Google's Mobile Strategy is a Winner: Build Winning Apps, Monetize Later

All the talk around Google's mobile strategy is around Android and the Open Handset Alliance. But Google's other mobile strategy seemingly goes unnoticed because it's less sexy and dramatic: build compelling apps that sit on the mobile dock and drive monetization later. I live on my Blackberry and there are only so many icons that can make it to my 'desktop' beyond the regulars: inbox, calendar, contacts, etc. All the other slots belong to Google:

Gmail, Gtalk, Google Maps, Google Sync, Google Calendar, iGoogle

There are a couple themes with all of their apps:

1) They fully leverage the Blackberry and are integrated into the platform (ie I can set separate alerts for gtalk conversations, GMail messages, etc) 2) They each improve the Blackberry and are far richer than a link to a mobile page (see ESPN's talk on going mobile...) 3) The apps are constantly being upgraded and undergoing version enhancements 4) The apps provide increased utility on both the mobile and web experience

My biggest appreciation though is that Google has invested in each of these apps without inserting monetization directly into them... Instead, Google is using the apps to drive greater usage of the Google platforms, which they are better able to monetize. For instance, I converted to Gtalk and Calendar exclusively because of the Blackberry integration. Unlike AIM, I now never have to sign on/off or have multiple instances of the client running.

And perhaps most importantly for Google, it's given them a mobile presence to extend their new AdWords offerings - greater demand (pageviews) will drive greater supply (advertisers and ads) and thus greater revenue. Ultimately, Google's suite of mobile apps have made me a more loyal Google user, helped boost their mobile ad reach and will play a key role in the forthcoming Android launch.

Search A better way to search with Google from your mobile

Maps Locate nearby businesses and services

GmailNew! A faster way to get Gmail on the go

SMS Get quick info from Google

YouTube Watch and upload videos from anywhere

GOOG-411 Use voice to find local businesses on the go

Digg Unveils New Algorithm... Is Digg Trying to Become Techmeme?

Digg and Techmeme are two of my favorite websites - visited routinely throughout the day. They satisfy similar needs but do so in completely different ways. Techmeme is an efficient way to scan what's important on the web (important being the key word) and cluster topics with other relevant sources / bloggers. Digg is an effective way to digest what's unique and interesting on the web (not always important). Both Techmeme and Digg change throughout the day and give me a reason to press the refresh button...

There's another important use-case for Digg: as a content publisher, it is an effective medium to drive traffic.

But rumblings across the web are that Digg changed their algorithm today - making it harder to reach popularity and harder for the non-power-users to find success. Two Diggs One Cup, 200 Diggs 1 Voice, and Valleywag are reporting that Digg has now instituted a 200 vote barrier to reach popularity.

The Digg story has nearly 300 comments - and the vast majority are angry. My thoughts are simple: I use Digg as both a consumer and publisher of content precisely because it is a level-playing field. If Digg institutes new algorithmic changes that drastically alter that balance, they'd likely lose the variety of headlines that make the site endearing and, instead, showcase topics near-and-dear to the power-users (ie all things Ron Paul or Apple).

Consequently, Digg could look a lot like an editorialized version of Techmeme.... And I like Techmeme enough that I don't need to replace it!

Update: Techcrunch has posted a review of the Digg changes with hints that new accounts are over-valued in the new algorithm.

Facing Pressure from McDonalds, Starbucks Offers $1 Drip Coffees w/ Free Refills

Just last week, the San Jose Mercury News (a far cry from the Washington Post and Boston Globe that I am used to...) had a picture of McDonald's Coffee as their front-page article. McDonalds remains the largest seller of coffee in the US and their new 'premium' coffees are much richer and must improved. And they have now released espresso drinks in all of their San Francisco locations - trying to steal some of Starbucks' market (the focus on the story).

That apparently has Starbucks scared enough to start testing lower prices for drip coffees - and that has me very excited. In Seattle stores, Starbucks is now offering tall drips for $1.00 (about $0.50 cheaper than normal) with free refills. I am hoping this makes its way down into California, but I am quite doubtful it will... after all, Starbucks has made it an annual tradition to increase coffee prices across the board. But I can hope.

An aside: I still believe that two things:

1) Starbucks drip coffees are still the best chain around. Their espresso-based drinks often are too 'burnt' tasting, but their drip coffees are vastly underrated and all that I now order. In order, these are their three best roasts: 1. Sumatra 2. Gold Cast 3. Komodo Dragon

2) There is still a massive business opportunity to bring Dunkin Donuts to California. There isn't a single DD, yet there are millions of east coast transplants. Dunkin still makes the best iced coffees and, believe it or not, iced coffees make more sense out here than they do in Boston. I do not like having to order my Dunkin Donuts beans online and am waiting for the revolution to begin.

Rambo IV Hits Theaters in 4 Days... Statistically Bloodier Than All Other Rambos

I am probably the only person planning on seeing Slyvester Stallone and Rambo IV this weekend. Here are some statistics comparing the newest Rambo installment to the others: Number of people killed per minute in the Rambo series: Rambo: First Blood (1982): 0.01 Rambo First Blood Part II (1985): 0.72 Rambo III (1988): 1.30 Rambo IV (2008): 2.59

Add that up and it means one thing: Rambo IV has more gore than all other Rambos combined. Pretty amazing.

Also of note, I watched Rambo First Blood on Blu Ray (yes it exists) in preparation for Rambo IV. It remains a terrific film and, while it wasn't shot natively in Blu Ray (obviously), it looks damn good.

Apple Announces Earnings, Stock Falls Under 140.

It's been a very tough time for the stock market and the tech companies have suffered. eBay, Cisco and others are trading at 52 week lows. Google has fallen from a November price of ~750 to ~580. And now Apple (the current glam company) has fallen from Wall Street's grace. After announcing today, shares of Apple plunged more than 11% in after-hours trading to $137.65 -- at the turn of the new year, AAPL was sitting at 200:

Determining the 2008 Election Winner Based on Web Traffic - Mitt Romney & Barack Obama?

Can web traffic and data determine the likely outcome of the 2008 election primaries? I put each of the major candidates through Quantcast and the results are quite revealing. The charts below are estimated 'unique users per month' and it should be on an apples-to-apples basis because none of these candidates are truly web 2.0 / dorky enough to actually 'Quantify' their websites. If you look at both the aggregate numbers and the traffic growth, the results are pretty phenomenal. Mitt Romney, for instance, has seen significant, rapid growth while Hilary Clinton has the largest aggregate numbers - but her traffic is actually declining.

Ron Paul is famous for his web popularity (just read the front page of Digg at any given moment) - and that translates into larger overall numbers than Romney, but his traffic is steadily growing while Mitt's is surging.

The biggest surprise is Hilary Clinton - clearly she has the biggest brand name, but to have declining traffic during the primary season is an awful indicator!

Mitt Romney

Ron Paul

John McCain

Hilary Clinton

Barack Obama

Is Google Testing a New AdSense Feature? The 'More Ads' Button

I wrote earlier about Google's bizarre AdSense behavior on this blog. Tonight, I noticed another strange occurrence which appears to be a new feature that Google AdSense in testing.

Tonight, I added an open air, text 468x60 unit atop the single posts. (As an aside, it took about 45 minutes for Google to start serving ads on the site - far longer than regular!). On the very first instance that the unit appeared, a "More Ads" link appeared in bold directly next to the Google logo on the bottom right corner. I had never seen this before. I pressed refresh about 30 times until I saw it happen again - making me comfortably confirm that this is a test.

The More Ads link arrived at a very strange page that had nothing but two units appear on it (essentially the same ad unit on a blank page). I have included a screen shot below. It's remarkably strange because you would expect the page to have, clearly, more ad placements than what had appeared on the initial viewing. But rather than a AdWords-only search results page, I get two units on a blank page. Bizarre.

Has anyone else had this appear? How does the 'More Ads' convert compared to normal blocks? And do you get paid on a click on the 'More Ads' text?

Andy Azula - The Artist in the UPS 'Whiteboard' Commercials

I've had too many conversations the UPS 'Whiteboard' commercials. I personally find them relatively creative, but not a single friend of mine agrees. I know this because UPS airs the commercials during every quarter of every NFL game. The next discussion point immediately moves to, "Who is the long haired artist?" Again, I personally think that he is a pretty talented and creative cartoonist (right word?) - but everyone disagrees. And I am always alone in saying that the artist must be famous... after all, how could UPS run a multi-million dollar campaign with an actor or a random guy as the focal point?

It turns out that the answer is somewhere in between, and it's fascinating. It turns out that the actor is Andy Azula and he is the creative director for The Martin Agency. He came up with the 'Whiteboard' concept, got UPS on board and became the face of the campaign. So there you go.

Wikipedia continues: "Andy Azula is a creative director for The Martin Agency, who achieved notoriety after starring in a series of advertisements he created for the United Parcel Service in which he draws on a whiteboard. The ads were directed by Errol Morris. Azula began his career at Leoffler Ketchum Mountjoy. He won awards for his work on North Carolina Travel and Tourism. He later worked at Fallon McElligott in Minnesota where he developed the Buddy Lee campaign for Lee Jeans. He also worked at Goodby Silverstein and Partners and McCann Erickson in San Francisco,[1] creating advertising campaigns for Microsoft. His accounts have also included BMW, Budweiser, E*Trade, and MSN. His work has won him a number of Cliowards, the advertising industry’s highest honor."

Donating to Goodwill - How can Goodwill go Web 2.0?

Trying to finish up my move, I brought a ton of stuff over to the local Santa Clara Goodwill store / donation center. I was surprised by a few things and finally left wondering how Goodwill can use the web to improve their service and increase their output.

First, the store / donation center was *packed* (mind you it was a Saturday). There were not enough people working at either the store or the donations center to meet the demand.

Second, the quality of donations (obviously) varied drastically. Even within my donations. For example, I donated close to 30 shirts. Some were $5 t-shirts and others were barely worn polo shirts.

So I am left wondering the following: How do they price their donations for sale considering 1) the overwhelming number of items, 2) the underwhelming number of employees, and 3) the significant variance in goods pricing?

I imagine they will struggle to determine the appropriate value for my Polo shirts vs. my t-shirts... and will probably suffer in terms of 'revenue' generated for the organization. From my experience as an eBay employee and seller (200+ feedback), pricing goods in critically important to determining the ability to sell an item quickly and its final value.

Now I have no idea if Goodwill uses software or applications to monitor inventory and determine / move pricing, but there are openings here to leverage work done through other sites with relevant data points - and if a killer app was built, it would has implications far beyond Goodwill's use (think eBay sellers, Craiglist users, and so on):

- eBay's APIs can reveal fair-market pricing for items. I would most likely pull the average price for a brand (not a specific item), include the word used and sell at a marked deduction (say 20%). If it doesn't sell in a week, automatically reduce its price by 5% until it sells. Let's use my clothing donation as an example: for the polo shirt, find the average price for "Polo Shirt" and use their taxonomy to select only: sold items, long sleeves, and pre-worn. There are 2,000+ such items and an average value of something around $40. Sell it for $32 and you now have a price that is both accurate and set to move the product.

-  eBay is the ideal source for Goodwill because their inventories map nicely - but for other product categories, Goodwill could look to Amazon (electronics), Craigslist / Kijiji (furniture), etc and then reduce the price by a set amount.

- Moving inventory is critical for Goodwill because they have limited 'retail' space and inventory is constantly streaming in. Thus, I would do two things:

1) As mentioned already, I would continually reduce prices by a fixed percentage based on 'time on shelves'. It needs to move and the space isn't worth the extra $5 it can fetch with the right buyer.

2) Use Craigslist, Kijiji and Postlets to drive traffic. All of these sites do terrific jobs driving demand for items. Just post an ad for a "Garage Sale" on all three sites and you'll get enough replies to fill your inbox. If Goodwill can move their inventory list online (see below) - they can now bulk load it to sites like Craigslist and Kijiji through aggregators like Postlets. Not only will this deliver demand to the stores, it showcase Goodwill's inventory and hopefully attract new, local consumers.... after all, Craigslist and Kijiji have proven that buyers will travel anywhere for a deal.

So - how does Goodwill get their inventory online (or, at the least, into a spreadsheet) in an effective, automated manner? There are a couple ways: Instead of giving people carbon copies of receipts (which are poorly itemized anyhow), set up a portal that allows users to itemize there and receive an emailed copy later. The cost would be minimal (and would be made up quickly) and donors would love the option (I will certainly lose my receipts!). Finally, when items are priced on eBay (and equivalents), store that price electronically and map it to inventory... next time a long sleeved polo shirt is donated, a 'price sold' will be available.

And if you want to get really creative, the items could be bulk loaded and showcased online. I don't think this is worthwhile on an item-by-item basis, but there was enough great 'stuff' available that it could make sense to showcase...