Monthly Archives: June 2009

Yoono launched last year as a browser addon that enabled you to perform a few basic operations while surfing the web, from bookmarking to finding directions based on an address on your current page. Since then, Yoono has slowly been adding functionality to its browser addon, the most recent update being the OneRiot realtime search option. This all comes as part of the Yoono 6 release, which is the latest version of the Firefox and Internet Explorer sidebar.

The OneRiot integration allows users to search the web with its realtime search engine, offering up sidebar results for their queries. As OneRiot has also been adding functionality to its search tool such as Twitter-specific filters and other search options, the ability to access this content directly from your Yoono sidebar adds to the social media management options that Yoono already had in place.

Making web browsing more interactive and organized for individual users has always been a long-term goal for Yoono, as I quicky discovered during my first demo of the emerging product. What drew me to the Yoono service is its ease of use and accessibility in providing a well-thought set of tools that make my life easier.

As OneRiot started as a browser addon itself, it’s interesting to see its return to the sidebar in partnership with Yoono. I’m still a believer in browser addons that provide a good selection of tools and are highly customizable, and the combination that this partnership provides goes along those lines.

Combine the OneRiot search option with some of Yoono’s other social media management tools including support for MySpace, Facetook and Twitter, and you’ve got a socially aware set of tools tat helps you both access and share content across the web quickly and easily. It’s a very circular point of access, which has always been a large appeal for well-built browser addons. As OneRiot was among the first to offer up a third-party realtime search engine, I expect we’ll see a few more partnerships in the coming months.

Google is furthering its global reach by pushing out some new mobile initiatives in Africa. Three new services including Google SMS, Google Trader and Google SMS Tips have been rolled out this week.

Google SMS is actually a collection of mobile apps that provides access to information such as news, local weather, sports, etc. This information comes through via SMS, and can be considered a mobile RSS of sorts. Next is Google Trader, which is a mobile “marketplace” for buyers and sellers and is actually a part of the Google SMS suite. Whether you’re selling livestock or you’re seeking a seller to buy a new car, Google Trader is a mobile classifieds on a hyper-local level.

Google SMS Tips is Google’s version of mobile search, where a query can be sent in via text message and the response will be sent back in the same manner. Search is at the core of what Google does, so this may be one of the more important mobile apps to come out of Google’s release today. As Google SMS Tips may be more encompassing than the other apps, it’s the core of what Google’s simplified mobile access can provide to the widest range of users.

The Google SMS Tips app is particularly interesting because of the trend we’ve seen in the past few years, where search has been attempted in a more semantic realm, in part for ready mobile use. But more importantly we’ve seen this trend for mobile access to search content based on SMS as a channel for distribution. With services like Cha-Cha there was a great deal human capital invested into the service, while other tools such as kgb have been going mainstream in their approach to gain new users.

But as Google has always been interested in dominating the mobile realm, and has only increased these efforts with the introduction of the Android platform, the new services released today are both specific to the region and indicative of Google’s long term plans for its mobile strategy.

The idea behind this particular mobile push is to provide Google services to those that have mobile access but may not have regular Internet access. It’s an initiative that several companies have taken in order to grow their global presence, but finding the right balance for mobile services, translated content and compatibility with mobile platforms is something that these companies must deal with when reaching for that worldwide scale.

See here for more details.

AdMob has released its May report on iPhone apps that are served through its own mobile advertising network, giving us a glimpse into the consumer behavior around applications designed for the popular mobile device. The result? Five percent of applications have more than 100,000 active users, which totals 322 actual applications.

That boils down to quite a longtail distribution of applications, and only a handful of these apps reach extreme popularity. Is anyone surprised? Isn’t that how the longtail works?

It’s a distribution model similar to most digital/virtual content that’s easily replicated and downloaded. And AdMob’s own data can be likened to Apple’s overall iTunes content distribution, as very few songs, for instance, achieve a high amount of downloads. The upside is that there is a great deal of content *readily* available to the consumers. The downside is that the content that gains the most attention is often backed by powerful advertising campaigns.

This all translates into a lot of search required on an individual consumer level. It’s one of my biggest issues with iTunes, as its search capabilities leave a lot to be desired. This just factors into all the other reasons why the longtail exists the way it does for iPhone apps in particular. Consumers have a lot to choose from. The barriers to entry for developers creating iPhone apps are far lower than creating other apps, websites or services. And Apple gets to select which apps it partners with, as well as which it promotes on the front page, commercials, ads.

When it’s all said and done, AdMob’s numbers merely remind us that accessing the longtail of iPhone apps is still something that we need to tackle in order to make it easier for consumers. Whether this occurs through improvements made to iTunes search, or we rely on third party social search engines, the iPhone app platform is pretty awesome but still has room for improvement.

After three years of growing pains, Twitter has managed to become an integral and necessary aspect of pop culture. TechCrunch notes an interesting illustration from InfoShots of Twitter’s history, reaching all the way back to 1980 when the concept of real-time text messages was implemented by UNIX.

From inception the purpose of Twitter was questioned, and the ability for Twitter to have any staying power was a ready topic of discussion, thanks to its frequent downtime fail whales. And the more recent Twitpocalypse and Iran-related use of Twitter has reiterated the importance of Twitter up-time, pointing out that Twitter has become a full-fledged mainstream application.

This is all duly noted in the illustration below, as the most influential points of Twitter’s history are tied to celebrities and politics. Because apparently that’s what makes Twitter great.

Celebs have taken over Twitter, and now we get to laugh at their “whoops!” moments. Yesterday Perez Hilton tweeted that he’d been assaulted by fellow celeb Will.i.am. causing an overload of phone calls to the local police station and reminding us of some celeb’s desperate attempts at a publicity stunt.

And Tameka Foster, the estranged wife of singer Usher Raymond, accidentally tweeted a private message to her public Twitter stream. Complaining about her lawyer to fellow celeb Star Jones, Tameka is seeking recommendations for a new attorney. Hopefully the Twitterverse will be able to help her out with that.