DMB Releases iPhone App: Provides Users With Key Stats From Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg

By Lauren Fritsky

For the media professional that is constantly on the go, the ability to access his or her website’s analytics and social media stats from anywhere, at any time is essential. Digital Media Buzz just released its first mobile app, Buzz InSites, to provide users with the ability to access their website’s metrics and social networking stats directly from their mobile devices.

DMB founder Eric Diamond says the app is ideal for the mobile professional who wants to keep track of his or her key website and social statistics whether on the road, in a meeting or on line at the bank.

Buzz InSites mines key stats from all of your Google Analytics accounts and statistics from Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube to keep you updated on your website traffic and activity. The app will also let users email reports in Microsoft Excel format.

“Mobile devices have become a bigger part of our business lives, giving us access to information anywhere, anytime,” Diamond says. “We want to enable digital media professionals to get quick and easy access to all their analytics data anytime within one app. Now you can monitor, review and analyze your site’s metrics remotely, on your schedule.”

Buzz InSites will display key information from Google Analytics such as website page views, unique visitors, top keywords, top referrers and important stats from your social networks such as number of friends, number of followers and top video views. The Buzz InSite service will synchronize with Google’s database to update daily from various analytics accounts, and the service will store one years worth of data.

“We felt that anything beyond one year wasn’t useful to the mobile user,” Diamond explains. “Anything beyond a year, you would probably want to sit at your computer and use other applications to help analyze the numbers.”

On the social networking end, data is displayed in live, raw numbers, not graphs. Buzz InSites is the first iPhone app to provide access to data from both Google Analytics and social networking sites, Diamond says. “There are apps out there that individually do these things, but not one app to easily get all your website analytics and social stats.”

There will be a second phase for Buzz InSites that will focus on creating custom reports and obtaining statistics from additional social networking sites such as LinkedIn.

“Each day we download from Google all of your key stats, and store all the information in a secure database,” Diamond says. “Because of this we can ensure that our app serves up the requested data as quickly as possible. Also, because we store all of your data, in future releases we will be able to provide you with very useful custom reporting options.”

Users can download the app for $4.99 by visiting the BuzzInsites.com website or by going to the Apple iTunes app store from their iPHONE. DMB also welcomes feedback from users to help shape the second phase of the app or contribute to updates. The company’s mobile division is also working on other apps, such as sales management tools and display advertising insights to meet the needs of the mobile business professional. For more information, visit BuzzInsites.com.

A-Team To the Rescue: Apple Tablet Takes on the eReaders

By Contel Bradford

According to all the rumors, Apple could reveal official details about its new tablet gadget as early as next month. Though a number of people are anticipating a September launch, others have shot down that idea completely, including Jim Dalrymple of Loop Insight who says, “Very reliable sources familiar with the product have said speculation of the Tablet being introduced during the September event are flat out wrong. The Apple Tablet, they said, would not see the light of day until the first part of 2010.”

Okay, so nobody really knows when the magical Tablet is supposed to hit the market. Perhaps the biggest mystery surrounding the device is what Apple intends to do with it. Gene Munster, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, shared his thoughts on what Apple might have in store. “Key apps, like Safari and Mail, could be made larger to make use of the larger screen resolution, making Apple’s Tablet appealing for more extended use, and the company could continue to leverage its primary asset in mobile computing, the App Store, in this scenario.”

Some are speculating that it will be a larger and possibly more advanced version of the iPod while others say it is an e-reader set to rival the likes of Amazon’s Kindle. At this point, only one thing is for sure — nobody is certain of anything. While Apple hasn’t officially gone on the record to explain what the hardware is supposed to do or if it even exists, that hasn’t stopped the imagination of the Internet community from running wild. Let’s join in the fun to see what this mystical device might have to offer and what, if any threat it poses to the fast-growing e-reader market.

Features and Appearance
Take a trip around the web and you will find several mock versions portraying what Apple’s mysterious Tablet could look like. The overall consensus made by analysts is that the device will boast a 10-inch screen with wireless connectivity, the ability to download content directly from iTunes and perhaps all the functionality of an iPod Touch. Experts are projecting that the Tablet could be designed to tackle two markets: netbooks and e-readers, with the latter being the most likely point of interest.

Apple vs. eBook Market
Much of the talk surrounding Apple’s Tablet gives wind to the rumors that it could be an electronic book reader slated to do battle with products marketed by Amazon, Sony and in the very near future, Barnes and Noble. When it comes to what is already on the market, there is no doubt that Apple will sweep the competition clean off its feet and dominate as it has in the multimedia field.

If the device is indeed what many are projecting it to be, it will feature a 10-inch backlit display and touchscreen, wireless broadband and a higher quality web browser. The physical aspects alone give it much greater ergonomic appeal than Amazon’s Kindle 2, which is missing both a touchscreen and backlight. Aside from this, the next-generation Kindle suffers in the usability department so anything Apple introduces will likely enhance the user experience dramatically.

How would it stack up against Sony’s e-readers? The Reader Touch Edition features a 6-inch touchscreen while the Reader Daily Edition is equipped with 3G connectivity powered by AT&T’s mobile broadband technology. Though certainly noteworthy, both are merely single-use appliances limited to the burgeoning, but small eBook reader market. Apple has a clear advantage with a chart-topping iTunes Store that is already renown for its AAC audio files, movies, television sitcoms and of course, iPhone apps galore. No competitor will be able to deliver the versatility and in-demand products that Apple could to the e-reader market.

Time Will Tell
At this time, no one can guarantee whether Apple will cater to the e-reader sector, or the netbook market currently dominated by PC manufacturers. Don’t be surprised if it decides to tackle both. One thing we all should have learned by now is not to count out the A-team. If Apple’s rumored Tablet device really exists, and all indicators are showing that it does, expect it to represent technological innovation that stems beyond the typical gadget and shakes up whatever market it’s best suited for.

Twitter in the Dollhouse: Rich Media Ad Features Real-Time Tweets

By Ken Liebeskind

To promote the July 28 launch of “Dollhouse” Season One on Blu-Ray and DVD, Fox Home Entertainment is running rich media ads on three sci-fi sites that allow users to engage in Twitter conversations with the star of the show. And their comments are posted in the ad, which is an online first.

A few advertisers have posted their own Twitter comments into online ads, but this is the first time viewers have been able to tweet directly into the ad unit, according to Amanda Schroeder, director of marketing at EyeWonder, which served the ad.

The ad, which plays on scifi.com, ugo.com and craveonline.com until Aug. 3, is video rich with a :30 video clip playing at the start of the ad. It leads to a rollover bar that yields a Twitter app that invites viewers to “follow Eliza on Twitter” and “sign in to tweet and be a part of the conversation.” Eliza is Eliza Dushku, the actress who plays the main character, Echo, in the TV show. Dushku has a large following on Twitter, which is the draw for the ad.

“She has over 35,000 followers on Twitter, so we’re capitalizing on the existing audience and the existing channel we could feed into,” says Sara Francis, vice president and group account director at Moxie Interactive, Fox Home Entertainment’s digital agency. “We wanted to incorporate the response and interactivity to amplify our message.”

Viewers sign into Twitter, visit Eliza’s page and post comments, which are automatically posted into the ad unit on the right side of the page. Viewers can scroll down to read all the Twitter comments. The comments are prefaced by the viewer’s Twitter name. Moxie oversees the comments and selects which ones to post. EyeWonder put a filter into the app to catch profanity, Schroeder says.

Moxie used the Twitter app because Twitter is hot and Dushku has an audience there. It was also used to keep the ad fresh. “The ad only runs for two weeks and we wanted to make sure the content is always new, so with tweets coming in on a regular basis we can get new content into the banner,” Francis says.

There is no surcharge for the Twitter feed, except for production costs. “Twitter doesn’t increase the CPM, so it doesn’t cost any more to run it than a regular rich media ad,” she says. “Twitter has an open API so we were able to take Twitter code and install it in the ad,” Schroeder says. “We modified it to get it to work within the banner coding on our end.”

Francis said the Twitter functionality works well in the rich media ad unit, “because it allows people to participate with the content. They can comment on a video they see in the ad, which allows us to get their feedback and share the ad unit so it’s not a passive experience.”

The Twitter app is a strong example of the growth of social media elements in advertising. “Advertising in general is becoming more participatory with the explosion of social media,” Francis says. “Bringing social media tools into all kinds of ads will be a key to keeping consumers engaged.”

Product Buzz: FatWire to the Rescue

FatWire Rescue Program for Vignette and Interwoven Legacy Web Content Management (WCM) customers

Last month, FatWire announced the launch of its Rescue Program for Vignette and Interwoven Legacy Web Content Management (WCM) customers. This program enables customers of these recently acquired companies to upgrade to FatWire’s solutions at no licensing cost using migration tools and services that reduce the risk and increase the speed of migration.

This is a limited time program, set to expire on Sept. 30, and provides a unique opportunity to transition to FatWire for those companies and organizations constrained by their current, legacy WCM products.

In order to optimize and speed the upgrade process to FatWire, they have partnered with two other companies for this program – Vamosa and Kapow – providing enhanced, automatic web content migration.

Features include:

• Zero licensing cost for Vignette and Interwoven legacy customers to upgrade to FatWire
• WCM platform migration to FatWire with reduced risk and accelerated delivery
• Partnerships with Vamosa and Kapow for optimal migration process

Reality Redefined: Virtual Technology at Your Fingertips

By David Leggett

While cool new features like better video recording, more storage space, faster processing and better gaming might be some of the reasons that you cannot avoid buying an iPhone 3GS this summer, consider this. Imagine a browser in which you view the real world through a camera lens on your iPhone, while a heads-up display picks out interesting points and features amid the cityscape. This type of technology 20 years ago sounded like something out of “Back to The Future,” but today we call it Augmented Reality.

Debuting later this month for Android phones, and planned later this year for the iPhone 3GS ,“The Magnetometer,” could be the beginning of something big. Imagine the ability to point your phone at the stars to find out what constellation you’re looking at, or telling what building you’re looking at and its history by pointing your iPhone at it. Imagine what a tour of New York or Paris would be like, all with your cell phone as your tour guide. Sounds more like science fiction but this is only the beginning on what we can expect from Augmented Reality.

Wikipedia defines Augmented Reality as a field of computer research that deals with the combination of real world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time. The only problem is that this is no longer a field based on only research but now is an actual fact and one of the newest innovations in the electronics industry. It superimposes graphics, audio and other sense enhancements from computer screens onto real environments. It superimposes graphics for every perspective and it adjusts to every movement of the user’s head, neck and eyes. Although this is not a new science, the true development of these capabilities is still underway and it is forecasted that it won’t be till the end of the decade before a true augmented reality system really hits the market. But the buzz has already started and it’s picking up steam.

So now you’re obviously wondering how can Augmented Reality help improve my business? Well the answer to that lies in what you want Augmented Reality to do for you. Augmented Reality allows you to see, in real time, data about your surroundings, without actually having to look anything up, or to know anything about it. It’s just there, like another dimension, ready to wow and amaze your customers at any moment of your choosing. Take a look at what some companies are doing now to take advantage of this new technology.

A Dutch company, SPRXmobile, just last week, introduced the first ever Augmented Reality browser platform for the smartphone. The software uses basic features already found on the smart phone, like the compass and GPS system, and conveniently directs you to the nearest ATM, or shoe store or five-star restaurant. Now just think about what this technology can do for your company in the way of marketing technology.

Take for example what the folks at LEGO are doing to implement this technology into their overall marketing strategy. LEGO created a special packaging that, when held in front of special in-store kiosks, shows the shopper what the fully assembled toy will look like. Or take a look at what the people at Total Immersions are doing using Augmented Reality to promote movies using this new technology. http://www.t-immersion.com/

Last month, the FMCG giant Unilever, kicked off a trial system that let consumers redeem certain coupons by scanning their cell phones. This is a mobile marketer’s wildest dream and this is only the beginning. Priority Mail has come up with a virtual program where you can virtually package the item you’re looking to ship, so that you know it will be the right size and shape you need. This program takes care of the whole process for you while you’re in complete control.

To think of all the applications that you can use Augmented Reality for are limitless. Since this is a new and developing technology we have only began to scratch the surface of what this technology can do for the world around us and your business. Think about being able to pass out flyers that can project a 3-D story almost like a high-tech commercial. Think about being able to lay a foundation for a building with Augmented technology so that all the builders have to do is build over the Augmented Reality like a virtual blueprint resulting in a better and more precise structure. Augmented Reality is being used in the baseball card industry, auto industry for helping to build more precise cars and even in the medical profession.

However, with the recent advancements of mobile phone technology, the cell phone seems to be the biggest force driving this push to bring Augmented technology to the mainstream public. Taking into account the spiking popularity of mobile phones coupled with increasing demand and better technology, the rise of Augmented Reality technology is only at the limit of the developer’s imagination.

To think of a world fully intermingled with Augmented Reality is truly something that we could only dream of 30 years ago. What will be the future of this new technology, what are its limitations? These are things that we can only speculate right now, but what we do know is that Augmented Reality is here and it’s at our fingertips.

Streaming Media East 2009: Promoting Ease-of-Use Tools

By Ron Shulkin

Streaming Media East 2009 was an exciting show with more than 3,400 participants and more than 50 vendors represented on the exhibit floor. There were several recurring themes this year, all of them trending toward providing easier-to-use products for content creation, content management and content distribution.

The trend toward ease of use supports a democratization of technology, enabling anyone to create and distribute multimedia content and making it easier for large organizations to support infrastructures. This is in sync with Web 2.0 philosophies of putting “the social” in social networking and provisioning user generated content.

Digital media, including streaming video, has been the traditional purview of audio/video technical specialists. In the past, producers of content needed to be able to encode the video, combine video and audio with other content (like PowerPoint, polls, pdfs, etc.) and provide distribution to content delivery networks. This required a variety of skill sets not available to the average person. If experts wanted to produce a multi-media message to share their insights with an audience, they required the help of an expert in technology.

The vendors at SME all spoke to the introduction of easy-to-use creation software tools. This enables user generated content in a way not available in the past. And the timing is perfect because there is a strong demand for good content.

For example, Interactive Video Technologies offers their Studio product. This is a self service content creation tool. It has been enabled recently with the latest versions of Flash from Adobe. The new revisions of Flash don’t require encoding and are enable with PowerPoint. Greg Pulier, the CTO at IVT, sees the future of webcasting including “unified platforms for employees to create, share and consume rich media, making it trivial to record with PowerPoint and share with selected groups.”

Qumu, another vendor of content creation tools, typically has its products installed behind the firewall in enterprise deployments at big companies. They too have just introduced a desktop tool, Qumu Kodiak; however they rely on the Windows Media format. Not a surprise as Qumu has a product suite that is tightly integrated with Microsoft’s Silverlight.

Other content creation vendors are leaning toward the use of appliances. Sonic Foundry’s MediaSite, widely installed at educational institution classrooms and corporate boardrooms, uses a simple automation device that enables content to be created that is ready for distribution without the need for pre- or post-production.

Along with the ease of use for content creation comes the requirement from the marketplace for easier access to media. If you think about it for a moment, once you have an ever increasing number of videos to watch, you need a way to search through them to find the one you want. This is addressed in several ways; with portals or catalogs, with searchable meta data and with more user friendly playing environments.

The delivery models are also changing. Verizon presented a new program tying the Internet’s media content as presented on television. Joe Ambeault, Verizon’s director of product development and management, video services, told an audience of about 200 at his keynote address that there are some inherent challenges to this new delivery. Viewers want to be able to operate the Internet content like they manage television, with options for TV guide-like search and the ability to change channels. The most striking attribute of this Verizon test was the full involvement of the Verizon team and the full solicitation of feedback from the viewing community. This was a project thoroughly influenced by enlightened social networking participants.

Lastly, along with content creation and delivery, is content management. This area is also being enhanced with ease of use. Publishers are looking for controls and easier-to-use tools. Corporations don’t want their employees to offer messaging without any company controls. During the SME show, I heard about one large company who put into place two full-time employees to search out videos on YouTube and delete them. If there is a company message, they want to control what it is.

Many of the vendors look for automatic integration with their proprietary products or third-party environments like Microsoft’s Silverlight. Certain reliability is the goal so that media infrastructures can be treated like any other system within the information technology department. This means good reports providing measurable and actionable information about usage and availability.

Most of the new technology at Streaming Media East is provided as a Software as a Service rather than enterprise (behind the firewall) deployments. This means the software company can more easily maintain and upgrade its technology remotely.

AT&T Services brings a customer service-oriented vision. The technology is typically integrated with the publisher’s Customer Management System and Learning Management System as well as being highly available, scalable and offering embedded players. Their managed service comes with multiple outputs (digital signage, SharePoint or Websphere) making it easier for the publisher to pay attention to their customer rather than babysitting the technology.

Streaming Media East brought content creation technology vendors face to face with streaming video users. Responding to new demands for User Generated Content, and taking advantage of improvements in the available technology, these vendors are enabling content creators with easy to use, friendly tools. Most streaming media shows have two audiences, publishers (which are mostly media and entertainment companies) and corporate (using rich media for internal training and external marketing). This year their interests overlap in the pursuit of technologies to produce content in streamlined fashions.

*EXTRA*

To get a crasher’s perspective on the show, view Air America’s BreakRoomLive.com video where co-host Sam Seder searches for a danish and coffee at Streaming Media East 2009.