applications.

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The work place version of its motion-detecting input system for Xbox 360 will have a wide range of uses in several different industries, according to Microsoft Business Solutions Technical Fellow Mike Ehrenberg and Microsoft Dynamics General Manager Fred Studer. The two mentioned the commercial version of Kinect during an interview Thursday, that was granted as a sneak peak of the company’s Convergence 2012 conference in Houston in March.

Ehrenberg outlined a scenario where workers on a warehouse floor or in a manufacturing plant are wearing safety gloves that make it difficult for them to operate computers and other systems that may be used to track inventory or confirm that certain steps in the manufacturing process are complete. Kinect’s motion-detection technology, he said, could be adapted to allow accurate input through a gesture which does not require glove removal.

“Or what about food service? You’ve been in the store where the worker wearing gloves makes your sandwich, then has to remove the gloves to operate the cash register,” he said. “We all see a lot of things in the workplace that don’t make a lot of sense and can be improved.”

The original Kinect was released on Nov. 4, 2010 and after selling 8 million units in 60 days, the Guinness Book of World Records named it the fastest selling consumer electronics device in history.

“We mention it to companies and they think ‘Why? It’s a toy’,” Ehrenberg said. “But it doesn’t take us long to show them it has a place in the workplace.”

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To do so, Foursquare co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley says the company is in the process of redesigning its mobile app for a broader audience, disassembling it and trying to put its features back together in a way that’s more useful and interesting. It has also launched new features on its Web site, such as the neat and powerful “Explore” tool, which can help you find cool places to visit in your neighborhood or in an entirely new city.

As Twitter realized a few years ago, Crowley says Foursquare is seeing a big chunk of its growth from people who want to use parts of Foursquare, but not necessarily broadcast to the world. That means building a service that’s useful to more casual users, and not just early Foursquare diehards.

I recently sat down with Crowley at the company’s brand new, roomy headquarters in New York City, for an idea of what’s next. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of our chat.

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ReadWriteWeb: Where is Foursquare right now?

Dennis Crowley: I think we’re starting to get to the point where people are starting to see where the product is going and where the vision is going. The most exciting stuff for me to watch is all these people who have been Foursquare users for a year or so, writing their own blog posts and tweeting their own stuff about “oh, now I get it.”

After we launched Explore on the Web, they’re like, “This isn’t about points and badges anymore. This is about using the data that Foursquare’s getting from check-ins in order to do all this interesting stuff about surfacing things that are nearby, things that I might like, places I should go, experiences that I should have.” That’s been our goal all along.

One of the big tasks that we have this year is getting people to think of the product more as something that’s all about discovery and introducing them to new places, and making their experience in new cities and unfamiliar neighborhoods easier for them. As opposed to just checking in to unlock points and badges. I think we’re still stuck with a little bit of that stereotype, and this year’s about us getting out of that.

Foursquare’s new Web-based “Explore” feature.

How do you get past that stereotype and grow?

The challenge isn’t really that dissimilar than some of the growing pains and hazing that Twitter went through. For a long time, Twitter was “oh, it’s just people tweeting what they had for lunch, or that they’re going to the movies.” That wasn’t interesting for a lot of people.

Then they hit a moment that was a little bit of critical mass and a little bit of clarity, where people started using it to break news and share headlines and spread information. And that’s when it started clicking for a lot of people. For me, I was always interested in it, but when the plane landed in the Hudson and that’s how you were learning stuff faster than CNN was breaking it, or when Michael Jackson died, those were the big moments that I think solidified Twitter’s importance for a lot of people.

For us, we’re starting to get to that point where people see that we’re more than just a standard check-in app. You can go into Foursquare any time of the day and it will recommend interesting things that are nearby. So it’s not analogous – it’s not exactly the same as the Twitter experience. But we have that problem of perception that we’re still working to overcome.

I look at what those guys went through, and if you just keep pushing at the vision long enough, it will eventually turn itself around or make itself clear to people. That’s why, looking at those blog posts, it’s really rewarding for me, because I can see that the change is already happening already.

What will you change?

There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done in the app. We’re in the process of going through a redesign in the app, in a sense. We’re basically taking all the stuff we built over the last two years or so, disassembling it… You put all the pieces on the table, and figure out, “Okay, what is the best way to put these pieces back together so that it tells the story of Foursquare in the way that we want it to be told?” And I think if we can do that properly, then that’s our ticket to really being able to effectively communicate how powerful the data is and how powerful a lot of the tools are.

A peek at Foursquare’s brand-new, sunny headquarters in New York

What about making money? Will we start to see more advertising-based content in streams?

It’s a project for the near term. That’s a lot of what the Amex stuff is. (Foursquare has a broad partnership with American Express.) It’s experimenting with merchants to figure out a way that we can put products that are monetizable into the Foursquare product, in a way that you don’t look at it and say, “I can’t believe Foursquare put advertising in the stream.” You say, “this is great, there’s a $10 discount here.”

Since 2009, we’ve been pushing different ways to get merchants involved in the conversation with users. If users are looking for places to go, put merchants in there to help entice them. We did it initially with mayor specials, we’re starting to do it now with the Amex stuff, and we’ll be continuing to push that.

Our belief has always been, in order to connect people to places, and places to people, there’s a way to insert a dialogue with a merchant that in a way doesn’t feel like advertising, because the users are getting some tangible benefit out of it. It can be just special treatment, like you get to cut the line. It could be that you save a couple bucks. It could be that when you bring your friends, you get something special. There’s a whole wide variety of it. It’s just rewarding the user for things that they’d be doing anyway with Foursquare.

This is a bit out-there, but Netflix has built up a huge advantage for its streaming movie service by getting it installed everywhere, from new TVs to videogame systems. Can you use that concept for Foursquare, in a car perhaps?

Yeah, why not? I think anywhere where you see maps. Any map should have Foursquare dots on them. The dots could be representative of a number of things. It could be where your friends are right now. Or once you put your car in park, these are the five things you should be doing in this neighborhood.

And you could see a world where it’s like, here’s five things that I’m looking at, and I instantly send them to my phone, and then as I’m walking around, Radar (a serendipity-manufacturing Foursquare feature) buzzes me to let me know about them. When you think of all the other places that you’d probably encounter maps, being able to put Foursquare dots on them is a really interesting thing for us.

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“Mark has an evangelical approach to advertising,” Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP Plc, the world’s largest advertising agency told Reuters. “He sees Facebook as a vehicle to open up communication, not to monetize.” Facebook’s attitude toward advertising is finally changing. Users have started to notice, too. Today Facebook took that first step, claiming that sponsored stories for mobile will be coming “within weeks.”

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In its S-1 filing, Facebook described mobile as one of its biggest risk factors. Yet about half of Facebook’s users visit the site through mobile devices. As more people begin accessing Facebook primarily through mobile, Facebook is going to have to make major changes in its mobile advertising platform.

As soon as early March 2012, Facebook will soon start dropping “featured stories” into users’ mobile news feeds. Currently Facebook has 425 million mobile users. HTML5 app buttons have started popping up on Facebook’s mobile site. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed with Reuters that Facebook will not work with an agency to create paid ads on the mobile platform.

Facebook started integrating sponsored stories into the news ticker and the news feed. It was only a matter of time before Facebook decided to move forward with ads in the mobile space.

When it comes to Facebook ads that are built around a user’s data, questions about privacy laws come up. In fact, in its S-1 filing, Facebook noted the “evolving nature” of privacy and data protection laws as two major risk factors – not to mention the fact that Facebook doesn’t have a mobile advertising platform. At least, not yet.

How will Facebook’s mobile ad strategy evolve? Take the poll on ReadWriteMobile.

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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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Videogame blog Kotaku reported yesterday that the next Xbox – still not yet announced by Microsoft – will support Blu-ray discs, and may incorporate some sort of technology that prevents users from playing used games.

Isn’t a more future-thinking move to skip discs altogether and switch to an Internet powered game store?

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As Apple’s iOS App Store has shown, there’s huge interest in downloadable games – both on behalf of consumers and developers. You can bet that if Apple’s living room devices – either a proper Apple television set, or today’s Web set-top box – ever support gaming, there won’t be discs involved. And Microsoft itself even already supports some downloadable games for the Xbox today – and Windows 8 apps tomorrow – plus plenty of streaming video.

So why not move the entire Xbox platform in that direction? That would give Microsoft complete control over game sales and distribution: No more dealing with physical disc inventory, dingy game retailers, or the pesky used-game market at all. That’s the way the movie industry is moving, the PC industry, and the handheld gaming market. So why not consoles?

if the next Xbox really will rely on Blu-ray discs for games, my guess is that the reasons are bandwidth first, storage second, and movies third.

Regarding bandwidth, Kotaku notes that Blu-ray discs can contain 25-50 GB worth of data, versus 9 GB for DVDs. Over the average U.S. home Internet connection, that could take several hours – or even days – to download. At that point, running out to the local game store is actually faster than downloading the game, especially if it’s a brand new game and you want to play it soon after it’s released.

And if more ISPs eventually start limiting how much bandwidth you can consume per month, or charging by the gigabyte downloaded, Microsoft could also hedge against that by using discs for games.

Then there’s the storage issue. If you have 5 or 10 games sitting around, taking up 25-50 GB each, that’s a pretty big hard drive you’d need to include in the standard Xbox 720, or whatever they’ll call it. Storage is getting cheaper, but it’s still a cost to figure into the pricing equation.

Plus, the addition of Blu-ray support would make the Xbox a better movie machine, perhaps the main advantage the PS3 has enjoyed over the Xbox 360. While streaming movies are the future, and even today’s Xbox is set up to take advantage of that, Blu-ray isn’t a total flop: Some 33.5 million homes in the U.S. had Blu-ray at the end of September 2011, up 50+% year-over-year, according to DEG, a trade group. That’s about half of the roughly 70 million U.S. households with HDTVs. Blu-ray disc sales also grew 58% year-over-year in Q3 2011.

Some combination of these reasons could end up encouraging Microsoft to support discs – specifically, Blu-ray – for at least the next generation of videogame console. The future is probably downloadable or streaming games, but until we get better bandwidth, it’s not practical for everyone yet.

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The person, identified as a “reliable industry source” also told Kotaku that Xbox 720 will be able to play Blu-Ray discs, an option not offered on current versions of the Xbox. The next generation of Xbox is expected to be released later this year or early in 2013.

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We’ve asked Microsoft for confirmation and comment. We’ll update if they get back to us. So far most speculation about the new machine is just that, as Microsoft hasn’t even confirmed if the new system will be called Xbox 720, or when it will be available.

Update: “As an innovator we’re always thinking about what is next and how we can push the boundaries of technology like we did with Kinect,” said Microsoft spokesperson Allison Milton. “We believe the key to extending the lifespan of a console is not just about the console hardware, but about the games and entertainment experiences being delivered to consumers. Beyond that we don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”

It was unclear how Microsoft planned to thwart people from playing used games on their consoles. Game publishers have long complained that the used game market erodes their bottom line, but users, who are expected to pay more than $300 for the new units, may bristle and turn to systems on which they can still play second-hand games.

Other rumors tied to Xbox 720 is that it will mark the debut of Kinect 2, Microsoft’s highly-praised hands-free sensor. The newer version of Kinect would contain an on-board processor to better detect user motions, according to Kotaku.

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The person, identified as a “reliable industry source” also told Kobatu that Xbox 720 will be able to play Blu-Ray discs, an option not offered on current versions of the Xbox. The next generation of Xbox is expected to be released later this year or early in 2013.

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We’ve asked Microsoft for confirmation and comment. We’ll update if they get back to us. So far most speculation about the new machine is just that, as Microsoft hasn’t even confirmed if the new system will be called Xbox 720, or when it will be available.

It was unclear how Microsoft planned to thwart people from playing used games on their consoles. Game publishers have long complained that the used game market erodes their bottom line, but users – who are expected to pay more than $300 for the new units.

Other rumors tied to Xbox 720 is that it will mark the debut of Kinect 2, Microsoft’s highly-praised hands-free sensor. The newer version of Kinect would contain an on-board processor to better detect user motions, according to Kotaku.

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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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Twitter passed the 200 million mark last February and then, on May 18, it reached 300 million accounts. That’s 50 percent growth in roughly 90 days and the milestone gave Twitter stock as one of the Big Two (at the time) social networks.

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But something happened on the way to 400 million accounts. It would be 162 days before Twitter reached the 400 million account mark on Oct. 28. Depending on what day in February Twitter reaches 500 million users, it will have taken the company 95 to 124 days to add 100 million users: better than the climb from 300 million to 400 million, but still not as fast as growth 200 million to 300 million.

Milestones like this tend to be arbitrary, but they’re especially so in Twitter’s case. The company only counts accounts that have been opened and does not factor in accounts that have been closed by Twitter or the user. By Twopchart’s estimates, about 12% of all Twitter accounts ever opened have been closed, meaning that by the time the 500 million number is reached, there may only be about 440 million existing Twitter accounts.

Facebook is expected to surpass a billion users in August, which is all the more staggering because of the company’s strict policy requiring people to register under their real names. Twitter, on the other hand, lets users open multiple accounts, and even spoof accounts or accounts for services.

There are other layers of complexity in figuring out Twitter’s reach: by its own estimates, the service has 100 million “active” users, but it’s safe to say the majority of accounts are inactive or rarely used. Twopchart has an interesting blog post full of data, including an analysis of what has happened to the 400 millionth account.

@AdenMo has tweeted just once since becoming the account number 400 million, has just three followers and is only following one account. That’s a fairly typical account, based on Twostory’s analysis and their estimate that only about 20% to 25% of new Twitter accounts convert into active Twitter accounts.

“The vast majority of new accounts only has a limited amount of followers and following, and based on the amount of tweets sent, and the submission date of last tweets, probably only a maximum of 20%-25% convert to active new twitter users, with only about 10% accounts that actively send tweets,” Twopchart said in the blog post.

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