Ged Carroll

Month: June 2014

  • Emotion research paper by Facebook

    Over the weekend if you went on to quality (not Buzzfeed) news sites you would have probably seen something about a scientific paper that was published by researchers in the pay of Facebook on how emotion spreads through social networks.

    Emotion research explainer

    There was a lot of copy written already about the experiment, so I recommend that you read The Atlantic‘s piece on it instead. There has been a lot written about whether it is moral, legal or ethical. As far as it being legal, Facebook’s highly paid legal counsel could provide a better steer on it than I could; and I suspect they would tell you it was completely legal.

    As for the morals and ethics of it, I rather think that those are a mute point. Consumers emotion states have been tweaked for decades, the question of morality sailed with the rise of the mass market consumer product.
    Guilty Viewing Pleasures: They Live
    Whilst public relations as it is practiced now is more of a mechanistic craft; its father Edward Bernays viewed propaganda as a ‘modern instrument’ driven by scientific thinking including understanding of audience psychology to move people.

    Advertisers utilised motivational research from the early 20th century on to create cognitive dissonance  with a consumer and then provide the product as a solution. The Atlantic carried an article on the psychology of advertising back in 1904. You are a better Mum if you wash your kids clothes with Persil, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk will put a smile on your face. All of which mine directly into consumer’s emotion, spreading dissatisfaction.

    Political pollsters use voter psychographic profiling to induce a constituency result. We already live in the world of a malleable proletariat envisioned by by George Orwell in his novel 1984.

    The people who are outraged by this need to get over it, log-in to Facebook less and realise that they are already sheep with a gallery of multinational shepherds herding them through their consumer lifecycle. What you can do is become more informed and read your environment in a more critical way. More related content here.

    More information

    Everything We Know About Facebook’s Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment | The Atlantic
    Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks by Adam D. I. Kramera, Jamie E. Guillory and Jeffrey T. Hancock
    The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies (Oxford Handbooks) the Auerbach and Castronovo edited anthology gives you pretty much everything you need to know from Bernays onwards about psychology and audience manipulation
    The Psychology of Advertising by Walter D Scott | The Atlantic (1904) – no that’s not a typo
    Frontline: The Persuaders | PBS
    Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals | Jib Fowles

  • Android moves to life OS

    If you read the Telegraph online last Wednesday 25th or the Financial Times on Thursday 26th June,   you would have seen some great coverage about Google’s developer conference with Android’s move to become a life OS. There was also coverage about the corresponding rise of the Android economy in the UK. Like iOS and web development, software and services are now a major part of the creative economy.

    Google announced developments to move Android to being a ‘life’ OS rather than just a mobile OS.

    Android expanded to a true life OS across numerous hardware platforms:

    • Run wearable devices
    • Run applications within Google’s lightweight desktop OS chrome
    • Be a games console platform
    • In-car entertainment
    • Take another run at the smart TV market
    • Lowering the price-point of smartphones even further with AndroidOne

    All of which presents a range of interesting choices for the UK’s Android platform developers.

    What does this mean for app-enabled brands?

    Google has created more choice and there will be the inevitable surge of experimentation to figure out what works.

    The expansion of Android presents a more challenging time for marketers. There will be more platforms to develop for; since iOS cannot be ignored as a platform. There will be a corresponding complexity in the development of Android applications:

    • Increased application testing time
    • Increased application development
    • Increased application maintenance time to cater for new devices and firmware updates
    • Increased requirement for application marketing support to encourage app downloads and usage across platforms
    • Increased budgets will be required to support new platforms where consumers will start to expect to find brands they use

    There will be a corresponding increase in new risks that these applications bring which will require careful communications planning and preparation:

    • Software rendering hardware useless – ‘bricking’
    • New versions of applications no longer supporting older versions of Android / Android devices – particularly as different manufacturers update their hardware at different rates. Some cheap smartphones may not have any upgrade path. Now imagine this on televisions or car dashboards…
    • Hacking attacks | cybercrime
    • The withdrawal of a well-loved app
    • The poor reception of a newly-designed application

    Who will lose out?

    The most obvious casualty of this move is not Apple or Microsoft but the Java language that Android’s application language is very similar to. Java was touted in the mid-1990s as a write-once, run-anywhere development language and pops up in surprising places. A variant of Java ran most of the pre-iOS smartphone games. It provided a development environment for early web applications including those used in the enterprise. Java had developed a strong footprint in consumer electronics that Android is now looking to usurp.

    Microsoft would be more threatened by Google’s integration of its internet services into Android. Gmail has become a development platform in its own right and Google is providing enterprise users with unlimited storage for $10 a month. Whilst Microsoft has failed to build a serious mobile platform, its web services business has been growing rapidly to challenge Amazon. Every part of that business, from Azure cloud computing to hosted Exchange server functions, is threatened by Google’s recent announcements. Neither Microsoft nor Sony will be particularly worried by Google’s plans for an Android-powered games console, at least for now.

    Companies in the wearables sector are likely to face rapid commoditisation in hardware as Android makes it easier to design wearable hardware. The challenge will be if they can differentiate on superior industrial design and maintain a premium price, or move into providing web services that support compatible devices – a direction where Nike seems to be moving with its Nike+ Fuel Lab.

    The closer integration of Samsung and Google’s development efforts including the integration of KNOX, puts other Android handset manufacturers like LG, Sony and HTC at a further disadvantage.

    The integration of KNOX will also affect the core enterprise business of BlackBerry, providing yet another reason for not purchasing BlackBerry devices or server software.

    Who will benefit from this life OS?

    With such a wide range of devices that Android could develop for, software testing will become an even more daunting prospect than it is already when developing for Android smartphones and tablets. The question is whether the current range of testing tools will cover this new product set adequately or if there is an opportunity, particularly in the enterprise environment for new players?

    Designers are going to be tremendously important, as new versions of the Android software and new use cases pose a number of user experience challenges:

    • Redesigning current apps to match the new flat design of Android
    • Understanding user behaviour and designing compelling smart TV applications
    • Understanding in-car entertainment and designing intuitive, unobtrusive in-car experiences
    • Understanding wearable use cases and designing device experiences that consumers don’t want to put down

    A wider range of Android devices will mean a greater potential market opportunity for ARM-powered chips where they may be going into embedded systems previously powered by lower power X86 processors, PowerPC or MIPS RISC processors.

    Google is a technology company that makes most of its money from customer data and selling advertising space. The expansion of the Android ecosystem will present more advertising formats, inventory and more contextual data. This will be a boon for media buying agencies and potentially for the platforms that support programmatic advertising like DataXu, as the data will help support targeting in real-time bidding. More wireless related posts here.

    More information

    ‘Powerhouse’ UK leads Europe app development, says research | FT (paywall)
    Android TV hands-on: Google makes a new play for the living room | The Verge
    Google announces Drive for Work with unlimited storage at $10 a month | The Verge
    Google Opens Gmail, Making It More of a Platform for Developers | WSJ
    Google previews Android apps running on Chromebooks | TNW
    Razer’s making a gaming ‘micro-console’ with Android TV, available this fall | Engadget
    Google Introduces Android TV, Its New Platform For Smart TV Apps And Navigation | TechCrunch
    Google Unveils Ambitious Android Expansion at Conference | New York Times
    Nike+ Developer Portal

  • Google IO: who is Google trying to disrupt?

    Google IO this week played out like a science fair trying to be an Apple keynote. It was interesting for me to watch to try and discern how this will affect commercial rivals.
    Made it to Google I/O "extended". Now what do those guys in Mtn View have to share? #google

    Google IO and Java

    The most obvious casualty of Google IO announcements is not Apple or Microsoft but the Java language that Android’s application language is very similar to. Java was touted in the mid-1990s as a write-once, run-anywhere development language and pops up in surprising places. A variant of Java ran most of the pre-iOS smartphone games. It provided a development environment for early web applications including those used in the enterprise. Java had developed a strong footprint in consumer electronics that Android is now looking to usurp. Oracle had worked hard to support Java for embedded devices ever since it released the first Java development kit for OSX a couple of years ago.

    Microsoft

    Microsoft has already failed in mobile devices, having spent billions of dollars to maintain a toe hold – this situation may change over time, but for now Microsoft isn’t a relevant player in mobile devices. So Microsoft would be more threatened by the Google IO announcement of integration of its internet services into Android, than by Android itself. Gmail has become a development platform in its own right and Google is providing enterprise users with unlimited storage for $10 a month. Microsoft’s web services business has been growing rapidly to challenge the current market leader Amazon. Every part of that business from Azure cloud computing to hosted Exchange server functions are threatened by Google’s recent announcements.

    Gaming

    Google’s announcement of a smart TV come games console would threaten neither Microsoft nor Sony will be particularly worried by Google’s plans for an Android-powered games console, at least for now. It is interesting that Google thinks there still a market for games console casual gaming rather than just for the zealots. This could be a winner if Nintendo became a developer and abandoned the Wii U – similarly to SEGA’s retreat from the games console market after the Dreamcast console.

    Amazon

    The expansion of Android and related web services puts Amazon squarely in the frame as a competitor – however this is not a pushover for Google. Amazon has a strong position in digital goods and is the number one player in web services. In addition, Amazon (unlike Google) isn’t restricted in China, which will be one of the main makers of, and main markets for the products that Google is looking to put Android inside. Amazon has crashed and burned as a traditional e-tailer in China with just over 2% market share; web services and digital content could give the company a second wind. Outside China, Amazon already has the payment details of more high-spending consumers than Google, which gives Amazon the edge in the living room.

    Wearables

    Whilst Google probably hasn’t set out to ‘kill’ players in the wearables sector, wearable hardware companies are likely to face rapid commoditisation as Android makes it easier to design wearable hardware. This hollowing out of the market will be similar to what happened to handsets before Samsung managed to prevail through the scale of its resources. The challenge will be if they can differentiate on superior industrial design and maintain a premium price, or move into providing web services that support compatible devices –  a direction where Nike seems to be moving with its Nike+ Fuel Lab.

    The closer integration of Samsung and Google’s development efforts was probably the most interesting movement at Google I/O. Google’s divide-and-conquer strategy works when you have a number of evenly competitive players, but Samsung rapidly built scale and used its vertical integration to its advantage driving Motorola and HTC to the edge. Sony consolidated its hold on Sony Ericsson and LG have been grimly hanging on against its rival chaebol. Samsung tried to expand control of its eco-system with new applications, services and two new OS over the years – Bada and Tizen. Samsung partnership announcements including the integration of KNOX, represented a degree of detente between Samsung and Google – at least for the moment. This alliance puts other Android handset manufacturers like LG, Sony and HTC at a further disadvantage. It is less clear what this will mean for those developers who Samsung has persuaded to support their Tizen platform. Will that work have been wasted?

    The integration of KNOX will also affect the core enterprise business of BlackBerry, providing yet another reason for not purchasing BlackBerry devices or server software.

    Consumer electronics

    The further expansion into the home is Google trying to hammer the nails into the cross that consumer electronics companies like Sony, Sharp, JVC and Panasonic are already attached to. However, Google would need to build rapport with Chinese companies like TCL; yet companies TCL is less likely to want to get on the Google train for a few reasons:

    • China is one of the largest markets for home consumer electronics, yet Google can’t play
    • Many of these companies are vertically integrated and already have lower-tier handset manufacturer within the group who aren’t getting much love from Google already and some of these manufacturers are already playing with other Android-based distributions. They may even create forks from the open source distribution that is the basis of Google’s Android
    • A tighter relationship with a content provider will be more important than tying into Google – particularly as Google services face an increasing crackdown in China
    • A tight relationship with a payment provider will be more important than tying to Google – Tencent or Alibaba

    Google needs to find a way to address these issues, or partner with another player like Tencent which would take a lot of corporate manoeuvring; any partner maybe careful (if not leery) after they can see how Google’s relationship with Apple went south. Google may not be the barbarian Microsoft of the 1990s, but the organisation is now so big and complex that it could easily crush a partner thoughtlessly. That’s the last of my take from Google IO. More related content here.

    More information

    It’s A Java Embedded World | Dr Dobb’s – I guess I am showing my age, but if feels strange that it isn’t Dr Dobb’s Journal or DDJ anymore
    China Top B2C Websites Market Share in Q1 2014 | China Internet Watch
    Android TV hands-on: Google makes a new play for the living room | The Verge
    Google announces Drive for Work with unlimited storage at $10 a month | The Verge
    Google Opens Gmail, Making It More of a Platform for Developers | WSJ
    Google previews Android apps running on Chromebooks | TNW
    Razer’s making a gaming ‘micro-console’ with Android TV, available this fall | Engadget
    Google Introduces Android TV, Its New Platform For Smart TV Apps And Navigation | TechCrunch
    Google Unveils Ambitious Android Expansion at Conference | New York Times
    Nike+ Developer Portal

  • Umeng & other things this week

    Umeng

    Umeng have put together a great presentation on consumer behaviour and mobile in China’s tier 3 cities. Most of what you read focuses on tier one and tier two cities in China. Umeng provides insight into large yet untapped markets just below the biggest most-developed cities in China. The tier three cities that Umeng covers are the cities were China does much of its manufacturing now as places like Shenzhen and Shanghai have become too expensive

    Fukushima Happy

    This beautifully shot version of Pharrell Williams Happy done by the people of Fukushima prefecture showing everyday Japanese life and shot by Fuji TV.

    I particularly like the lucho libre masks and the winking Shibu shot. There is also a great outtakes / making of video

    Red Fuse x Colgate-Palmolive Myanmar

    Red Fuse Hong Kong’s work with Colgate-Palmolive in Myanmar to educate children about oral health (and sell more toothpaste) was a Cannes Lion winner and an inspired way of rethinking how packaging was used. The mobile toll-free number was particularly interesting given how nascent mobile phone usage is in Myanmar. There isn’t much of an online component as internet penetration is low and concentrated in richer urban areas of the country.


    Richard Feynman – The Character of Physical Law – 5 –

    The Distinction of Past and Future lecturing at Cornell University. Feynman was a great physicist but he was greater at making physics accessible to a wider range of people through his lectures and writing. Take a lunch time to enjoy this video

    Guardians of the Galaxy

    Yet another new trailer for the Guardians of The Galaxy, we get to see Rocket‘s character slightly more developed in this version and he seems brilliant in a Spaghetti Western anti-hero kind of way, if Eli Wallach (God rest his soul) had been a wise-cracking raccoon bandit.

  • Hospital spies & other news

    Hospital spies

    Hospital Spies on Your Purchases to Spot Bad Habits – Bloomberg – hospital spies presents an interesting privacy dilemma and they aren’t even using social data yet. We need to start thinking defensively about content and other aspects of our lives in terms of operational security. Hospital spies are likely to be the least of our worries in the future.

    Adult entertainment

    The porn industry is putting skin back in the game | Quartz – looks rather like the music industry: merchandise, custom products (like the way iTunes atomised the album), experiential – drinking venues and live performance – live cams

    Consumer behaviour

    [The Futures Company:] Ageing in Asia: Myth #3 – interesting changes in divorce statistics

    Design

    Why Cooper Hewitt is giving away its new bespoke typeface | Quartz – a must-download font

    Making Flexible Wood Using a Laser Cutter | Hackaday – really interesting project

    Artifact: Oakley Eyeshades | Uncrate – love these, its a pity Luxxotica have ruined innovation at Oakley

    FMCG

    How the Sweetener Industry Sugar-Coats Science | Mother Jones – this is starting to look like the tobacco lobby

    Legal

    The case that might cripple Facebook – The Washington Post – and a lot of other US web services

    Foul!!! Sony Orders Google to Censor The World Cup | TorrentFreak – Sony apparently oversteps marks with DMCA takedown claims

    Luxury

    42% of all luxury hotel reviews authored by Chinese travellers. | Resonance China – this is insane

    Marketing

    How brands hijacked Luis Suarez’s World Cup bite | Marketing Interactive – nice summary of the news jacking activity on social media

    Fighting Back–the Right Way | In from the cold – interesting PR response example

    Bioischanged – handy for keeping track of influencers

    Media

    Android TV hands-on: Google makes a new play for the living room | The Verge – if at first you don’t succeed try, try again. What hasn’t been shown so far is a use case beyond an Apple TV type service – a remade version of the DVD player. If companies can come up with a killer app in lean back media then things may change

    Tumblr Promoted Posts and Yahoo Ads: What You Could Be Missing | Simply Measured – some interesting case studies on Tumblr, would be interested in seeing how brands got ROI

    Inside AdWords: More Insights about Quality Score and the AdWords Auction – interesting update

    Twitter, SMG release first results from Social TV Lab | blog.smvgroup.com – really?

    As Weather Channel Blows Yahoo Off Apple’s Upcoming iOS 8, App Storms Ahead for Mayer | Re/code – adds a stick to beat management team with, needs to be careful about stocks default app

    Online

    2014 Social Media Image Size Cheat Sheet | Constant Contact Blogs – this is really useful

    Google Drops Profile Photos, Google+ Circle Count From Authorship In Search Results | SearchEngineLand – makes the organic links look less clickable, presumably there will be some rationale about improving ad click through instead

    Technorati Quietly Killed its Blog Index in May | TheNextWeb – not terribly surprising, but definitely marks the end of an era

    Terror Organizations’ Search Optimization Problem Is Our Problem Too | Motherboard – interested to see if this was a deliberate Google decision or whether it’s search algorithm really struggled with the changing context around ISIS? If so, then there maybe a couple of guys in a dorm room somewhere ready to disrupt Searchzilla

    Retailing

    Muji opens flagship store on Tmall | WantChinaTimes – shows continued power of Alibaba

    Technology

    The vacuum tube strikes back: NASA’s tiny 460GHz vacuum transistor that could one day replace silicon FETs | ExtremeTech – looking forward to having that McIntosh Labs sound from my iPhone in years to come

    Microsoft Makes Bet Quantum Computing Is Next Breakthrough – NYTimes.com – as Moore’s law is running out of head space and mobile computing has matured. More related content here.

    IBM Discovers Wonder Polymers | GEEK – this looks really interesting

    Web of no web

    New sensors will scoop up data in Chicago – chicagotribune.com – interesting smarter city initiative but one has to wonder about what privacy advocates will think?

    Here’s What The Amazon Fire Phone’s Crazy 3D Head Tracking Looks Like | TechCrunch – really nice (useful) implementation of animated GIFs over video. The interesting thing about the Amazon approach is that stereoscopic vision isn’t required to appreciate it