Remember the late ’90s when PUSH was the next big thing? Well, it’s back—but in the form of a new protocol. As the PubSubHubbub site defines it, it’s: “A simple, open, server-to-server web-hook-based pubsub (publish/subscribe) protocol as an extension to Atom and RSS.”
Wordpress is at it again. This time they have added support for PubSubHubbub to all their blogs. What this does is change the way new content on a blog is distributed. Instead of a client (think Google Reader) pulling new content at some predefined interval, now the content is pushed to the client immediately by the hub.
I have not used PubSubHubbub yet, but it definitely looks promising. Imagine if Google were to add support for this so that you could push updates to your site to them instead of waiting on a crawler to come by and notice content has changed. Or how about saving on some bandwidth or server load by pushing new content to a hub so that you don’t have all those rss readers polling your site constantly.
Of course, a downside could be that I have to hear about your latest Farmville shenanigans even faster!
Posted by Angie Reed on February 24, 2010 at 10:23 am
That was it—I’d finally had enough of being left out of the mobile online buzz. I broke down and stepped up to a quick messaging phone. Cute, compact, great reviews and best of all , it works (unlike my previous phone). It’s not an iPhone (still a bit too pricey for me), but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want one. Maybe I’ll be able to get one for my next upgrade four years down the road?
With all the craze about apps that can do everything from taking 360 degree panoramic images, to composing a dinner shopping list to getting pregnant, who wouldn’t want an iPhone? Our lives are getting more complex every day—and it just makes sense to have a phone that really performs. The more spare time we free up, the more activities, tasks and errands we can pack into our day.
I don’t go many places without my phone. Other than swimming, it’s pretty much always in my pocket. And then, of course, right there on my towel when I return to catch some rays. Regardless of where I am, it’s always within close range. Why? Because you never know when a friend might update their profile status on Facebook from single to engaged, or when a business might Tweet about a new product must-have. Also, receiving breaking news alerts in real-time is extremely handy.
But as society continues to thrive on cutting edge products, are we paying a higher price than we’re aware of for all of our conveniences? While doing some research for that new, must-have phone, I came across the Environmental Working Group for the 2010 Cell Phone Radiation Report Update. Some of the leading phones on the market (iPhone, Motorola Droid and HTC Nexus One by Google) are also leading in radiation levels they omit. And the worst part about it is that retailers are not required to disclose this to buyers. So if you’re one of those who can’t seem to get enough mobile in one day, it might be smart to be sure that your phone isn’t one of the “leaders”.
If it is, I recommend checking to see if there is a healthier option.
Beginning in the 20th century, marketers began using focus groups to research the potential public response to a product, service, advertisement and more. Focus groups use a variety of methods to determine a person’s attitude, opinion, perception or belief. Primarily, a person in a focus group is simply asked about how they feel and they give a conscious response. However, purchase decisions are essentially a non-conscious act. Therefore, traditional research methods may not be enough to fully understand a consumer’s emotional state ultimately influenced through marketing.
Enter neuromarketing.
Neuromarketing is the study of neurological responses to marketing messages. While still in an early stage of development, neuromarketing studies are currently being conducted and their findings are being used for online marketing campaigns.
Now, there is some controversy over neuromarketing, but as of yet, there is still no way to pipe advertisements directly into people’s brains—so don’t worry. Current neuromarketing techniques include eye tracking, galvanic skin response and a variety of brain wave measurements.
Oneupweb has been conducting eye tracking studies for many years now. One of the most recent whitepapers is a study of search on social networking sites. The study was conducted by analyzing a subject’s eye movement while searching.
It’s 2010 and technology is changing the marketing landscape—innovators rejoice!
Google Buzz just launched on Tuesday, but according to Google, they’ve already seen over 9 million posts and comments created using Buzz, and are seeing over 200 posts per minute from mobile users around the globe.
Google is doing a great job pointing out this new feature to Gmail users. Buzz has become a trending topic in Twitter and has been covered by nearly every tech blog in the world. So it’s not surprising that people are flocking to check it out. But at nearly 3,000 posts and comments per minute, Buzz has already seen some impressive usage.
With this kind of user base for a brand new Google product, you would expect there to be a ton of feedback and recommendations for improvement—and there has been. The best part about it—Google’s listened! They’ve already started making improvements based on concerns they’ve heard about privacy, blocking followers and the need for more clarity on which of your followers (and those that you follow) can appear on your public profile.
Although this barely scratches the surface on the types of suggestions people are voicing about Buzz. Some others include having the ability to post to Twitter and sync up with Facebook, as well as better sharing and sorting capabilities. There’s a lot of noise about Buzz out there, and I think up until this point, Google’s done a good job of listening and reacting.
One thing’s for sure—we can expect to see many changes and enhancements to Buzz over the next several months as Google continues to listen to its users and starts to integrate it with more of its products. The potential implications of Buzz on the social, search and email fronts are tremendous, but as with so many other Google products that have rolled out, we’ll just have to wait and see if the buzz on Buzz can be sustained.
Recently, Apple unveiled its new toy called the iPad. I was disappointed to learn that like the iPhone and iPod Touch, it will not support Flash. This got me thinking about the future of Adobe’s Flash Player.
I wrote an article last month about Flash CS5 having the ability to compile iPhone apps from ActionScript3 code, but now I’m wondering if that’s really the best solution. Flash is currently the best form of media for browser based gaming when it comes to reaching the masses, but if things don’t change, it will find itself reminiscing over its glory days before long.
HTML5, paired with JavaScript, is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Its biggest advantage is the ability to render graphics with the GPU (Graphic Processing Unit). Its disadvantage is that users must have a browser that supports HTML5. IE8 and FF2 are among the browsers that don’t support it. In a world where 10.2% of internet users are still on IE6, it’s not likely that HTML5 will be the standard anytime soon. In fact, HTML4 isn’t even fully implemented yet.
Flash currently renders graphics through CPU (Central Processing Unit) for maximum compatibility across computers and operating systems which, unfortunately, puts quite a load on the processor. The next release of Flash Player will have GPU support (v10.1), but that will require users to update the drivers to their graphics cards as well. All I can do is hope that it gives Flash enough power to compete in the years to come…
I love AS3, but if Adobe doesn’t do something, then I’ll have no choice but to move to something else. In the end, the fate of Flash will depend greatly on how Adobe plays its cards.
