Alert Blog Reviews

Over the last few days I’ve been playing around with Mobypicture.com and more precisely their Geo-tagged picture map feature. I’ve found a way to have a map embedded on any blog that automatically centres on the last picture uploaded. What’s more it’s all done from a mobile phone… Perfect for any Travel Blog… Other features include: Micro-blogging and blogging brought together. Automatic posting to twitter and Facebook etc. One simple upload from any GPS enabled phone perfect for travellers on the road. Centres on last uploaded picture. Have a look at our Geo-Tagged Picture map. (might still have issues with Internet explorer, that’s not the map, it’s my limited code knowledge). Here’s How to do it: Sign up for free account at www.Mobypicture.com. Connect it with your social network services. i.e. Twitter and Facebook. Download the mobile app or set your favourite (Mobypicture has it’s own apps but I use Twibble ). Upload some Geo-tagged pictures from a phone or computer and it will put them in your stream, post them on your MobyMap (if you click on your Username on the right sidebar you will see a link that says “Launch MobyMap”) and update your selected social networks. FinallyPaste this code where you want the map to appear on a page on your blog or website:

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Embed a Geo-tagged Twitter Picture Map in Any Blog

I admit, I am coming at this one a little uneducated. You see I never used the Twitter mobile site until today when I even considered that it existed. With the third party apps available I just don’t think about Twitter as the place to ‘micro-blog’ but rather the act of ‘micro-blogging’. I suspect that will make sense to some and for those who get it maybe you should be just a little worried. Back to the important news at hand. The new Twitter mobile site preview was touted today on the Twitter blog . Leland of Twitter tells us Our new mobile web site is previewing today, just point your phone’s browser to http://mobile.twitter.com. Its got a great new look, and has some great new touches that will make your mobile experience on Twitter a bit more fun and a lot more helpful. Let us know if you agree and especially tell us how we can make it better. Here’s a look see. For someone like myself who is pretty committed to Tweet Deck as my third party Twittercation of choice this redesign will have little impact. I suppose it would be good to ask how many readers use the mobile Twitter site regularly. Is there anybody out there? Leland talks about the soon to be replaced version of the mobile Twitter experience as ‘m’ and seems to be trying to break the news to ‘it’ as nicely as possible. What may be a less known fact is: Lots of people access Twitter on their phones via our good ol’ mobile website, and trusty ‘m’ has been delivering tweets faithfully. However, ‘m’ doesn’t fully feel like Twitter, and could probably do a bit more things for you. ‘M’ should also be fantastically innovative — naturally the best way to do that is use our own APIs. So, the mobile team here built a brand new mobile web client from scratch, using only Twitter APIs, and we’d like to share the results with you. So it looks like ‘m’ is going to be kicked to the curb. Tossed away like so much rubbish despite the loyal and faithful work it has done in the past. So ‘m’. when your days are over I shall remember you fondly which mean much more if I had ever used you before writing this post. Anyway, good luck ol’ boy. You’re not the only one being put out of work these days.

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Twitter Mobile Gets a New Look

It appears that it is finally safe to say that if mobile hasn’t completely arrived it is certainly in the room and recognized for its potential. Should we declare 2010 as the ‘Year of Mobile’? Sure, why not. There will be others and honestly it means nothing to hype it. Let’s look at what’s actually going on at street level. Over at the ZDNet’s  Between the Lines blog , Larry Dignan tells us about a survey from the Bernstein Research’s Jeffrey Lindsay did some research among 360 smartphone users that follows up some initial research he did in the mobile advertising space. Here is some of the information that you may find interesting 67 percent of respondents said that smartphones increased their Internet usage for personal use and 45 percent said work related usage rose. 95 percent of users use the same search engine for the PC and mobile. 37 percent of respondents say they are clicking on more paid search links and seeing more display adds. Users 18 to 34 found mobile ads to be more relevant than their PC counterparts. Older users panned mobile ads across the board. As Dignan points out, I agree the major piece of data to be gleaned from this is the fact the younger the mobile user is the more likely they will be responsive to mobile ads. The older users referred to breaks out in this chart below. I’m not surprised by this and I hope the rest of the industry will take heed. When it comes to mobile there may not be an audience unless your product or service skews young. This is likely to change over time but for now it’s the younger set that will allow mobile and advertising to be used as a phrase while others think that the separation of the two is the better way to go.

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Ahhhhh To Be Young and Mobile

Did you know that Marketing Pilgrim is more awesome than Google? Seriously! I can prove it! Google has just announced that Google News is now more mobile friendly –meaning it will recognize that you’re viewing the site from your iPhone, Droid, etc, and serve you a page optimized for your phone. This new version provides the same richness and personalization on your phone as Google News provides on desktop. Our new homepage displays more stories, sources, and images while keeping a familiar look and feel. Also, you can now reach your favorite sections, discover new ones, find articles and play videos in fewer clicks. If you are an existing Google News reader on desktop, you will find that all of your personalizations are honored in this mobile version too. Here’s how it looks: So, how are we better? We had a mobile-friendly version of Marketing Pilgrim up WAY before Google did. Point your iPhone to www.MarketingPilgrim.com and you’ll find a streamlined version of the site: See? We.Are.Better!

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Where Marketing Pilgrim Leads, Google News Follows!

Quick, you’re lost somewhere in France, it’s cold, dark, and all you have is your smartphone, a signal flair, CB radio, map, flashlight, French/English dictionary, and some french fries. What do you do? OK, first, eat the french fries–you look hungry. Then throw all that other stuff in a trash can, because all you need is your phone and Twitter! Two new Twitter services are rolling out, both will help you–should you ever find yourself in this scenario. First, Twitter has added a French version of the web site. The fact that the Twitter team will be in Paris for Le Web is purely coincidental! Second, Twitter is rolling out a new API that will bring location awareness to the popular microblogging service: We’re going to release geolocation to platform developers before we add the feature to Twitter.com. Most of the mobile applications people use and love are built by Twitter platform developers. Developers will have access to this new geolocation feature early which means it will most likely be available on your app of choice before it’s available on Twitter’s web site…It’s easy to imagine how this might be interesting at an event like a concert or even something more dramatic like an earthquake. Now, before some of you rush off to WordPress and crank out that scathing post about privacy invasion–you know, the one that will get retweeted like crazy and a ton of comments (you know who you are)–Twitter is one step ahead of you. Geolocation in your tweets will be an opt-in setting: Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won’t be stored for an extended period of time. It will be interesting to see what new apps and features will come from this. Dear developers, please create something a little more practical than FourSquare. How about an app that can translate my panic-stricken tweets into French, then tell the local authorities which bush exactly I’m cowering under. Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

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Ou Est La Twitter? La Twitter Et Voici!

We talk and think a lot about mobile marketing. But frankly, only a small proportion of cell phone users have devices that are equipped for any substantial web interfacing. But that may soon change—Nielsen predicts that smartphones will make up the majority of the cell phone market in two years. MediaPost reports that by mid-2011, half of cell phone subscribers, about 150M people, will be using smart devices. Smartphones are already showing a marked increase— Nielsen predicts that Q4 of this year will show that 40% of new phones sold are smart devices (as opposed to the Q309, slowest quarter in recent memory with smart devices accounting for only 25% of new phones). I think that smartphone adoption will be crucial to mobile marketing finally taking off in the US. The fact that most phones today are still incapable of real web browsing has contributed to the slow start to mobile marketing. I’ve been saying for years that a better web browsing experience, like that of a smartphone, is crucial to the success of mobile marketing. And Nielsen agrees: Nielsen also anticipates more users paying for video and premium content on their phones. What do you think? Will smartphones reach this much of the market in another 18 months? Will 2011 be the year of the mobile?

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Smartphones: Taking Over the World in 2011

Local mobile search is heating up. The powerful combination of GPS location and user input creates a golden opportunity for accurate, local, useful information to break out in a big way. As more and more GPS-enabled smartphones come on the market, more and more search engines and apps want to know just where you are and just what you’re looking for. The New York Times looks at another new local mobile app entering the marketplace. Although the GPS integration varies among the present offerings, we already have apps from local opinion sites like Yelp and Citysearch doing well in this area, as well as more specialized search engines and apps. Google and Microsoft already have local business listings as well. Is there room for Loopt’s new local-mobile app, Pulse , launching today? Absolutely, says Greg Sterling. He points out that there’s no “definitive” local mobile app yet—and it looks like Pulse might be able to position itself as that definitive app. Pulse draws info from 20 services, “including listings and review services like Zagat, Citysearch and Eventful as well as content sites like DailyCandy, Thrillist and The Village Voice.” Additionally, Pulse looks at social, spatial and temporal data to make recommendations: Pulse produces a personalized and ever-changing list of recommendations based on where you are, the time of day and Loopt’s own data on where you and your friends have been. It shows editorial descriptions and reviews from the partner sites and averages the ratings a business has received. Pulse also factors in more subjective factors, like which places are particularly popular with Loopt users at a given moment. That will help Pulse come up with recommendations that a site like Google might not, said Sam Altman, a Loopt co-founder. In addition to going for a comprehensive algorithmic/social/human-powered service, Loopt is also using a unique payment method: “Loopt gets some revenue from cellphone carriers, which include its service in their data plans or buy its technology to run their own location-based applications.” They will also be connecting with advertisers and local businesses to offer local coupons on cell phones. Finally, they also share revenue with participating content sites—like Citysearch. (A partnership with Yelp may come in the future, if Loopt can promise that the reviews will be clearly marked as coming from Yelp.) Pulse is currently working on an updated app for the iPhone. The creator, Loopt, is a mobile friend-finding service, so they already have the mobile social networking capabilities needed for the product. Of course, these advances may also mean that these third parties, search engines and telephone companies can locate you at any time. Not only that, they know what you’ve been looking for—whether that’s “bowling alley” and “ice cream” or “gun store” and “abandoned warehouse.” This conspiracy theory brought to you by The Police . But since I don’t plan on using my phone to help in my murderous plots (well, at least not in real life), I’m pretty excited about progress in this area. Now if only I could get a better phone. What do you think? Are you looking forward to new apps in the local mobile search space? Do you think Pulse will have what it takes to succeed—and possibly become that definitive app?

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Local Mobile Search: They’ll Be Watching You