That's right. We knew it was coming eventually, and now, Google has released its offline email support for testing.
What does this mean?
Well, you can now use Gmail without an internet connection and it's all backed up by Google Gears, which is a program that you'll need to download in order to use the offline feature.
How does this work?
Basically, when you lose your internet connection, Gmail will automatically switch to offline mode and allow you to read, star and label your emails (plus pretty much anything else you can normally do when online), whilst using your mobile phone's harddrive to store the information. Once your internet connection has been re-established, any message you chose to send while offline will be sent to the recipient.
What's the opportunity for Telcos?
This clearly shows that more people are reading their emails on mobile devices and therefore arises the need for any email communications from Telcos to be formatted to display legitimately on a mobile phone browser or message reader.
As people stay connected to their mobile phones for longer, there is a higher propensity for advertisers to target customers at more effective times.
Issue 9 of SoHotRightNow! is a repost from RealSEO's reporter, Christopher Rick.
Written January 20, 2009 – 4:47 AM | by Christophor RickcloseAuthor: Christophor RickName: Christophor Rick Email: christophor.rick@gmail.com Site:http://www.reelseo.com/about/christophor/ About: Christophor Rick is a freelance writer specializing in technology, new media and consumer electronics. His work appears on numerous sites across the web. Past work has included press releases, copywriting, proofreading, travel writing and journalism. He is also Editor-in-Chief at Gamers Daily News.See Authors Posts (25) |
Banner ads are now no longer just uni-directional, it would seem. A campaign being run by Pepsi called “Dear Mr. President” is allowing people to record a video message straight from an embedded banner on a standard website. Empowering consumers to not only interact with the banner but actually create content and push it back to the advertiser, it’s perhaps one of the more innovative uses of online video advertising today.
Who’s behind it…
The banner is part of a larger “Refresh Everything” campaign by Pepsi, and the companies behind the campaign are R/GA and Eyeblaster. According to Eyeblaster’s PR Agency Mortar, ad promos are running on sites including Yahoo!, YouTube, and the Google Content network.
How it works…
The video submissions are currently being compiled, and ending up on Pepsi’s YouTube channel. According to Pepsi, “The best and most popular videos” are to be featured on their own Refresh Everything website (which currently features a bunch of celebrity promos).
Consumers pushing content back to the advertiser
What does this mean for online video? Well, it means that banner advertising has done what cable did when it went digital, it became a two-way communication avenue. Not only can content be pushed to viewers as it has been doing for years, but now it also allows the consumer, the viewers, to push content back. It allows for dynamic interaction and compilation of user-created content. It gives the people, the consumers, the viewers a voice. More than a voice, it gives them a potentially fully interactive medium with which to reach out to the advertisers. Imagine that, consumers reaching through the internet toward you, telling you what they want to see, hear, buy. Telling you what they like and don’t like and telling you who they are, where they are and what they’re thinking.
Ultimately, this is a potential way for Telcos to better understand their consumers, to better target their advertising and to better spend that all-important marketing budget. With Australia's National Broadband Network coming into action in the coming years, there will be a greater capability to create online campaigns like “Dear Mr. President”.
ReelSEO’s Grant Crowell contributed to this report.
Issue 8 of SoHotRightNow! is about Augmented Reality Devices and how they will change how we view the world.
What’s this all about?
Augmented Reality (AR) is defined as “a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time”. Basically, AR will allow us to view the world with a virtual overlay and provide us with a world of information as we see it.
Still don’t get it?
Well imagine you’re walking through the streets of Sydney, Australia. By using your AR enabled mobile phone camera, you will be able to see annotated landscapes, mountain names (not that there is any in Sydney), landmark descriptions and interesting stories from information pulled from sites like Wikipedia and Google Maps: even names and status updates from Facebook will be visible right next to the faces within your view!
One company at the heart of this technology is Austrian-based business Mobilzy, who specialise in software for smartphones, such as the iPhone and Google Android. Their flagship product is the Wikitude AR Travel Guide, which allows users to experience Augmented Reality as described above. Check out the video below to see what it can do.
Search points of interest
Search results may be viewed on a map
Search results may be viewed on the phone's camera screen
I know this all sounds pretty crazy and maybe a little unbelievable, but this technology does exist and it’s available. To go one step further, a company called Vuzix have invented the Wrap 920AV sunglasses that have both Virtual Reality and AR functionalities. Its compatible with most smartphones, DVD players, PCs, digital cameras and more evidently, game consoles.
As Paul Travers (CEO of Vuzix) states, “The Wrap 920AV will not just change the portable video industry, but how consumers view and interact with information. From watching a Civil War video reproduction battle re-enactment on the actual battleground to walking through the streets of New York City with an animated virtual tour guide, the possibilities are endless.”
What’s the opportunity for Telcos?
This will provide an avenue for Telcos to create Telco specific content for their customers on their AR phone (eg. Pre-Paid recharge locations). Telco’s would need to update content online at sites like Wikipedia or Google Maps for AR to display through a user’s screen.
This could form into a new advertising medium – not just for Telcos. For example, Coca-Cola may be able to purchase advertising rights to advertise on the roof of the Sydney Opera House, which could only be visible in Augmented Reality.
This gives birth to a whole new creative medium for marketing campaigns. For example, a Telco could run an orientation-type treasure-hunt competition for their customers.
AR technologies could lead to users creating their own Augmented Reality, similar to SecondLife, where users could replace real objects like the Sydney Opera House with things like castles. This could then offer Telco’s an opportunity to create their own objects or spaces that customers can use for their own Augmented Reality.
Online advertising is still trending upwards. Though analysts are rushing to downgrade earlier forecasts, the updated estimates still show online advertising in a growth mode. Personally, I'm seeing interest that never existed before in online advertising from clients and prospects. While these advertisers may be bailing on other mediums, they're transferring dollars online -- which is perfectly fine by me!
Twitter and social media.When people in my parent's generation have gotten excited about Facebook and Twitter, you know that social media has hit the mainstream. Though social media advertising has been slower to catch on, just the mere fact that social media now attracts so many eyeballs means that marketing innovations in the space will continue. Next year, Twitter promises to reveal its monetization plans, which it apparently believes to be big enough to have led to its turning down an acquisition offer by Facebook. For selfish reasons, I'd like to see some kind of killer advertising solution, but with Twitter addicts abounding, I can't help but wonder if Twitter will go the route of usage plans a la cell phone text messaging.
Internal Integration. With our powers combined, individually we will become stronger and much more tech savvy online guru’s. Working together in expanding our skill sets and delving in head first into the wide world of online advertising. God speed.
Online video consumption. Growing as an alternative to TiVo, consumers can turn to their PCs to watch their favorite television broadcasts along with unique content. This gives advertisers new opportunities to reach their audience and in a more captured way than on television. With users these days not only watching TV, but consuming both, online content through their laptops and watching television at the same time.
Mobile. Every year the pundits predict it will be the "year for mobile." I don't know if 2009 will be "it" either, although in saying that we will defiantly be working together in building our name in this space, coming up with new and innovative ways to integrate mobile into our campaigns wherever possible! Also there are certainly newer, more interactive phones like the iPhone, Blackberry Storm, and the promise of Google's Android have kept consumers spending and application developers busy developing. Ads already appear on these devices and, unlike SMS ads, don't cost the user anything additional. Get ready for more to come. Watch this space.
Search.With tighter dollars, advertisers want better ROI and search marketing is still the clear winner in this category. Experienced, proven search engine marketers who not only provide service but also the much needed strategic thinking and analysis behind it, will succeed. With Columbus on board we need to always involve them in creating our search platforms and make sure they are across all marketing campaigns in 2009.
Lower prices.Since publishers aren't seeing ad revenue like they thought they would, they've lowered CPMs. So MPG when buying online media will be in a better negotiating position, therefore better spots for us to work with. New online ideas are also always more than welcome, if you see an online space and you think it will work for your campaigns, forward it on, there is no harm in asking…
Niche advertising. The Web provides the perfect storm for niche advertising: reach users with very specific subject matter when they're highly engaged with that subject matter -- and do so in a way that fairly easy and highly flexible to produce. Time and again, niche Web site advertising has proven it can out-perform general online advertising. The trickiest thing for the media planner is to find that these sites even exist.
Collaboration. When times get tough, people pull together to get through it. In industry speak, this is known as collaboration, something I'm a huge proponent of. Whether that's working more closely with clients to generate ideas, or bringing together synergistic strategic partners to create a more complete solution, I know we will all be seeing more collaboration in 2009.
The Obama factor. We're about to inaugurate the most technologically-savvy president of all time, and hopefully what his team learned as it leveraged the Internet to his gain will carry forward into Barack Obama's policies. The potency of the Internet has been solidified, despite whatever's going on in the economy.
I'll close with this thought: The only thing that's predictable is unpredictability. Five months ago did we ever think our gas prices would be as low as they are now? The longer we all want to dwell on the negative instead of helping to create the positive, the longer that will be our fate. Chin up, people! It's time to rock and roll! Online is our way forward…
A special thanks to Shani Tomkins for donating Issue 7 of SoHotRightNow!
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