Monday, September 11, 2006

:: How to market effectively in an Interactive Space

Marketers insist on using the internet as a broadcast medium. They use marketing messages and marketing jargon for website navigation, splashy intro. movies, and expect that users will follow conversion paths to purchase the products/services that are being sold.

What marketers need to realize, is that the interactive space is largely a "pull" medium. That is, users are free to make choices in order to retrieve information that they are looking for. Unlike television, where advertisers can broadcast their "pitch" (although Tivo is changing this dynamic), marketers will do better if they endeavor to understand users needs, and not hinder their pathways to the information that they are seeking.

Jonathan Lupo - VP / Information Architecture - Empathy Lab

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

:: Social networking in the information age

When we think about relationships, generally we think about "human relationships" such as:

> Professional associations
> Romantic relationships
> Familial relationships

Technologists, database developers, and web designers have shown us that there are many other relationships to be drawn based on data relationships, meta information, and other interesting anecdotal information.

Here are some examples of "data driven" relationships:

1. The tactic of "rating" products, services, and items, has extended to the rating of people (on dating sites, etc.). Individuals may now be grouped together through a shared, subjective, community rating.

2. Sites like MySpace solicit pieces of information from members such as: interests, favorite movies, favorite music, etc. When a visitor to a MySpace profile clicks on one of these "favorite items" of an individual, he/she is presented an index of all MySpace members who have also presented the selected item as a favorite on their respective profiles.

3. Broadband video networks such as YouTube enable members to create their own channels and playlists that are publicly accessible. Additionally, users may "tag" content with subjectively-based keywords. These community driven means of "flagging" information serve to organize information in new ways, and become methods in which to encounter relationships amongst individuals.

Monday, September 04, 2006

:: Save Your TV

With the popularity of You Tube, Heavy, and Google Video, it seems that "Broadband" content providers are defining the term "Broadband" extremely narrowly, by focusing on linear video. While its nice to be able to watch video on a new box, I feel that the internet is beginning to become a redundant utility in my house.

I already have a tv set.

What broadband content providers must focus on is to intelligently integrate video into interactive content. Vehix TV, and CNET TV are using video for things like virtual test drives and tutorials. Advanced video interactivity of interest include the ability to create playlists, tag content, and rate content.

We used to "surf the web." It would seem as if we are now out of the ocean, lounging on the beach with a cocktail, and watching the surfers in their bikinis.