Webware

A mobile AdSense ad appears at the bottom of the Boy Genius Report's mobile site.

(Credit: Google)

The march of the ads from the PC to the smartphone took another step Monday with the launch of Google AdSense for high-end phones.

Web publishers can now design AdSense ads--groups of Google AdWords text ads displayed by third-party publishers on their Web sites--with the HTML browsers used by smartphones in mind, Google announced Monday in a blog post. Advertisers had been able to run smaller mobile ads that older mobile phone browsers could handle, but they'll now have an option of showing a more sophisticated ad on a more sophisticated browser like those used by the iPhone, the Palm Pre, and Android phones.

One of the more interesting stories for Google over the next several years will be whether it can replicate its dominant position in PC-based search and search advertising onto the mobile device. Any way you slice it, smart mobile devices are expected to grow at dizzying rates over the next several years and have already evolved to the point where they pack substantial computing power.

As people spend more and more time online with those smaller screens, there will be an opportunity for advertisers and Google to make some money. Google also offers its advertising partners the chance to display AdWords ads on mobile search or AdSense ads in mobile applications for the iPhone and Android devices.

Two prominent Web-based programming advocates have left Mozilla for Palm, arguing that the time has come to use browsers to bypass Apple's controlling role in mobile applications.

Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, who help run the Ajaxian site for elaborate Web interfaces and who worked on Mozilla's Web-based Bespin tool for collaborative programming, announced their move to Palm on Friday.

Palm is a logical place for them to go. The Palm Pre has won accolades as a competitive mobile phone, and its foundation for applications is a WebKit-based browser, meaning that Palm programs are essentially Web programs.

"I will be joining Ben, my best friend, partner in crime, and fellow Ajaxian, as we take a new role as directors of the Palm Developer Relations team. We will have the responsibility of the developer experience with Palm. We will be trying to create a rich connective tissue between the company and the Web developer community that we love," Almaer wrote on his blog.

Web-based programs are typically slower and less capable than alternatives that run natively on a computing device. But they have one big potential advantage: written once, they can run on any device with a browser and hardware up to the task.

Although Galbraith and Dalmaer are excited by the possibilities of Web applications and the new era of mobile computing ushered in most notably by Apple's iPhone, Galbraith appears to be concerned about the control Apple exercises over the applications people can use on their phones.

"Clearly, a revolution in hardware is taking place, and it doesn't take a prophet to work out that the future of computing lies along this new trajectory," Galbraith said. "However, my enthusiasm for this amazing new world is tempered by some unfortunate decisions made by some of the players in this space. It seems that some view this revolution as a chance to seize power in downright Orwellian ways by constraining what we, as developers, can say, dictating what kinds of apps we can create, controlling how we distribute our apps, and placing all kinds of limits on what (we) can do to our computing devices."

He didn't mention Apple by name, and I don't want to put words in his mouth, but who else besides Apple could Galbraith be referring to? The programmers and Apple didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Apple exerts its control to try to give iPhone users a simple, stable, and useful experience. But that control can be at odds with what programmers and users want, as was most clearly illustrated in Apple's rejection of the Google Voice application--though Apple said it hasn't actually rejected the application.

Meanwhile, as it did with its Latitude location application for the iPhone after Apple rejected a native version of that software, Google is working on a Web-based interface for Google Voice. It also offers a Web-based Gmail application for the iPhone.

What's curious is that the Palm Pre, the Google Android operating system, and the iPhone OS all use a browser based on the WebKit project, and Apple is among those working hard to advance the state of the art for Web application programming through its WebKit work. So there is some philosophical agreement along with the differences.

Finding the hot conversation keeps getting easier, but predicting what the next big trend will be continues to be a crapshoot. Palm and Federated Media have teamed up to create a new tool called Trend Tracker that does its best to figure out, what in fact the next top trend will be by analyzing items that are gathering buzz.

The system is a mix of tools that can help spot popular URLs and trending topics before they hit it big. But it's more about organizing that data in a simple-to-parse format.

Included are the current top 30 trending topics on Twitter, which can be stacked up against each other to see what's pulling in the highest percentage of tweets. Each trend is represented over a 24-hour time line, where you can see how each particular trend has gone up or down in popularity.

Trend Tracker can give you a visual analysis of when each trend became popular, as well as its decline.

(Credit: CNET)

But 24 hours doesn't tell the full story, which is why the tool will soon expand to keep an archive that covers the last 10 or 30 days.

Along with the top 30 trends, Trend Tracker includes a "Pre Trend Watch" (emphasis mine) which tracks five up-and-coming trends that are about to break into the top 10 based on their velocity--the speed in which tweets on that particular topic are gaining in popularity. These are also marked in the trend archive with a little blue flag.

When I was looking at the tool last week, one of the most interesting things this picked up on was... Read more

Yelp 1.0 on the Palm Pre.

(Credit: Yelp)

Yelp has been pushing hard to make its presence on smartphones known. In the last seven days, it has released a major upgrade to its iPhone application and has debuted native versions of Yelp for BlackBerry and the Palm Pre (Palm WebOS.)

Yelp 1.0 for Palm Pre and Yelp 1.0 for BlackBerry are much more basic than their iPhone kin is. According to Yelp, this is a conscious decision to get the core features out there and usable. And, although not much to look at (on the BlackBerry Bold, anyway,) the apps retain their utility. We put the BlackBerry version to the test to find and direct us to our humble lunch spot, even reading reviews in line to see which menu items were most recommended. Yelp on BlackBerry is location-aware and uses maps (Microsoft's Bing maps, not Google Maps) and click-to-call to help a mobile Yelper out.

The Palm WebOS version has the same core features, but the experience is leagues ahead of the BlackBerry version. The Pre's interface is also much more stylish and provides access to special offers. BlackBerry users may miss those deals at this stage, a shame. Yelp on the Pre can also save contacts to the address book, and can share listings by e-mail or text. The biggest usability error we noticed on the Pre was having to scroll to the very end of a record to access the Web site link. It would be better to see this in the address block up top.

Both version 1.0 applications are missing interactive capabilities to upload photos, write reviews, and rate others' reviews. According to Yelp, more advanced features such as these will come later on.

Yelp for Blackberry is available for free on BlackBerry devices in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Ireland (or anywhere else you use BlackBerry) by pointing the mobile browser to http://m.yelp.com. Yelp for Palm Pre can be used in the U.S. or Canada (or anywhere else you have a Pre). You can download the Pre app from the App Catalog on the phone.

Twitter is not yet completely mainstream, but several mainstream companies are using the service to communicate with customers and potential customers. Some use it to advertise products, while others use Twitter to field customer complaints.

I looked at how several companies are using Twitter, and have a few guidelines that brand managers can apply to make the nanoblog service work for them. It appears that there are some actions that companies simply must engage in if they want to take advantage of Twitter as a marketing service.

Starbucks: It's about the people
Companies are not people. Consumers, for the most part, have a hard time relating to an amorphous, inanimate entity like a corporate brand. But Twitter can change that by giving a company a human face that can speak to customers and change perception.

@Starbucks' Twitter strategy is worth looking at. Starbucks doesn't inundate Twitter followers with advertisements. Instead, its Twitter account gives consumers the opportunity to access the company in a way they never have.

When a user corresponds with a corporate account on Twitter, they may not really expect it, but will be happy to see that there's a person on the other end. I have sent messages to the Starbucks' profile, which, as it happens, is run by an employee of the company. The responses have thoughtful, forthright, and most importantly, human -- it doesn't stink of marketing rhetoric.

From a consumer's perspective, that's ideal. How often can we really get in touch with corporate people in the position to make a difference? In my experience, telephoning customer service usually yields nothing more than banalities and scripted responses. But a Twitter profile can allow me to talk to a person at the company, creating a scenario where I develop a dialogue between myself and the organization. And it changes my perception, and makes me feel heard. Starbucks does this very well.

Comcast: We care, and we'll prove it.
Giving a company a human face through Twitter is great, but it can't stop there. The representative who's assigned to the Twitter profile can't be an intern or someone who has no power at the company. Instead, the representative must have the power to address issues and make sure that a user who believes they're being treated unfairly can have their issues handled swiftly.

@ComcastCares does an outstanding job of not only empowering the individual behind its Twitter profile, but ensures that the Twitter profile is used to fully address major issues the company has faced in the past.

According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Comcast led every company in the U.S. in customer dissatisfaction in 2004 and 2007. Comcast's Twitter experiment is a small part of the solution.

Based on the research I've performed across Twitter Search and other third-party Twitter tools, @ComcastCares is achieving its goal of improving customer relations. The instances of users complaining about Comcast is declining, and the complaints are becoming minor.

If you look at the @ComcastCares page, you'll find the main reason for that success: the Director of Digital Care, Frank Eliason, is individually fielding questions and concerns from customers and asking them to send him more information, their phone numbers, or account information so he can address them swiftly. He's using his power at the company as well as his forum on Twitter to help customers. Without that power, he would be just as useless as Comcast's customer service number.

Zappos: Be part of the community
The Twitter community has certain expectations. Although companies are using Twitter to promote their brand, they should be aware that they're not above those ad-hoc rules. If they follow them like any other user, it'll only help them achieve their goal of improving brand opinion.

@Zappos is one of the companies that actually understands what it means to be a part of the community. Its Twitter activity goes beyond discussions about shoes and answering user questions. A simple search of @Zappos on Twitter Search reveals something that shouldn't be overlooked: by engaging the community and providing entertaining and worthwhile content outside of its business, @Zappos appeals to users even when they're not thinking about Zappos. Perhaps the best proof of that can be seen in its current follower count: 206,553 as of this writing.

Providing value to the community should be part of any company's plan when they go to Twitter. If we want ads, we can go to a company's website, so don't waste our time. Instead, use the blueprint provided by @Zappos, which is dominated by use of Twitpic, insider information about what's going on in the CEO's day, and more. It goes back to putting a face on the organization and it makes people actually care about what's being said.

And that's a key factor companies can't overlook: As consumers, we usually don't care about issues others face with companies until we have them ourselves. Answers to other customer concerns are often only important to that affected individual, and are ignored by the rest. But by providing more tweets about topics outside of customer complaints and advertisements, we start to actually listen to a company. Zappos proves that almost every day: it entertains with interesting tweets. It mentions sales every now and then, too. And I don't think I've missed a Zappos sales alert yet.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

There's no real killer app yet for retrieving listings information on your mobile phone, but there could be soon.

On Aptil 11, FreeMobile411 launches the consumer version of its carrier-offered services. Visting FreeMobile411.com from your mobile browser gets you a decent-looking ad-supported WAP site that simplifies directory search and helps you avoid long waits while listening to ads from dial-in services like 1-800-FREE-411.

Enter the search term--it can be a business name ("Blockbuster"), business type ("video store"), or person ("Bill Blockbuster"). Then select the search type, and fill in either the city or zip to search or browse listings. From there you'll have a spectrum of choices to plot on a map, get directions to, dial with a click, or use as an anchor while searching for nearby gap pumps, hotels, banks, and so on. You'll still be able to connect to the operator at the usual carrier rate, but with this useful, easily navigable app, it's doubtful you'll ever need to. P.S. It even looks decent on the RAZR!

This article was updated 6:00 pm on 3/16/08.

Let's get right to the point: Avvenu Access 'n Share is phone-to-PC remote access service with a strong base and a lot of good potential. With it, you can view and edit files stored on your PC from any smartphone. Provided your computer is running when you log in to your Avvenu account, you'll see your file system reproduced on the phone's screen. As long as your phone is outfitted with a third-party document viewer, you'll be able to remotely read and edit documents. Photos also render well.

Upgrading from the basic free service lets subscribers hand-pick which documents, photos, and videos they want stored on Avvenu's servers, for access whenever the computer is logged off or powered down. A few quibbles mar the overall experience: The beta version of Avvenu's music player has ceased being supported, Avvenu's founder Keith Barraclough told me, and the number of clicks it takes to get from the file tree to the meat of your content is wearisome. Also, the search function only works if you've got Google Desktop installed on your PC.

However, Nokia's December 2007 acquisition of Avvenu spells out change. Barraclough hinted that, supported by Nokia's greater resources, users can expect to see a faster, more streamlined remote access product that fully supports multimedia playback and lives up to its potential usefulness.

(Credit: MobiTV)

Mobile users who haven't made the jump to watching videos on their cell phones and smartphones may see a juicy, dangling carrot on the horizon. A paper submitted by John Barrett of Parks Associates and David Wertheimer of USC's Entertainment Technology Center (PDF), summarizes that mobile phone users will watch more videos on their phones if they can get them for free. Well, duh. Who doesn't want free?

The study found that only a fraction of users with video-capable phones take advantage of them to watch movies and TV. Many of the reasons boil down to price, low film quality, and video presentation. As one user summed it up, "I don't feel that spending $13 dollars on the iTunes music store in order to get a DVD that I could buy for $5 or $10 somewhere else is reasonable since it's in lower quality." Said another, "I don't want to watch a two-hour movie on a two-inch screen." Roger that.

The authors' solution? Studios need to think like Apple, they say, and use free video content as a lure to premium services that users will be willing to finance as playback technologies mature. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs owes much of his company's recent success to playing Hollywood. Now it could be Hollywood's turn to profit from Apple's model, and build goodwill along the way.

If the spare contents of your wallet dictate your dining destination, you'll want to know of this reprieve. Cellfire (hands-on review), offers coupon deals with more than 10,000 local U.S. restaurants and services, and chains. With custom-built applications for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, the RAZR, and Nokia phones, Cellfire has rounded the smartphone bases. A WAP site--www.cellfire.com--that works with iPhone and other Internet-enabled devices brings the app home.

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