Ged Carroll

Search results for: “plaxo”

  • Plaxo closing down +other things

    Plaxo closing down

    I don’t know if I hadn’t been paying attention or if it hadn’t been put out there in the media about Plaxo closing down. Prior to Plaxo closing down, it provided a valuable service by syncing your address book to people’s profile cards which they changed if they moved jobs, changed their cell phone number or email address. It was clunky but the data in and out was more useful than LinkedIn or Facebook has been since.
    Plaxo EOL
    I gave up on it when it started to have issues with LinkedIn connections. Comcast had been running it quietly for a number of years but have evidently given up on it. It’s main legacy for me now is knowing the real birthdays of many contacts as this was before the web got quite as crime laden as it is now. Plaxo closing down is about the the decline of web 2.0 data portability and

    Culture

    This week I have been listening to Pleasure – the new single from Luxxury and this fantastic play list from Chicago legend Mike Dunn of the tracks which most inspired him.

    Dunn isn’t as famous as Frankie Knuckles or Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley but has production credits on Sterling Void’s ‘Don’t Wanna Go‘, Julian ‘Jumpin’ Perez’ ‘Relight My Fire‘ and as an artist in his own right with the likes of ‘God Made Me Phunky‘.

    By the time that you read this I will be too engrossed in watching The Punisher on Netflix to care

    Japan

    Beautiful Japanese booth babe uses her fingers to create the Suzuki “S” sign on her chest 【Video】 | SoraNews24 – if I was a marketer at Suzuki, or one of their agencies I would be kicking myself for having not come up with this. I could totally see it becoming a brand meme

    SaveSave

  • Plaxo Is the New Google?

    Plaxo is a useful addition to the arsenal of the knowledge worker. We go through lives developing thousands of connections but probably only keep in regular contact with a couple of hundred. (This is broadly in line with the Dunbar number proposed by anthropologist Robin Dunbar.)

    Plaxo vs. Google missions

    Where Google plans to organise all the world’s information, Plaxo seeks to organise all our address books.

    With Plaxo you complete an account and update it if you move jobs, that way your looser network can keep up to date if they are members of Plaxo too.

    Pros

    – Cheap, free software, you only pay for support. That also means limited growth

    Cons

    – Only works with Outlook at the moment, so not great for people orientated businesses like the creative industries, how about conduits for Lotus Notes, Entourage and Apple iSync?

    – Privacy concerns, where there’s data there’s risk and businesses are increasingly using online services to run their businesses; it makes sense for consumers to use similar services to run Me, Inc. Privacy restrictions makes it harder for Plaxo to monetise customer data held

    – Is reliant on a critical mass of users; Plaxo only updates less than 9 per cent of my contacts and its user base does not seem to be expanding at the rate of Friendster or LinkedIn

    Anyway, make up your own mind by watching an interview on CBS Marketwatch with the founders. More technology related content here.

    More information

    Dunbar, R. I. M. (1992). “Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in primates”. Journal of Human Evolution.

  • App constellation

    Fred Wilson talked about the concept of the app constellation that he distilled down to:

    mobile apps that share a single login and have app to app linking built in

    He also added the proviso that ignored gaming apps, which generally purely use integration for identity and payment.

    As Wilson points out this level of integration is interesting as one could find a complete suite of apps from the one company and rarely leave that app constellation.  This is partly been driven by context:

    Putting a lot of features in a mobile application inevitably means burying them resulting in lots of clicks to get at something that you want. So on the design level it is very reminiscent of the design focus that drove the first generation of focused lean web 2.0 applications – though on a philosophical level they are world’s apart since the app constellation are about creating a walled garden rather than open transportable data sets (within a walled garden of the mobile operating system).

    The idea isn’t necessarily one that’s new. If one looks at someone like Google, this is the very rationale why they built Android – so that there were no blockages to providing it’s services.  Microsoft exercised control over the majority of desktop users and could make Google’s life difficult, especially through Internet Explorer, by comparison smartphones were a relatively open space to grow in. The roles are now reversed in mobile, so Microsoft has had to play catch up with its app constellation.

    I have attempted to compile a list of some of the the major companies with an app constellation. This has taken more time than I would like as I have had to hand code the tables below in order to get the HTML to work properly. Thankfully not having games in the definition of an app constellation made the work a little easier. For instance, Kakao Corp. is responsible for 9 out of the 10 best-selling mobile games in Korea at the moment and keeps churning out new games on a regular basis.

    Secondly some of the companies here have more than one app constellation cluster, Tencent’s broadly break down into two clusters; those dominated by QQ and those dominated by WeChat, however there is also a connection between QQ and WeChat. This maybe partly down to the different development centres in China that they both come out of.

    Microsoft and Google both have consumer, enterprise user and enterprise administrator app constellation clusters.

    Daum is a Korean Internet company famous for its mobile search, news portal and social properties. No self-respecting Korean pop group used to be able to do without a well looked after Daum Cafe account. As I was part way through this Daum has announced that it is merging with Kakao Corp. We can expect them to merge the Daum app constellation into the Kakao business. Kakao generally has a better mobile experience.

    Name English equivalent What it does
    다음, 뉴스, 브라우저, 프로야구 Daum: news, browser, KBO (Korean professional baseball) It’s a mobile portal of content
    mypeople OTT messenger application that also includes stickers, VoIP and video calls; with support for a number of international languages. It can utilise a common Daum log-in
    다음 지도, 길찾기, 지하철, 버스 Daum Maps, Directions, Subway and Bus A local version of the kind of application Google Maps provides tightly focused on the needs of Korean consumers
    다음 사전 Daum Dictionary Kind of similar to Google Translate and Google Lens. Daum Dictionary allows you to ‘read’ a foreign language using your phones camera, it has a number of translation dictionaries. In addition, it has a flash card function to help Koreans increase their foreign language vocabulary
    다음 카페 Daum Cafe Daum Cafe is a social network with a customisable profile page, a news stream type function called My Cafe, posts and comments – think your Facebook wall or Tumblr account, stickers, a mobile editor and push notifications
    다음 클라우드 Daum Cloud Daum Cloud is similar in functionality to Dropbox and Carousel in terms of being cloud file storage and a way of sharing photos and files. Daum calls out that these can be shared across it’s mypeople social platform, Facebook and Twitter
    다음 웹툰 Daum Webtoon (literally the name would be Daum Pick) Korea like Japan has a comic book culture. The most famous of these is probably Priest which was adapted for film and started Paul Bettany and Maggie Q. The country consumes web comics and Daum Webtoon mobilises that experience. Fans comment on strips, share strips amongst themselves via Daum Webtoon. A western equivalent might be comiXology (a recent Amazon acquisition); but that lacks the social aspects of Webtoon
    mysticker for mypeople Augment photos with various avatar decorations like glasses or facial hair and use these pictures as stickers in OTT messenger app mypeople
    SolGroup SolGroup is a private discussion group for up to 100 members. It allows you to share photos and links as well as doing a broadcast-style notice to group members
    해피맘-육아맘 필수앱 (이웃맘 추천, 임신/출산 정보) Happy Mom A neighbourhood social network for Mums and Mums-to be. It’s a location-based network that tries to plug women into real-world networks, provide an online support network which can be a source of advice and provide local information. In Seoul there seems to be a consult your GP function. All up this seems to be a much more sophisticated version of Mumsnet
    다음 루리웹 블러드 브라더스 공식 커뮤니티 Daum BloodBrothers Community An application that provides a community for players of Mobage’s BloodBrothers game
    WITH A Flickr or 500px-type application that allows photographs to be organised into albums and easily explored
    다음 TV 플레이 Daum TV Play Allows a smartphone to be used as a remote control where the smart TV has a Daum TV application
    다음소셜쇼핑 – 소셜커머스 모음 Daum Social Shopping – social commerce collection The application features group shopping deals and coupons from a range of players including GroupOn. It also has an Apple Passbook-type function to organise any tickets required to redeem an offer
    캠프 Camp Location-based mobile social network that looks to be around organising group activities; kind of similar in some respects to Foursquare’s Swarm
    마이원 모바일 월렛 My One Mobile Wallet Mobile wallet application that also has some loyalty / rewards programme functionality built-in
    마이원 모바일 월렛 Daum Kids Education app aimed at pre-schoolers, it covers much of the educational ground that Sesame Street may cover in other countries
    Kardin A social business card application. It is a cross between LinkedIn’s CardMunch, Plaxo and LinkedIn

    Dropbox

    Dropbox has a small app constellation, but I suspect that it will consolidate over time as it focuses on its core business of cloud storage.

    Product name What it does
    Dropbox Cloud storage
    Carousel Carousel is designed as a single home for all your photos and videos, automatically organized and always with you. It allows for the sharing photos and videos instantly in private conversations. It provides an automatic back up  of photos and videos to Dropbox as they are taken.
    Mailbox Alternative mail application specially for iCloud and Gmail users. It offers a simplified user interface and deep app linking across Dropbox products (preventing an OS-level poaching of that functionality)

    Facebook – social behemoth has a number of applications out there, half due to acquisitions the company has made. It’s app constellation flexes as Facebook launches and kills new services.

    Product name What it does
    Facebook Replicates much of the desktop experience of using Facebook in a mobile application
    Messenger An OTT messenger that seems to be playing feature catch-up with many of the bigger players. Currently allows groups, video sharing and picture sharing. There are some stickers available and a free VoIP facility
    Facebook Page Manager Mobile application for page admins to manage multiple pages easily from their own phone, even provides a view of Facebook Insights
    Instagram Mobile photo application with built-in filters
    Whatsapp Messenger Popular, relatively unsophisticated OTT messaging application acquired earlier this year

    Google

    Google’s vast field of diverse apps are bound together by the Google ID, resulting in a large app constellation.

    Product name What it does
    YouTube Native application video player
    Google Native mobile application version of the Google search page, the key difference being the support of voice-enabled search
    Google Maps Native application version of Google’s mapping service. It has voice turn-by-turn directions. It covers 220 countries and the public transport networks of over 15,000 towns and cities
    Google Earth Explore the world virtually, hard to really describe Google Earth – I thought it was telling that it sits in Apple’s travel rather than navigation section
    Google Chrome Alternative web browser, integration with desktop usage of Chrome browser and a reaction to non-Google search deals
    Gmail Dedicated email client for the Gmail email service
    Google Translate Native application interface for Google’s web translation web service
    Google+ Native application that provides a simplified interface for the Google+ social network, some elements like Hangouts have been broken out into a dedicated application
    Google Drive Native application that positions Google Drive as more of a cloud storage service than the productivity suite viewpoint that it provides in the desktop experience
    YouTube Capture Shoot and upload video directly to a YouTube account
    Hangouts A me-too OTT messenger with more of a video focus than other players
    Chromecast Application to set up and change administrator-level settings for the Chromecast streaming video dongle
    Google Docs Standalone of the Google Docs word processor experience which is integrated into the desktop version of Google Drive
    Google Sheets Standalone of the Google Docs spreadsheet experience which is integrated into the desktop version of Google Drive
    Blogger Native application to manage a Blogspot blog including creating and posting content
    Google Play Books Google’s answer to Amazon’s Kindle app and Apple’s iBooks
    Google Authenticator A RSA key-type second factor authentication for Google accounts. It has easy set-up with a QRcode and support for multiple accounts
    Google Play Music A mix between the Apple iTunes music player app and Spotify based on Google’s Play content marketplace
    Google Play Movies & TV Native application video player and marketplace for Google Play
    Google Currents Flipboard-esque reader with a focus on mainstream media like The Huffington Post
    Photowall for Chromecast Photowall for Chromecast is an application that lets people take pictures, edit them and collaborate with images on the TV – using phones or tablets. Anyone can take a picture and send it to a Photowall to instantly see it on the big screen.Once the collage is finished a YouTube video of your Photowall is automatically generated
    Field Trip The bastard child of vintage Microsoft Office’s Clippy and a travel guide that surfaces information kind of similar to Foursquare’s exploration function. It will even use voice to deliver it’s random flag ups of interesting things near by. It is also notable for its use of skeuomorphic design in a Google product
    Google Adsense Access to reports and key data from a Google advertising account over a mobile phone
    Zagat Restaurant guide that Google acquired a number of years ago. In many respects Yelp before the internet. Now as a native mobile application
    Google Admin Native mobile application providing an interface for sysadmins to manage enterprise usage of Google products – setting new email accounts up, shutting them down etc.
    Google Coordinate Mobile application of a workforce management tool attached to Google enterprise account – ideal if you had a firm of plumbers, roofing contractors etc.
    Helpouts Native application to get live video advice on a given subject matter.

    Kakao Corp. is an OTT messaging application that has a higher user base than Facebook in Korea. It has a lot of hallyu content on there, stickers, in application payments and paid for enterprise accounts as part of the app constellation. Tencent, makers of WeChat have a stake in Kakao.

    Name English equivalent What it does
    KakaoTalk messenger An OTT messenger with text, stickers, VoIP and a pitch shifter to make your voice sound cuter or play around with friends
    KakaoStory A photo social network that is complementary to KakaoTalk. Think the moments function in WeChat or status updates on Facebook
    KakaoGroup Extends beyond the chat room environment of KakaoTalk to private private group chat as a separate application
    카카오아지트 KakaoAgit (a better translation might be KakaoHideout) Private group discussion and collaboration – sharing ideas or organising an event. Kakao Corp. promotes this particularly to self-organising groups of colleagues in a workplace
    카카오 아지트 파트너 앱 Agit Partner Seems to be a group administrator tool of some sort
    KakaoPlace Very similar to the recommendations functionality of Foursquare and the old Dopplr application

    LINE (Naver Japan) – the Japanese subsidiary of Korean online media business Naver Corp. has a range of international and localised products for the Japanese marketplace as a distinct app constellation.

    Name English equivalent What it does
    LINE Messenger An OTT messaging application that has made a good business out of virtual stickers, popular throughout much of Asia from Taiwan to Thailand. It has been fighting a pitched battle for marketshare with WhatsAppk, WeChat, and KakaoTalk
    LINE camera A photo app that integrates with LINE Messenger. It allows filters and affects to be used on pictures including a beauty filter effect. There are over 1,000 stamp effects that allow you to frame your picture, photo editing including a lasso-type function
    LINE Brush and Brush lite An application similar to MacPaint of old but in a mobile device
    LINE PLAY A social network that allows the user to build an avatar as an alter ego with the emphasis on cute and chat with other users
    LINE Card Personalised e-card creator
    pick A photography based social network similar to the social aspects of flickr
    LINE Tools A mix of productivity features: conversation tables, flash light, sound meter and calculator
    Ndrive Cloud storage similar to Dropbox
    Naver Translate Translation software focused on Japanese speakers in partnership with Japanese dictionary publisher Kodensha
    Naver Matome Reader Mobile magazine type application similar to the likes of Flipboard. Not quite a newsreader
    無料 マンガ Webtoons Mobile comic reader rather like Daum’s Webtoon application. Naver Japan has also published the more popular comics as standalone applications
    Kstyle Korean entertainment news magazine capitalising on the success of Korean pop music in particular in Japan. It also has some coverage of other hallyu content such as Korean dramas
    LINE List Seems to be similar to KakaoGroup or the circles functionality in Google+. It pulls in contacts across social networks including LINE, KakaoTalk and Facebook

    Microsoft has a hodge podge of services in a  wide variety of areas. Research, gaming, productivity and enterprise apps all make up a distinctive app constellation.

    Product name What it does
    XBox XBox One SmartGlass A companion application to the game console: it acts as a remote control for the media play side of the console and facilitates off-console social interaction with game mates
    OneDrive The cloud storage service formerly known as Sky Drive, the application comes in both consumer and business versions.
    Photosynth An application that creates panoramic views from a series of pictures that are stitched together. It also allows for these pictures to be shared with others online
    Microsoft Office Mobile The traditional office suite of Word, PowerPoint and Excel for mobile devices. An Office 365 subscription is required
    OWA for iPhone Native application version of Outlook Web Access that requires an Office 365 subscription
    Microsoft OneNote Native application version of Microsoft OneNote, available as a free standalone application
    Microsoft Remote Desktop Connect to and work on a remote Windows PC
    bing search Native application with a number of bing services including bookmarks, maps and the search engine
    Lync for iPhone Available in 2010 and 2013 editions Lync allows in-enterprise OTT messaging and web conferencing. Requires a licence for a Lync server
    Office 365 admin Manage functions such as setting up a new email account from an iPhone
    Xbox Music Spotify-style streaming application
    Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad Microsoft separates out these apps on the iPad so each one has to be downloaded separately rather than getting one Office app bundle. An Office 365 subscription is required
    Bing get me there Bing maps application specifically for London that incorporates live data on the Tube from TfL
    SharePoint Newsfeed A newsreader specifically designed for company SharePoint sites
    Microsoft Dynamics CRM for iPhone Native application for Microsoft’s CRM application
    Microsoft Dynamics CRM for iPhone and Dynamics AX Native application for Microsoft’s CRM application. Dynamics AX allows for expenses to be filed and time sheets to be completed
    HealthVault Patient access to their own and their families health records
    My Apps Single sign-on to Azure cloud applications
    Windows Intune Company Store Enterprise mobile and table app store
    Socl Somewhere between Tumblr and Behance as visual content driven social networks
    Microsoft Tech Companion for iPhone News application for Microsoft developers and certified professionals
    RMS Sharing Allows the user to see rights restricted content when used with an Office 365 licence

    Naver: LINE’s Korean parent is a large online media in its own right. Naver powers the majority of searches in Korea and has prominent blogging and mapping platforms. Naver has an app constellation that permeates the consumer and work internet from cartoons to social media and productivity that rivals Google in breadth of services.

    Name English equivalent What it does
    NAVER Native app version of the famous Korean search engine and web portal. It is particularly interesting the way Naver collates stories of interest to the reader. Koreans can subscribe to areas of interest and have the content delivered to them
    네이버 지도 NAVER Maps Similar to Google Maps; the key differences being the focus on Korea and access to real time transport data. Naver also looks to cater to cyclists in major cities more than Google does with its mapping application
    me2day A social network / blogging platform
    네이버 웹툰 NAVER Webtoons Web comic reader application
    네이버 블로그 NAVER Blog Mobile app that allows blog management and creation of posts on Korea’s most popular blogging platform. Blogs in Korea are bigger than in the UK by a considerable margin
    네이버사전 NAVER Dictionary Korean language dictionary and also Korean to 16 other languages dictionary to aid in foreign language usage
    네이버 북스 NAVER Books Korean answer to the Amazon Kindle app
    네이버 메일 NAVER Mail Dedicated email client for the Naver Mail service. Special features include messenger style stickers and deep integration with NDrive cloud storage for file transfers
    네이버 뮤직 NAVER Music A Spotify-esque music client with some special features. It can play your own MP3s directly from the NDrive cloud storage service and synchs with whatever content you have bought on your PC without having to side load the content with a cable
    NAVER Camera Camera application that allows in-app editing of pictures and automatic synching to the NDrive cloud service
    네이버 웍스 캘린더 NAVER Works Calendar Enterprise version of Naver Calendar which supports multiple languages and time zones
    네이버 웍스 드라이브 NAVER Works Drive Enterprise version of Naver cloud storage service, which seems to operate similar to YouSendIt
    네이버 웍스 메일 NAVER Works Mail Enterprise version of Naver email service with a dedicated client
    네이버 웍스 주소록 NAVER Works Contacts Enterprise version of Naver address book with a dedicated client
    그린팩토리 NHN greenfactory NAVER corporate group mobile app with some intranet and stored currency functionality for employees
    네이버 글로벌회화 영중일 NAVER Global Phrase Book (plus paid for version as well) Phrase book supporting English, Chinese and Japanese for Korean speakers
    네이버포스트 – 신개념 모바일 스토리북 NAVER Post-New Concept Mobile Story Book Encourages users to write stories optimised for mobile usage. It allows the stories to be shared across LINE and KakaoTalk and see where connections are on NAVER Maps in a similar kind of way to Google Latitude or Foursquare’s Swarm
    네이버 지식iN NAVER Knowledge iN Mobile client that provides a way to ask and answer questions in a Yahoo! Answers type of service
    쥬니어 네이버 NAVER Junior Naver Mobile app that provides a Yahooligans! type experience including games and video content
    쥬니어 네이버 NAVER Calendar Dedicated calendar application based on NAVER’s consumer-orientated calendar service
    네이버 중한사전 NAVER Chinese-Korean Dictionary The name tells you everything you need to know
    네이버 메모 NAVER Memo Similar to the Notes functionality that is a core part of iCloud, on the Mac and as part of iOS
    네이버 TV NAVER TV Streaming TV and movies application
    네이버 N드라이브 NAVER N Drive Mobile application providing cloud storage access, the smart thing with NDrive is the deep integration with other NAVER services like NAVER Music
    네이버 주소록 NAVER Contacts Contact book app service similar to Apple’s address book app which manifests on iCloud and in system default apps in iOS and OSX

    Netease is a Chinese online media company most associated with online gaming. It’s 163.com forum is enormously influential for technology loving Chinese. It’s app constellation is focused on knowledge and education.

    Name English equivalent What it does
    网易新闻 NetEase News A news client that pulls from a wide range of content from sports to shopping and everything in between
    有道 词典 本地 增强 版 Youdao Dictionary Professional Edition Chinese English dictionary with an installed user base over 150 million. The app won a prize in 2011 from Apple for the app. The app integrates with Tencent’s messenger service QQ
    网易公开课 NetEase Open Class Chinese English dictionary with an installed user base over 150 million. The app won a prize in 2011 from Apple for the app. The app integrates with Tencent’s messenger service QQ
    网易云阅读-杂志新闻书籍 NetEase cloud reading – Magazine News Books Analogous to the Kindle app with 100,000+ books, 3000+ top magazine, ‘massive’ internet information and an ‘exquisite’ picture album. The app also allows the user to subscribe to friends microblogging, blog, QQ space and other social platforms
    网易应用中心 Netease Application Center Focuses mostly on games
    有道翻译官 Youdao Translator Translates eight languages into Chinese, you can use the camera to ‘read’ foreign text
    网易轻博客 LOFTER Mobile client for a light blogging platform more like Dayre.me than Tumblr
    网易轻博客 NetEase fashion magazine An e-magazine that allow you to purchase new editions in-application from with Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, British and American fashion magazines
    网易博客 NetEase blog Mobile application to create and publish blog posts on the Netease platform
    网易将军令 NetEase General Order A two-factor authentication app similar to an RSA tag
    饭饭 Jenna A personalised restaurant and dish recommendation service
    游戏精灵-你的游戏伴侣 Game Wizard A mobile gaming magazine with reviews, tips and hacks
    网易房产榜- 看网易房产榜,知楼市冷暖 NetEase property list Allows the user to see property sales or rental prices as well as background information on the area in terms of the amenities in the locality
    网易即时通2013 Netease Messenger 2013 A self-described ‘enterprise class’ instant messenger platform that supports Windows, Mac and iOS
    Vemento Allows you to shoot one-second videos similar to Vine, but stitches them together into a bigger, longer film. It has a very flat design and colour scheme that mirrors iOS7
    口袋篮球 Pocket Basketball CBA basketball news, statistics, player profiles and game schedules
    网易印像拍 NetEase Photo Album It is like Istagram and iPhoto blended into one an includes printing services
    iEase Translator Pro Youdao Translator version complete with OCR technology designed for English speakers
    惠惠折扣日报—网易出品电商折扣精选（惠惠购物助手手机版） Huihui discount Daily Mobile coupon / group buying application
    网易联系人助手 NetEase Contact Assistant Syncing contacts from NetEase mail in a simple address book type application
    网易家居杂志 易品家 EaseHome Home and lifestyle mobile magazine compiled from the home section of the NetEase website
    网易汽车 NetEase Car News Car mobile magazine compiled from the autos section of the NetEase website
    网易邮箱- 网易官方手机邮箱 NetEase official mobile email Dedicated email client
    网易电视指南-看直播,刷微博 NetEase TV Guide Live mobile TV programming
    网易电视指南-看直播,刷微博 iStyle Fashion-orientated community mobile app
    网易微博(官方) NetEase Weibo client Micro-blogging platform in the shadow of Tencent and Sino versions of Weibo
    花田-免费聊天，交友，婚恋 Hanada A free dating community that includes chat functionality
    网易云相册- 相片备份专家 NetEase cloud album Cloud photo album

    Tencent has two of the dominant social platforms in China: QQ and WeChat. It is also big in online games publishing and e-commerce. QQ and WeChat both have their own app constellation – because of this dual brand strategy Tencent has the largest Chinese ecosystem of all the big internet companies.

    Name English equivalent What it does
    微生活POS Micro Life POS Mobile point of sale terminal application
    腾讯彩票 Tencent Lottery Lottery news including winning numbers
    微客多门店版 Tencent Shopping Guide help traditional retailers store employees to use mobile phones to provide customers with a shopping guide
    搜搜问问 SoSo Ask a knowledge search type mobile application think Yahoo! Answers meets Quora and has integration with Tencent Weibo
    Goal精彩中超 Goal! Latest match results, player details and football league positions from the CSL (Chinese Soccer League)
    看房 Showings Mobile application to aid Chinese house hunters covering most of the major cities in China
    QQ团购 QQ Buy Closely linked to QQ messenger allows for shopping and use of discount coupons
    企业QQ QQ Enterprise version Business version of QQ instant messenger
    QQ便民 QQ convenience Payment handling app covering pre-paid cards, monthly subscriptions and virtual currency balance – presumably for their games portfolio as well as real-world payments
    腾讯路宝 Tencent Lob Google Maps-like turn-by-turn directions with Waze-like traffic information
    腾讯路宝 QQ watch the show Mobile application with Ticketmaster-type features
    QQ网购 QQ Online Shopping Mobile application of a desktop online shopping site, think an online shopping mall, though much less of an audience than Tmall
    腾讯微漫 Tencent Micro-Comic Mobile comic reading platform, with free to read content including Naruto and Dragonball Z
    腾讯充值 Tencent Recharge Especially designed to manage a Q coin virtual currency account used in paying for games and monthly subscription services
    Ps Play Allows images from PhotoShop to be transferred easily to a phone and friends, can do a screen cast of how an effect was done as a walkthrough. Probably handy for sharing memes
    Storycam for WeChat A kind of Instagram companion app for the WeChat OTT messenger – mixes photo frame type effects with an ability to tell people more about the picture
    创意相机 Creative Camera Allows users to edit pictures often for comedic value or giving them a cute look and then share via the QQ messenger service
    wyFire Easy sharing of pictures over a local network: wi-fi connected device to wi-fi connected device
    wyFire Easy sharing of pictures over a local network: wi-fi connected device to wi-fi connected device
    腾讯爱看 Tencent Watch Summarizes and presents content so that the reader no longer ‘reads’ it but watches it
    QQ美食 QQ Cuisine It has location based elements similar to Foursquare and discount coupon offers and ability to share location on Tencent Weibo
    QQ财付通（腾讯出品 QQ Tenpay PayPal like peer to peer payments attached to a QQ messenger ID
    Pitu Picture beautification – to make women’s skin look younger or better
    自选股 Zishuagu Real time stock price information from Shanghai, Hong Kong and US stock markets
    QQ提醒 QQ alert An alarm clock with lost of different settings and alerts
    腾讯看比赛 Tencent watch the game Sports news from Chinese and international leagues
    SOSO慧眼 SOSO Eye Price comparison application, it scans bar codes and QRCodes but also uses image recognition to find matching book covers etc
    QQ电影票 QQ Movie Mobile cinema ticket booking app
    One Browser Alternative to the built in phone web browser for international audiences
    QQ Browser Alternative to the built in phone web browser for Chinese, Taiwanese and international audiences
    腾讯地图 Tencent Map Car and public transport navigation with turn-by-turn directions
    腾讯朋友 Tencent friend China’s first ‘real name’ social network rather like Facebook in that respect
    Qpik International version of picture beautification app Pitu
    WeChat Voice Companion app to WeChat. Speak into the app, pick an avatar which has an animated mouth that lip-synches the message and send to contacts
    微视-8秒短视频分享 Microscopic Vine-like service that shoots 8-second videos
    QQ阅读 QQ Reading Multi-format e-book reader supporting formats like epub and PDF
    QQ通讯录-最快最智能的通讯录 QQ Contacts An address book based around the QQ messaging eco-system
    QQ安全中心 QQ Security Centre Helps with securing details, binding the phone identity to a particular QQ account, protects game settings and other
    My Cam Camera application that has HDR capabilities and Instagram-type filters
    腾讯手机管家（原QQ手机管家 Tencent mobile butler A utility app which helps enhance Wi-Fi security, measure download speed and other features
    We Sync iCloud-like back-up of address book, it helps users to move from an old phone to their new phone. It also allows the address book to be easily erased from a phone. It seems to be aimed at an international audience
    QQ邮箱 QQ Mailbox Dedicated email client similar to Gmail
    QQ Instant messaging client that comes in both domestic market and international versions
    腾讯微云 Weiyun Dropbox-like cloud service
    Qzone A Facebook-like social network allowing check-ins, status, video sharing, picture sharing
    腾讯新闻 Tencent News A news reader application – think mobile portal as app
    微信 WeChat / Weixin One of the world’s leading OTT messenger made in both domestic and international versions. It has features (some of which where borrowed from QQ) and is nipping at the heels of Whatsapp in a number of markets

    More wireless related posts here.

    More information
    Feature Friday: Checking In | A VC
    App Constellations | A VC

  • Facebook Yahoo! patents case

    I had delayed writing about this as I had a busy run-up to Easter and just about everyone of note in the Bay Area seems to have weighed in on the Facebook Yahoo legal case over patents. Fred Wilson (aka A VC) channeled the concern that the start-up community in general over wide-ranging patents being a tax on innovation.

    The new, new thing

    There is a certain amount of prejudice inbuilt against incumbents going on; Silicon Valley doesn’t make big money from existing large businesses but the new, new thing – for example:

    • IBM vs. Apple, VisiCalc, Oracle and countless Boston corridor enterprise technology brands before them
    • Beckman Instruments vs.the traitorous eight who went on to found just about every other semiconductor company from the late 1950s through to the early 1970s: Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Intersil, AMD, National Semiconductor, LSI Logic and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins
    • Microsoft vs. Apple, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, the open source community
    • Google vs. Facebook and just about anybody else looking to make money from online advertising

    Monomyth archetypes

    I don’t necessarily hold this against them, it is the classic tale of David and Goliath that resonates at a deep level in the human psyche. It probably helped us move beyond being slightly smarter than the average ape and turn our use of tools into a decisive advantage with humans becoming the apex predator throughout the world.

    What a lot of these arguments are failing to do is look at the underlying form in the Facebook Yahoo patent case:

    • Yes, the patent system is broken
    • Yes, Yahoo! has multiple business issues which would merit a series of posts in it’s own right
    • Yes, Yahoo! is unlikely to survive at least in its present form. Though for reasons that I have gone into previously  I don’t think that Microsoft is a suitable suitor (just look at what has happened to its continued inability to match Yahoo!’s previous returns on search with Microsoft AdCenter) and more controversially I didn’t think that it was serious about its takeover bid first time around
    • Yes, Yahoo! is likely to be outmaneuvered by Facebook and be on a hiding to nothing

    But for me, the story isn’t about Yahoo! or the inequitable nature of patent laws, but about Facebook and its business practices in relation to data.

    Facebook Yahoo case similar to 1990s Microsoft practices

    In the 1990s file formats: .doc, .xls, .ppt and others were used by Microsoft to leverage a competitive advantage. Competitor applications couldn’t open them; so your information was locked into using Microsoft Office software. This was one of the reasons why the web was so transformational; HTML opened up publishing of documents that had been previously locked into Microsoft Office – electronic versions of scientific papers, price lists etc.

    Data portability is the document format of web 2.0 (or social web). During my time at Yahoo! we introduced the requirement to sign into Flickr using a Yahoo! ID, Stewart Butterfield and the team at Flickr worked hard to ensure that existing Flickr customers who didn’t want to have a Yahoo! ID could move their pictures off the service.

    The idea was that the customer’s data was their property and allowing them to freely move was as American as apple pie, capitalism and the free market. Allowing customer’s data to be portable fitted in with the web being free as in speech ethic that had predominated up until then. Portable customer data kept you honest and encouraged you to innovate as losing a customer was only one export click away.

    In the case of Facebook; the data that really matters is your address book. Whilst Facebook eventually allowed consumers to download their profile information (after it had gained hegemony in the US social network sector), it holds on fast to your address book. Om Malk over at GigaOM wrote a really good post on how Facebook leeched off Yahoo! user’s address book to build its business, but didn’t allow Yahoo! users to transfer data back the other way.

    This had a detrimental effect Yahoo!’s already weakened business. It wasn’t only Yahoo!, Facebook did the same on Plaxo and has been in conflict with Google over the same issue. In the Yahoo! patent case; Yahoo! is in the position of shooter and patsy – but like the dreams of conspiracy theorists looking for a dark hand moving the pieces around the board – Facebook is responsible.

    So consumers and some companies got screwed on their address book; but what the great and good of the start-up community who criticised Yahoo! forget is where Yahoo!, Plaxo and Google have gone before their start-ups could be tomorrow. The problem is the over-reliance on Facebook Connect as a federated ID and as a marketing tool using consumer news feeds in their word-of-mouth marketing campaign strategies.

    Federated identities

    Federated IDs are not a new concept, Microsoft tried to have their Passport technology adopted in a similar way some ten years ago and it was stymied because of early adopter and technology sector mistrust.

    Like Facebook, the businesses adopting Facebook Connect usually rely on some sort of advertising-related business model, either for their revenue, or for garnering customers; yet with Facebook Connect – Facebook holds all the cards on targeting information that means:

    • Your advertising platform will always be worse than Facebook’s because they have a better customer view – as we’ve seen in search this is likely to turn into a zero-sum game
    • For more e-commerce-based businesses, Facebook data could be used by rivals to directly target your customers – because Facebook already has your customer list. By using Facebook Connect you already gave it to them and they could even infer a good estimate of customer engagement were by how often and how long they logged in

    It has the potential to be digital equivalent of the way Standard Oil used its dominant position as a buyer of railroad transportation to screw over rivals. By supporting Facebook in the Yahoo! patents case; I believe that leading players within the start-up community inadvertently darkened their own futures.

    What Microsoft was like back in the day

    It is hard to imagine now, but in the mid-1990s Silicon Valley was genuinely afraid of Microsoft:

    Another big factor was the fear of Microsoft. If anyone at Yahoo considered the idea that they should be a technology company, the next thought would have been that Microsoft would crush them.

    It’s hard for anyone much younger than me to understand the fear Microsoft still inspired in 1995. Imagine a company with several times the power Google has now, but way meaner. It was perfectly reasonable to be afraid of them. Yahoo watched them crush the first hot Internet company, Netscape. It was reasonable to worry that if they tried to be the next Netscape, they’d suffer the same fate. How were they to know that Netscape would turn out to be Microsoft’s last victim?

    That was Y Combinator’s Paul Graham on Microsoft back in the day and how fear of it partly sewed the seeds of failure at Yahoo! Great ideas couldn’t get funded if they where considered to fall anywhere near the purview of Microsoft – and Microsoft wanted everything, at that time the company mission statement was:

    A computer on every desk and in every home running Microsoft software

    Now the vision uses softer language that also takes into account technological change with Steve Ballmer describing it as:

    …enabling people and businesses to realize their full potential

    Microsoft still isn’t a cuddly business by any means. Let me show you: Some six years ago I spent a weekend in San Francisco on the dime of the agency I worked with at the time. The reason why I had a free weekend was that I was originally going out there to pitch an international brief for an enterprise technology company – and the weekend should have been very busy and productive in preparation fo the pitch early the following week.

    The US folks had checked the substantial non-compete list that we had been provided with by Redmond and senior clients had been checked in with and they were ok with it.

    Happy days, I was put on a Thursday flight from Heathrow to San Francisco with British Airways. I deplaned, got through immigration and got a taxi into town. I went to the hotel first; dropped by bags off and washed my face and then got a taxi to our San Francisco office down near the ball park.

    As I walked in the door, I could see of the office general manager getting off the phone. Apparently my trip was a waste of time; someone at head office had a call with someone at Microsoft who asked us to withdraw at the last minute as the company operated in a space that Microsoft would like to enter in the next five years.

    I ended up spending the Martin Luther King day weekend at the Hotel Monaco close to Union Square and spent much of the Saturday exploring the Asian Art Museum, the then Sony Metreon centre and shopping off Haight.

    The point I am trying to make is that fear is relative, Microsoft is a changed but still fiercely ambitious and competitive business.

    Facebook power

    Facebook is much more than Microsoft. If we look at address books as an example; Facebook bought and closed down Malaysian start-up Octazen to close the door on others using their technology to import contact lists in February 2010.

    Facebook is keenly competitive in the way that Microsoft has been, but it has learned from Microsoft’s mistakes; it has lawyered and lobbied-up much earlier in its development, so with Facebook there will be no humiliating Judge Jackson trial which gifted the start-up culture of Silicon Valley a second chance.

    I believe that in the medium-to-long-term Facebook will have a neutron bomb effect on the Bay Area start-up finance community and at the moment they only have themselves to blame.

    Although it may seem counter-intuitive to the start-up community at the moment, fueling Yahoo!’s patent duel with Facebook may make more sense in the long run.

    More information

    Yahoo! Crosses The Line – A VC
    Will Yahoo Torch its Search Deal With Microsoft, Outsource Search to Google? – Search Engine Watch (#SEW)
    Is the internet too perfect a market? – renaissance chambara
    A quick primer re @blakei @yahoo #delicious – renaissance chambara
    Yahoo-Facebook patent fight: more than meets the eye | GigaOM
    Google Renews Battle Over Facebook Contacts, Removes Phone Directory Sync On Nexus S – TechCrunch
    Why Scoble Got the Boot from Facebook: Plaxo’s New Feature – Mashable
    What happened to Yahoo – Paul Graham
    Steve Ballmer: Microsoft Venture Capitalist Summit 2008 – Microsoft News Center
    Facebook Acquires Contact Importing Startup Octazen – GigaOM

  • An unscientific assessment of Baidu

    Google has finally left the Chinese market for search, so I thought I would try the alternative, hence an unscientific assessment of Baidu. My trial is unscientific in nature and not particularly rigorous. I did what most consumers would have done and searched for myself.

    I was quite open-minded about this, on the one hand Google has been killing the search market in Europe, nothing can touch it in the EU and they have made moderately successful forays into other sectors as well. I also know that Google is not all conquering. In fact the wheels start to come off the Google search wagon when you venture into areas with non-Roman languages such as Russian, Korean, Japanese and Chinese.

    On the other hand, Robin Li over at Baidu is no slouch. Baidu is famous for is huge index and its continued appetite to crawl content whenever and wherever it can find it.

    Baidu like its Korean counterpart Naver has also managed a successful social search product running a question-and-answer service like a better version of Yahoo! Answers – largely free of spam and a more middle-class range of participants provide highly relevant quality content.

    It is also blatantly obvious that Baidu doesn’t care whether it attracts a potential English-speaking audience as the entire site apart from investor relations is in Chinese.

    Methodology

    Outcomes

    I was expecting some divergence between Google and Baidu search engine results pages for a number of reasons. Google crawls an estimated 15 per cent of the total web, and Baidu is likely to crawl a slightly larger amount. That means that their search indexes are likely to be slightly different. Secondly, both will have started with slightly different algorithms and these will change over time with a experience of what users want. Finally, the results are usually ‘flavoured’ according to local market preferences such as language and local content.

    I was a bit surprised at the level of divergence between Google and Baidu, which was great than I had seen between Google and Yahoo! in the past.

    First of all flavouring. A comparison between the Japanese and Chinese versions of Baidu show a high degree of variance between the two versions of the Baidu search engine.

    Baidu CN vs Baidu JP

    Part of the reason for the difference may be due to Chinese regulations around permitted services, for instance an educational video of me by Econsultancy on YouTube is the top result on the Japanese site and a couple of twitter related hits come in at six and seven. The Japanese site skews much more toward video services than the Chinese site which picked up profile services Plaxo and Naymz.

    Interestingly, the Chinese site picked up the re-direct URI for my blog (renaissancechambara.com), whereas neither the Japanese or the Chinese versions picked up my proper domain (renaissancechambara.jp) at all. Even when I clicked a few pages down.

    Plotting Baidu China against Google Hong Kong produced an interesting diversity of the results.

    Baidu CN vs Google HK

    Their one point of correlation, my profile on Naymz. Again part of this may be because of my presence on services that don’t do business in China for instance YouTube and Twitter. Google rightly puts more weight and a consequently higher ranking on my Crunchbase and LinkedIn profiles than Plaxo which appears a couple of pages down on Google.

    Baidu obviously puts much more emphasis on a historic redirect URI I have for my blog than the ‘real’ one and doesn’t seem to crawl the site in any great depth. I am guessing that this is because of its largely English language content.

    Baidu JP vs Google JP

    In Japan, the Baidu | Google comparison told a similar story. The Google flavouring between Hong Kong and Japanese versions wasn’t that great only showing differences at position five and lower on the page. Baidu Japan managed to pick up my last.fm profile and twitter profile, but didn’t pick up my blog or any professional information on the first page.

    In conclusion, my unscientific assessment of Baidu has shown provides a great search experience for consumers. But I am uncertain how valuable it would be for people in a professional context, for instance researching foreigners with whom they may be doing business or finding foreign presentations. I can understand why Chinese scientific audiences would be concerned by the departure of Google.

    I also suspect that optimising content to make it searchable on Baidu is different to the process that I would go through for Google or Yahoo!, but that would merit far more investigation before I could blog with any confidence about it. More Baidu related posts here.

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