CS2 Live

BY: Brian Sullivan

Does being uber connected help you communicate better?  Smartphones, ipads, netbooks, and laptops have made it easy to stay connected via talk, email, text, twitter, facebook, instant messenger, skype, etc.  All of this is supposed to help us communicate easier but it doesn’t help us communicate better.

Technology is not the answer to better communication.  Content is still king.  What you say and how you say it is still the key to better communication.  Don’t be distracted by all the additional channels you have to spread the word.  Focus on the word you are trying to spread.

Further, be aware that people walk around on information overload.  They have to make decisions about what is important and what is not, what they are going to pay attention to now and what they put away for later (or never).  A good message, delivered at the right time through the right channels is the way to get someone to pay attention.  While overload is a very thin line, some amount of frequency, even if it is gathered by adding up all the potential channels, is still necessary.

BY: Keith Essary

I recently read an article that spoke to the enormity of information being generated each day throughout the Internet.  In addition to the thousands of articles being generated from traditional web powerhouses such as ESPN and the New York Times, the article insinuates that user generated content has pushed the information on the internet to new levels.  In fact Google CEO Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying “Every two days, we create as much information as we did up to 2003.”

This statistic is certainly not hard to believe with all of the blog platforms, social streams, and video content uploaded every minute. It is also not surprising that many of the new apps we read about are geared towards organizing this information in order to keep the “signal-to-noise” ratio in balance for consumers (does it seem there is a new RSS reader or social portal app launched everyday?). And older technologies such as search engines are battling to keep up as is illustrated by Google integrating Twitter mentions into hot topic search results.

Like consumers, advertisers are facing a similar “signal-to-noise” problem. In other words, there are so many options and segments that advertisers have to be careful to recognize the noise – or at least prioritize it. For example, when a Facebook user declares in their profile that they like BMW, does this make them the right audience for a BMW (or Lexus) advertisement? Is that as powerful as a consumer who Googles “BMW for sale”? Today, it is not uncommon for a digital advertising campaign to include display, search, video, blogging, PR, mobile, email, and social components using numerous platforms. An obvious risk is spreading the budget too thin and not being effective on any channel. In turn, this is also one contributor to digital marketing being allocated a higher percentage of the overall budget.

There is hope for advertisers. Amidst all the clutter, new technologies are emerging and a fundamental shift is occurring. This technological shift could push advertising to the next level in terms of targeting. Consider that the line between the Internet and real life has diminished. A growing amount of collected data comes from real world actions such as social check-ins and purchases. Also consider that conversations that previously happened over closed channels like email are now happening over open platforms like Twitter and Facebook, where the information can be indexed and recorded by the platforms themselves. Therefore new options arise, such as Lexus marketing to people who have visited a BMW dealer recently or to people who have mentioned buying a BMW while conversing with their friends.

Will advertising based on real-world behavioral information (not to be confused with the internet term “behavioral advertising”) be more fruitful than advertising based on user-input data such as profiles and search phrases?

BY: Keith Essary

In a move no doubt indicative of more to come, Facebook has announced that it will no longer support Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 6 (IE6) for some social networking features. Google / Youtube killed support for the IE6 web browser earlier this year.

Web Browser compatibility is one of the most common conversations had during the development of a website. In web dev, one size certainly does not fit all. It is often a tedious process to develop for each and every web browser.  In fact, this goes much further than developing for every brand of browser into the different versions and platforms of each one.  For example, consider Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8, Firefox 2, 3, 3.5, and 3.6 for Mac and for Windows, Safari 2, 3, and 4 on Mac and on Windows, Chrome for Mac and Windows, etc. If the site requires a mobile version (most do) then you also have to program and test for Safari on the iPhone and iPad, Opera Mobile, the Blackberry browser and on and on.

This can be achieved in a couple of primary ways:

1. The most common method is to “dumb down” the code.  This means make the development simple enough that all browsers can render the code appropriately. You might call it the lowest common denominator method.
2. The more time consuming method (and consequently, the more costly method) is to detect which browser the visitor is using and serve them a website version appropriate for their respective browser (some versions can be used for multiple browsers).  This allows for more advanced features to be shown to those who have a supporting browser and a limited version for those who do not. This method must be used when you are developing a mobile version.

All self-respecting web development companies are monitoring web browser usage statistics. And the determination of which browsers to support should be development specific based on the scope, purpose, and budget of the development.

There are some browsers and browser versions that simply must be included in all developments for public use. However, older and obscure browsers should always be in question for cost savings or feature impacts to the project. Using IE6 as an example, providing support for a browser used by 4.7% of visitors can cause the development features to be limited for the other 95.3% or create costs comparable to performing a separate development project. That being said, 4.7% still represents a lot of visitors.

A decision not to support a particular browser is often a hard one as no one wants to exclude any potential visitor. However, sometimes this is just the nature of the technology beast. In all cases, decisions of which browsers to be supported should be decided at the onset of the development, redevelopment, or feature addition.

BY: Keith Essary

Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality….

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BY: Keith Essary

Those of us who try to keep up with new online technologies are all too aware of the frustrations of trying to weed through the hype to determine the potential and legitimacy of each new offering.  With so much coming at us, it is easy to miss the forest for the trees. Keeping the forest in focus may be the best way to determine which trees are going to grow the tallest.

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BY: Brian Sullivan

“It’s easy to be lulled into thinking that face-to-face communication skills are no longer important. If you’re anything like today’s typical manager, you communicate mainly through email and voicemail — and have complicated business relationships with people you’ve never laid eyes on.But what happens when you need to conduct a delicate performance review, hammer out a tough negotiation, or persuade your skeptical boss to approve funding for a project? No amount of technology can replicate the subtle nuances that are present when people are actually face-to-face.”
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BY: Keith Essary

I’m on the back porch burning down a Rothschild when I receive an email from an associate with an AOL email address.  I think this guy, and maybe one other, are my only contacts still using the AOL service for email. Heck even my friends who met on AOL and are now married have long since abandoned the service.  I guess the Internet has surely changed over the years – or has it?

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