Month: August 2009

Why I Don't Need a Searchable Facebook – Core Competency and Digital Strategy

Strategy

Whoever said August was a quiet month for news must not work in the digital industry. In the past two week, we’ve seen Microsoft sell Razorfish to Publicis, Facebook acquire Friendfeed, Microsoft and Yahoo announce a long awaited search deal and Google roll out it’s developer version of “Caffeine”. Now if Apple would just announce their new tablet computer the week would be complete!

Seriously, there’s already been a lot of online analysis about these respective announcements so there’s not much need to rehash that here. But I was struck by an overarching theme that ties all these projects together (and by the way, Microsoft’s recent announcement that they will be creating an online version of Office is a part of this too). In almost every case we’re seeing reactive rather than proactive strategy. Microsoft and Yahoo team up because they want to grab a piece of Google’s search business. The Razorfish deal includes a guaranteed ad buy that will help strengthen the MS-Yahoo partnership. Facebook wants FriendFeed so it can improve it’s real time search capabilities and compete with Twitter. And Google, rolls out caffeine to demonstrate that it’s not falling behind in search (i.e. keeping up with Twitter as well). It’s the digital version of keeping up with the Joneses and it all seems to be in service of a goal that no sane online consumer would ever want. A single digital space where a person can execute all their digital tasks (under a benign corporate umbrella, of course). Read more

 

Moments of Unexpected Delight

A friend sent this video to me this morning. I defy you to watch it without smiling.

It gave me what my colleague Dror Liwer likes to call “An unexpected moment of delight”. It’s something we strive for (but honestly don’t always achieve) in all of our work. When we hit that sweet spot it’s something special.

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Tweets Want to Be Free

tweetsfree

Like Dennis Miller used to say (back when he was funny), “I don’t want to get off on a rant here ..” But the opinions expressed below are my own and not Zemoga’s. So hopefully that qualifies things a little bit.

The title of this post is a play on Stewart Brand’s famous quote, “Information Wants to be Free”, originally uttered way back in 1984. You would think in the intervening 25 years that we would have seen that truth permeate our society. The continuing struggle to combat media piracy, the rise of the Open Source movement and entire generations that have grown up with easy access to both information and distribution platforms , should have rendered this entire discussion moot, right? Read more

 

Digital Design for the New Audience – the Challenge of the "Always On" Web

Google Bryant Park-1We’ve talked before about the coming ubiquitousness of smart phones. Verizon’s recent announcement that they will reduce prices on all their phones (except for two models) to under $99 is only going to spur this trend. Within ten years we may even see the concept of paying for phones disappear (or at least see them become so cheap that they are essentially free). It’s not inconceivable to picture smart phones having the same sort of consumer penetration that landlines or the ultimate mass-market communications platform, television, currently enjoys.

That’s a major shift in digital access and it’s going to have a significant impact not only in the US (where new economic classes will have be online on a consistent basis for the first time) but also abroad (almost all of those 300 million Indian honors students mentioned in this video will have digital access too).

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The Sole of User Experience

We’re always talking about how UX (user experience) isn’t just something that matters in website design. Companies like IDEO are perfect examples of putting the user experience at the heart of your design. This remarkable video from GOOD magazine, interviews Robert Fabricant of Frog Design on how he wants to take the principles of user experience and put it in a place you might not think of … the soles of your feet.

(link via http://thestimulist.com/)

 

Summer Reading Zemoga Style

summer-reading

Even the Zemoga team takes a break every once in a while. As we mentioned before, a bunch of us have been traveling far and wide on a quest for a little summer relaxation. Of course, one of the great benefits of long plane rides and isolated locales is a chance to unplug from the digital world, recharge the batteries and maybe take a little time to think deep thoughts.

Nothing gets us headed in that direction more than a good read. And with new books from Douglas Rushkoff, Chris Anderson, Brian Solis, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith among the new releases there’s no shortage of choices. Here’s just a taste of what the Zemoga crew will be consuming on our travels over the next few weeks:

THE ZEMOGA SUMMER READING LIST

Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t by Kevin Maney Read more