E-Marketing Associates

With the popularity of photo-sharing mobile tool Instagram, it was only natural that a similar tool for video would follow. The latest video editing sharing application is Viddy, which has just recently surpassed 26 million users in May 2012.

 Viddy operates quite similarly to Instagram, except for video. Viddy allows users to touch up and share videos of daily life in seconds. You can capture up to 15 seconds of footage; then add filters, transitions, or music to make it cinematic. These effects are called “production packages,” and you can choose how much your clip is treated by using a slide bar. After simple editing, you can add a title, location and tags.  Then you can push it out to your preferred social networks right from your phone.

The application’s instantaneous nature makes it seem appealing on first glance. Anyone who has done any sort of video production knows that the process can be quite daunting as it takes a lot of time and expertise to create a quality video. Viddy whittles everything into three easy steps: capture, edit and share.  Yes, it is that easy to make your own polished home video.

In addition to its production capabilities, Viddy has a growingYouTube-like network within itself: you can comment and like videos, and even see which videos and trending and popular. The current success of Viddy is nothing to scoff at: it hit 500,000 downloads only 6 weeks after its initial launch in April 2011 and now boasts over 26 million users.

Despite these facts, I think it is doubtful that Viddy will take much traffic from video giants like YouTube, television or movies. Since Viddy’s clips are limited to 15 seconds, the two serve completely different audiences with different expectations. Viddy is likely to be used by those who like quick, videos; snapshots of daily life. YouTube is a better platform for entertainment, as it can be difficult to create captivating content in such a short timeframe. And of course, television and movies are the more elaborate productions in which we can project our fantasies. But I think Viddy  has great potential for beautifying and sharing behind-the-scenes footage that shows the truth how the magic of entertainment really happens.

If you’re curious to see some Viddy clips, click here or try that app out yourself! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

You’ve probably had the experience of searching for something on Google and having to sift through dozens of irrelevant results because of an ambiguous keyword such as “Cardinals,” which can refer to a species of birds or a sports team. This week, Google is rolling out the search engine of the future:  the semantic web or as they call it, “Knowledge Graph.” This tool will eliminate the aforementioned situation by working with you to find the information you need with fewer clicks.

This means that when you query a term with multiple associations like “Alcatraz,” a window will appear on the right side of your results showing you the options of Alcatraz the island off the coast of San Francisco, or the now recently canceled TV show. Clicking either option will show you results only for that entity.

The Knowledge Graph will include summaries for some search terms on top of the page. For example, when you search for “Vincent Van Gough” a brief bio will appear on the results page, with photos, notable paintings and related search terms; other artists such as Picasso or Leonardo da Vinci.  These “related searches” are generated from what other people clicked when searching for your query. In this respect, the graph is more closely related to a web that will help you research topics in depth.

Information will come from a variety of knowledge databases such as Freebase, Wikipedia, Google Maps, Google Local and Google Shopping. Community sources like Wikipedia are well known to provide false information, so the Knowledge Graph will include an error reporting system.

Google had previously focused on social search, in part due to the popularity of social networks like Facebook, and its competitor Bing followed suit with its newest redesign, now currently available upon request.  With these new implementations, Google seems to be moving back to a search engine based on finding and discovering information rather than sharing it. The Knowledge Graph has the potential to process and answer specific questions directly, much like a human would, or iPhone’s Siri.

I am particularly interested to see how the Knowledge Graph will affect and interact with Google+, SEO and finally, Project Glass. What do you think? Is everything is just a stepping stone to an Android competitor to Apple’s Siri? Feel free to share your thoughts and predictions on Google’s Knowledge Graph in the comments below.

Google’s Search plus Your World is finally getting some competition. Yesterday, Bing announced plans for its own redesign; one aimed to match or even surpass Google’s recent update. Not surprisingly, Bing is focusing on social search with a slogan of “Spend Less Time Searching, More Time Doing.”

The redesign adds a right-hand column that includes “people” results from social networks Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Quora and LinkedIn. While you’re searching, you can even ask questions on your favorite social network without even leaving Bing. You can also add links from your Bing searches to these posts in order to further answer your questions.

For example, if you search for “drake hotel chicago” in the new Bing, pictures your friends posted on Facebook of their exploits in Chicago will show up in the results. Any hotel that your friends have “liked” on Faceook will be marked with the signature “thumbs-up.” Of course, this feature requires you to be logged into Facebook via the Bing app.

This new column is called “What Your Friends Know,” appropriately named to accompany the first column “What the Web Knows” and the second column “What Bing Knows.” The latter won’t fill up for every search, but will be most helpful when searching for restaurants, hotels, movies, events, and people. You’ll be able to make hotel and restaurant reservations from this second column, and search for the right person across multiple social networks.

Compared to Search plus Your World, Bing’s new search results could be seen as more cluttered as there are potentially three (or four with ads) different columns in each page of surfing. But there is also potential for better organization with three columns clearly dividing each section, instead of including social results within the search like Google does. Also, with clear integration with social network giants Facebook and Twitter, Bing may very well have a leg up, at least in relevant people results.

Bing needs an advantage. According to comScore, Google accounted for 66.4 percent of searches in the U.S this March. Mashable noted that Bing and Google appear to offer different search philosophies: one a blend of data and one with clear distinction from social results. Which do you prefer? Feel free to share your opinions below!

Let’s talk about Klout. If you spend a lot of time reading social media blogs online, you’ve probably at least heard of the startup, which measures social media influence.  There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the startup, due to the fact that it assigns a score to measure your online presence.

What is more controversial is how powerful that number is proving to be. According to Wired.com, clerks at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas looked up guests’ Klout scores before they checked-in. High-scorers received instant room upgrades, which led to quite the buzz around the hotel. Also, a low Klout score supposedly prevented a man with 15 years of marketing experience from obtaining a vice president position at a Toronto marketing firm. Now, some are worried about their own (low) Klout scores.

Personally, I think that’s ridiculous. Although I am a self-admitted social media junkie, I must admit I was late to join Klout—I did so last fall when I heard my co-workers talking about it. It’s fun to check people’s scores, maybe joke about some of their topics, but it’s silly to make a decision to hire someone based on something so arbitrary.

Klout scores purport to measure influence, but when big tech moguls like Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg have pretty much the same score as little old me (52 vs. 51) you start to realize something is fishy. It’s also important to know that the same man I mentioned earlier was able to increase his Klout score from 34 to 72 in only six months. Is six months on Klout really equivalent to 15 years of marketing experience? I think not.

What’s even more disturbing is what it takes to raise your Klout score: a lot of tweeting and re-tweeting. This is what allows spambots to have decent Klout scores despite the fact that they rarely post original content. To be perfectly honest, most people have never even heard of Klout, so how can it really be valuable?

Take any Klout score with a grain of salt. I’d say it is only good so far as playful office banter and getting free perks. If an employer is concerned about your score vs. your actual experience, you probably don’t want to work for them in the first place.

You already know you should be blogging. It’s a great way to improve your SEO efforts, draw in new potential customers, increase your online reputation and engage with your community. But you may be lost as with the many choices available to aspiring bloggers: WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Posterous, Typepad…the list goes on. All of these content management systems have their pros and cons and there is no one right system for all. In this article, I’ll go through some of the advantages and disadvantages of the more popular platforms (WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr) so that you can decide which one is the right fit for your blog!

Blogger

Blogger is a very commonly used blogging platform as it is 100% free. It is also very easy to set-up and manage. You don’t need to know anything about HTML or CSS or web hosting to get your blog up and running in no time at all. You can easily include widgets, videos, polls and much more in the sidebar of your blog. It is also incredibly easy to rearrange the look and feel of your blog. You can also easily display Amazon, Google AdSense ads, and much more to make some money off your blog. Plus, did we mention that Blogger is owned by Google, so all of your posts will automatically be indexed by the world’s most popular search engine. Overall, Blogger is a great choice for personal accounts or those new to blogging.

WordPress

WordPress is the most popular content management system in use today. There are two options with WordPress: a self-hosted, paid version at your own domain and a free shared-hosting version at wordpress.com. With the paid version, you own your content, so you have complete control over it. WordPress’ interface is more complicated than Blogger, and you may need to know some code in order to add pictures, video, and other media to your blog. You don’t have the freedom that Blogger provides in terms of widgets and ads for affiliate marketing. Despite these limitations, WordPress is extremely popular because of its 100+ customizable themes and superior SEO capability.  Despite the fact that Google owns Blogger, WordPress blogs can see significant traffic from Google searches in a small amount of time.

Tumblr

Tumblr, although quite popular, is a bit of a wild card when it comes to blogging. Although its platform supports text, Tumblr is really all about sharing multimedia such as pictures, videos, and memes.  Long blog posts often don’t fare well on a system designed for images, music , videos and other small snippets of content. Tumblr also has a niche community of passionate users attached to the platform, so it is easy to find and share (“reblog”) content that you like.

In conclusion, if you just want a simple, easy-to-use blog, or one that works with affiliate hosting, Blogger is the right tool for you. However, if your blog is a way to promote your business, you’ll benefit from WordPress’ built-in SEO tools. Tumblr is the right choice for artistic, offbeat  or interactive content beyond text. Which platform will you be using for your blog?

Technology has been streamlining store processes for over a decade now, from cell phones to self-checkout machines to tablets. Each device is created with the goal of making purchases quicker and easier in order to provide excellent customer service. Tello and Pay by Name by Square are two tools that have promise to revolutionize small business—if only businesses will opt-in.

Now you can text a business feedback with Tello

Tello is trying to make this process faster by creating a SaaS and mobile application to help customers communicate with businesses in a fast and simple manner. The service was created so that customers could give live feedback to retailers, airlines, hotels, small business and restaurants. According to founder Joe Beninato, Tello is essentially “Twitter meets Yelp.” Feedback from consumers is usually concise and to the point, although it doesn’t have to be limited to 140 characters.

Users with iPhones and iMacs can download the Tello app and create a username to provide real-time feedback. With the app, smartphone users can text businesses, who can also respond. There is also the simple rating option of thumbs up or down with all feedback. So the next time you’re stuck in a line to check-in at a hotel, you’ll be able to communicate your frustration directly.

Tello goes a step further than services like Yelp to get the businesses involved. They are required to sign up for Tello so that they can be more involved with their customer reviews. Up to three profiles on Tello are free for most businesses. Beninato says that 80% of feedback on Tello has been positive, but the real question is, will businesses opt in to its services? Only time will tell.

Painless Payment with Pay by Name from Square

Technology is also streamlining another often painful part of customer service: payment. Perhaps you’ve used Square when purchasing from a street vendor; it’s a tiny reader that can read credit cards via your iPhone. Popular online payment system Paypal recently announced that they will be releasing a similar triangle dongle that can be attached to smartphones to compete with Square.

Tello and Pay by Name are both tools that have fantastic potential to improve a businesses’ customer service. Do you think users will use these services, and businesses will opt-in? Please share your thoughts in the comments!