A Catch-22, For Facebook

As Facebook gears up to go public soon, it finds itself sandwiched between two contradictory pulls: a desire to turn its vast and varied pool of consumer data into profit, and a compulsion to heed calls by regulators to employ data-protection techniques. 

In effect, Facebook’s greatest achievement is also the source of its greatest challenge.  

“Facebook already has more data than they are leveraging,” said Rebecca Lieb, an analyst who studies online advertising for the Altimeter Group, a research firm. “There are so many infinite ways to slice and dice the data Facebook currently has that it’s rather daunting.”

A social network Goliath, it has 845 million users, of whom 425 million use mobile devices.

The 140B (and counting) digital photos uploaded on #Facebook will be stored in a hardware bin in a desolate location. bit.ly/zgdkpq

— Ally Mookerjee (@AlbumOfThoughts) February 28, 2012

But, slicing and dicing the data for the purposes of serving up advertisements is a tricky affair. 

(Via The New York Times)

Hogs, Going Viral In 1884

Produced by the Decatur, Illinois-based company, H.W. Hill & Co., in 1884, this map is a fine example of “gehography” (pig-inspired cartography) and 19th century viral marketing.

On the map, we see one pig per state or territory, each with one of H.W. Hill’s trademarked triangles through its nose. 

[But] its main attraction was not H.W. Hill’s markers, weaners and rings. It was mailed out—for five one-cent stamps—as a tableau entitled: “Nicknames of the States.”

II noticed that the Dakotas didn't get a nickname, which feels like a faint insult, I suppose.

(Via Big Think)

Is Texting Waning? Or Waxing?

From a technological perspective, the riots that rocked London, in August last year, were significantly different from the unrest that toppled the Arab dictators, Hosni Mubarak, Zine El Abidine, and Muammar Gaddafi in the spring of the same year.

For the first time, the rioters used the BlackBerry Messenger to rouse a crowd. Not Twitter. Not Facebook. Unlike Twitter, the service encrypts almost all messages when they leave the sender’s phone—and are therefore, untraceable—and unlike texting, it is free. 

The findings of a research firm, OVUM, recently reported in the BBC, found that social-messaging apps, or IP-based messaging services, had eaten into the profits of SMS (short, for Short Messaging Service). The cell phone companies had incurred staggering losses of $13.9 billion in 2011.

One reason, the study revealed, social-messaging apps such as Facebook chat, Whatsapp, and BlackBerry Messenger, have been gaining steady ascendancy, is that they are free. Texting, on the other hand, is a paid service. 

That does not tell us the entire story, I think. And, I see this as a case of a tendency to inflate a trend. 

A smart phone, essentially, an Internet-enabled cell phone, is an infinitely more high-maintenance device than one without one that only enables talking and texts. One pays more when one communicates via apps. 

I would also point out that social messaging is certainly not taking over the world. 

In fact, in the world’s largest democracy, the largest social network is not Facebook—surprise—but SMS GupShup, a group messaging service, which, per a recent TechCrunch, report, boasted an impressive 45 million users, and handled two billion messages, a month. 

The soaring popularity of texting in India has been capitalized on by Just Dial, simplistically defined, as a text-based Yellow Page service. 

The Economist relayed: 

Set up in 1996 as a sort of phone-based yellow pages, it initially offered a fixed-line voice-based service dispensing information about the nearest coffee shop, electrician, tarot-card reader, hospital, or whatever else the caller happened to be looking for. Many users preferred it to the clunky, state-published phone directories. 

Customers would dial in and make their inquiries. A human operator would provide the information, and they would jot it down on a piece of paper. Today, customers ask the responses to be texted to them, which are done under 60 seconds of the call. 

This is how they make money. 

The operator also offers to connect the caller directly, at no extra charge, to one of the company's "preferred vendors", a ruse reminiscent of Google's sponsored links. 

The company launched into the U.S. market, in May of last year. 

Perhaps, it would be realistic to say that if texting is waning in one part of the world, in other parts, it is waxing. 

Thinking Infographically

We are moving deeper into an era in journalism that will demand, what Francesco Franchi, the art director of Intelligence In Lifestyle (a style supplemnt of one of Italy's top financial dailies, Il Sole) calls "infographic thinking," which will require the ability to weave narratives into intelligent visuals.

Well-made infographics, are no doubt, pretty, but they go beyond prettiness, he says. They are informative and encourage a different sort of reading experience, which encourages critical thinking.

A dazzling infographic from the magazine.

The masthead is in the form of an infographic.

(Via Co.Design)

Home Transformers

Why buy multiple pieces of furniture, when you could have one piece of furniture that could transform itself into whatever you need at the moment—a chair, a sofa, a table? For that matter, why settle for static, inanimate furniture at all? This is the idea behind "Roombots," miniature modular robots that are something like Legos—except they're also autonomous, and can walk around.

This is a marvellous convenience for anyone wanting to live light. Moreover, the best part is that it would cut moving costs, by eliminating the need to rent a U-Haul. 

But, on reality check, I wonder, how feasible it would be. Living with one of these would require one to synchronize one's daily activities with robotic precision. What if one nodded off on a chair, reading a book, and needed a bed to lie down on instantly? I guess that person would have to wait till the modules reconfigured themselves into one. 

To circumvent that problem, however, one could procure several sets of these, just like one buys several pieces of furniture. Of course, that would defeat its very purpose.

(Via Co.Design)

Eustace Tilley, Here

Around mid-February, every year, The New Yorker, releases its anniversary issue, which is a replica (or a mild variant) of the magazine's inaugural issue. It features an illustration of a dandy named Eustace Tilley, peering at a butterfly through a monocle. 

I note with interest the change in the figure on the upper right corner of the cover. The price of the magazine, since it debuted on February 21, 1925, has soared by 400 times, up from 15 cents to $5.99 presently. 

A Playful Billboard

An interactive billboard campaign that McDonald's recently ran in Sweden, let users interact with the billboard using their smart phones, and convert it into a personal screen to play ping pong. Completing the game in 30 seconds won them coupons for free food, redeemable at the nearest McDonald's restaurant.

What is especially interesting about this technology is that you don’t actually have to download an app, which normally causes quite a big barrier to entry. Instead the phone picks up your location and you can join the game via a website address.

Billboards are getting smart. They can now, analyze the face of the viewer, assess its gender and age, and then, based on its evaluation of the interests, readjust the ad’s display and content.

(Via The Next Web)

Today's Dime Novels

Ever since Amazon launched its Kindle e-reader, in November 2007, the device has exploded, driven by the wide appeal of $9.99 digital best-sellers that were available on the same day as the hardcover edition.

But now, big-name publishers are facing stiff competition from the previously scorned self-published market.

Louisville businessman John Locke, for example, [is] a part-time thriller writer whose titles, all priced at 99 cents.

Mr. Locke earns 35 cents for every title he sells at 99 cents. Altogether, he says his publishing revenue amounted to $126,000 from Amazon in March alone. It costs him about $1,000 to have his book published digitally, complete with an original dust jacket image. He also hires an editor to work with him at additional expense.

Such books are the equivalents of the 19th century “dime novels.”

I certainly won’t read Mr. Locke, but clearly, there are those who see value in his books. And that “value,” more than anything else, must stem from the feather light price tag his series carries. Or, maybe they genuinely relish tawdry fiction.

(Via The Wall Street Journal)