Mobile Marketing

Russell Buckley writes as part of his 2007 predictions:

The fact is that advertising on the mobile web is simply the best way to promote a mobile web site. All you’re asking your customer to do is click on a link. They don’t have to type in a url, or even have the right settings on their phone in the first place. So, no wastage, high efficiency and great ROI.

That’s not the only reason though. As operators are realising that the era of pillaging is coming to an end, at least as far as data tariffs are concerned (plenty of pillaging to still be had in roaming though - for a while), they’re looking for new sources of revenue and naturally enough, will be looking at advertising to help. This will start off with each operator trying to do it on their own. But sooner or later (I’ll give it two to three years), they’ll come to the conclusion that it makes more sense to outsource this to experts and so that brands and agencies can have one buying point, rather than 4 or 5, or however many operators each market has.

Disruptive Technologies for 2007

The Software Abstractions Blog writes:

I: RSS feeds aggregation and filtering
II. De-portalization (Widgets everywhere!)
III. The Semantic Web
IV. Wikinomics (or The Wisdom of Crowds)

OPML

Jim Moore writes about the Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) and its power.

Prediction Markets

Dan Farber writes:

[James] Surowiecki started off by outlining the challenges of bringing collective intelligence/wisdom of crowd into corporate environments. He is clearly an advocate for prediction markets, extracting wisdom from crowd behavior.

“The success of prediction markets will show that real knowledge is within the organization as a whole and employees have a lot to say about what the future looks like,” Surowiecki said.

Prediction markets are not like public opinion polls, in which people vote for who they want to win. The mechanisms for prediction markets are more like the stock market, with knowledgeable people betting on the most likely outcome of an event.

New Media Trends

Robin Good looks ahead to 2007 and writes:

Video: As if 2006 hadn't seen enough of it, the online video publishing and sharing space will see further innovation and growth. Better and easier tools will facilitate small and large publishers abilities to post, edit and aggregate quality content online. In this scenario the greatest opportunity it still represented by those companies that will be providing the tool and means to facilitate the filtering, selection and distribution of quality video content out of the ocean of low-quality stuff being dumped out there. Video search engine and directories are in particularly favorable position to provide breakthrough tools and facilities to let quality content finally surface. One of my most wanted tools, the online video interview recorder, will also likely become a reality next year for the benefit of many online reporters and video producers.
...
Mobile Group Text Messaging: Smart mobs are coming. Though the US has been lagging behind due to a number of industry idiosyncrasies and standard issues, the lure of many commercial opportunities along with the examples brought by the first early entrants, has pushed many to look more seriously into the monetization opportunities to be tapped. Mobile group messaging is hot and though the market isn't yet ready for the many useful applications it will soon allow, you can be sure that in 2007 too we will see a lot of innovation and new announcements in this space.

TECH TALK: 2007 Tech Trends: 3. The Rise of Widgets

Widgets, in the context of the Internet computing world, was not a word that was in the common lexicon until sometime last year. The growth in the use of widgets has been rapid. It is now possible to build compelling start pages using widgets (Netvibes and Pageflakes are two examples). In the context of mobiles, Nokia has launched Widsets.

Newsweek wrote:

If you sit in front of a computer at work, chances are there are certain Web sites that you monitor throughout the day, every day—to check e-mail, weather, stock portfolios or sports stats. But, thanks to widgets, taking multiple steps to track down headlines in one place and then check your e-mail in another may seem woefully outdated this time next year. These mini-applications—also called “gadgets”—are simple bits of code, easily dragged onto a desktop or pasted into a personal page, where they are constantly updated with whatever information you want. “It’s the exact opposite of what the Web used to be,” explains Om Malik, a tech journalist and founding editor of gigaom.com. Last month Malik and Niall Kennedy, another tech blogger, organized and hosted Widgets Live—an entire sold-out conference devoted to the topic (in, where else?, San Francisco). “Widgets,” he says, “bring the Web to you.” Think of it as tech jewelry—bling for your blog; ice for your desktop.

If 2006 was all about social networks, user-generated content and YouTube, then it’s a fair bet that 2007 will be about further personalizing life online.
…
“It’s better than advertising,” says Om Malik. “It’s in front of your eyes constantly; that brand becomes your brand.” Your widgets certainly don’t need to come branded, however. Indeed, that’s the whole point: to help the World Wide Web become your Web.

RSS is one of the underlying technologies for widgets. In fact, widgets are helping make RSS mainstream – in an invisible sort-of way. As Pete Cashmore puts it:

RSS Won’t Go Mainstream (But Widgets Will Explode): The tech community has been saying for years now that RSS feeds are set to go mainstream in a big way. The argument is something like: RSS is becoming standard in the browser and the OS, so users will adopt it. They won’t. Some mainstream users still haven’t learned the difference between the search box and the address bar - this little orange button will be underutilized.

In some respects, however, feeds will go mainstream. They’ll just be hidden behind the scenes. Mainstream adoption of RSS readers won’t be a huge trend, but the delivery of constantly updated content, particularly via embeddable widgets, will become massive.

Snipperoo adds about what to expect in 2007: “As 2007 will be the Year of Widgets, it's likely we'll see an explosion of widget specific startups as opposed to startups that have a widget strategy (as, of course, they all will)… Some smart kid will write a blog and/or social network platform that consists entirely of widgets. You create an interface by choosing which parts to put where. Suddenly you are in total control of your platform.”

Tomorrow: Verticalisation

Related Entries:  [All]
TECH TALK: 2007 Tech Trends: 2. Mobile Everything [January 16, 2007]
TECH TALK: 2007 Tech Trends: 1. Google as Environment [January 15, 2007]
TECH TALK: 2007 Tech Trends: Musings [January 12, 2007]
TECH TALK: 2007 Tech Trends: 2006 Review (Part 4) [January 11, 2007]
TECH TALK: 2007 Tech Trends: 2006 Review (Part 3) [January 10, 2007]