Mobile is going to crush Facebook – NOT

Mark Cuban’s recent article on Facebook IPO Post Mortem and his point that Mobile will crush Facebook. He has several valid points but in my view misses that mobile is a challenge for more than just Facebook.

Facebook is valuable because it makes possible targeted advertising to consumers to a greater extent that has been possible with Google.

Google has been mining data for years and not only what we search. They mine what we share with others over email (gmail users), and then correlate that information with trends based on our geographic location. Does Google know my age? Probably since I have used other services were I have given up this information and if not it could fairly easily put me in a range. Does Google know if I’m single or married or have kids? They can probably guess by scrapping content from my emails. Does Google know what I buy? If I have used Google to pay for it or again scrapping any invoice/receipt that arrives in my inbox. Does Google know what I like to watch? Sure, they own YouTube.

I agree that Facebook has a problem with mobile but the value proposition that it presents to brands is greater than what Google has to offer and furthermore mobile is not a problem for just Facebook, but for all the players whose revenue model rely on income from advertisements.

Advertising has always relied on passive users, thus the strategy was to capture the largest amount of eyeballs using delivery channels such as TV, radio or print media. Google and Facebook make it possible to provide relevant advertisement in a way not possible before.

Mobile will change how brands interact with consumers; from the consumer perspective it offers just in time access to on-demand content, were people reach out to information when they want from where they want. This presents a challenge for the traditional marketing strategy that has perfected the “couch potato” pitch. Today people using mobile devices will not be passively sitting in front of the regular channel, so if a brand expects to get in front of consumers it will have to find a different way.

So what’s different about the mobile platform. Smaller screens, less bandwidth or bandwidth caps. The tablet will remove these limitations but its a totally different device whose use and demographic are also totally different.

Trying to force mobile to become an additional marketing channel in the same way TV or Web is used is a mistake, because the way people interact with mobile is different from the way people interact with TV, radio, print and the personal computer. Realizing this, the handicap of a smaller screen and bandwidth limitations, utilizing the advantages of relevant/targeted advertising and features that mobile brings with it such as location will necessarily spawn new ways for brands to connect with consumers.
Data Mining: How Companies Now Know Everything About You

Google Maps For Blackberry Adds Street View

As I was driving home from the Blackberry Bold Experience Event last night, I received an upgrade prompt from my Blackberry 8820 for Google Maps. On the way home I upgraded to version 2.3.2 which to my pleasant surprise provided “Street View” giving you the capability of viewing imagery while driving or walking.

Google Maps for mobile makes it easy to see Street View imagery when you’re on the go. View imagery at each turn in driving or walking directions, and study a storefront’s facade so that you don’t pass it up while you’re moving by.

Street View is currently available for BlackBerry and some Java-enabled phones.

Using the trackball you can rotate the view 360 degrees and also expand the “street view” to fit the whole screen.

Watch the video below to see a demo.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IXC5A1ZoV4

If you already have it, then upgrade. If you don’t then you can pick it up by pointing your BlackBerry browser to: www.google.com/gmm

You can click here to fill out a survey and let Google know what you think of Google Maps for BlackBerry.

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Voicemail Tribulations

A couple of years ago I started looking for a way to get voicemails from my mobile to go into my mailbox. Having the capability to store my voicemails and the limitations on 14 days from my provider was really not acceptable.

I found a service called GotVoice, which basically calls your voicemail number and uses your PIN which you enter when opening your account to log in to the provider voicemail system and retrieve the voicemail. You would then get an e-mail with a link to get to your voicemail.

I stopped using it after several months. Having to visit their site to get my voicemail was not attractive and having GotVoice retrieve my voicemail without the opportunity to listen to it on my phone was also a problem.

While surfing the net recently I came across MessageSling, which basically does the same thing but uses a different approach by using the Conditional Call Forwarding feature cell phones have to redirect voicemail to their service.

By dialing a number code you receive after signing up, the registration of all conditional call forwarding returns success, basically changing the If Busy, the If No Reply and the If Not Reachable conditions.

Its interface resembles Gmail giving the ability to tag voicemails with labels.

On September 1st, MessageSling annouced several new features including “Direct to Message”, allowing you to access each particular message by just dialing a number (no pin or call tree to navigate), as well as Group and Greeting Management allowing to have different greetings for different groups of callers.

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