The good
The tile interface. The Android/Apple cold war has lead to a similar UX for the two largest smartphone platforms. On Windows Phone 7, my Facebook, Twitter and other social accounts are all aggregated into my People tile. No need to flip through separate apps for all of my separate social networks. Emails and upcoming meetings are even previewed on tiles so I do not need to dig into an app to review my information- they’re all consolidated into one experience. The concept behind this was to connect you to information as quickly as possible, getting you in and out of your phone in a few gestures so you can go back to your life without missing a beat. Very cool.

Attention to detail. The interface elements, scrolling and subtle animations that guide the interface are intuitive, snappy, and just plain fun. I love how updates flip through to my home screen as they happen. No need to check individual apps as the newest news is pushed to me directly. Even the system fonts tout a polished design that looks crisp onscreen and has a subtle hipness to it. You won’t find Times New Roman here.

The bad
Camera experience. The software is clunky and the Samsung camera is slow, although overall image quality is pretty good. This will disappoint iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S users but could be on par with midrange Android and older iPhones. No doubt your mileage will vary depending on your particular phone, but the laggy response and clunky UI were somewhat disappointing.

Disjointed Syncing Experience. Much to my surprise, nothing happened when I plugged in the WIndows Phone 7 to my Mac. There was no included documentation on connecting my device either. After a Google search, I was directed to a file on Microsoft.com for a Mac-compatible Windows Phone 7 media manager. Unfortunately, the file was a 4kb text document that contained a link to the “real” URL in the Mac App Store. Very lame but easy to fix.
Then once I managed to load the software, I had stability problems as the app forced my Mac to restart after one freeze and took an incredibly long time to load just one album. This was a pretty lousy experience, and I’m hoping Microsoft works to educate users where to find their software and improve the application experience.

The Potential
Windows Phone 7 has a ton of potential through its genuinely fresh take on organizing our digital lives through the tile UI. But for me, the honeymoon ended when I tried to sync the device. Specifics like including quick-start documentation with the phone to updating the content mess on Microsoft.com that send users on a wild goose chase are easy fixes to get users what they need.

Updating the Mac media manager is mission-critical for Microsoft to be taken even remotely seriously on the Mac platform. While you could argue Microsoft should prioritize the user experience for Windows users, I think it’s shortsighted to see Apple’s OS X tied only to the iPhone.

Windows 7 has already won praise from mobile critics and I think the platform will only gain momentum as developers create more apps and services, effectively replacing RIM as the “big three” companies dominating the mobile landscape. Unlike Blackberry, Microsoft proved it has the chops to develop a genuinely new approach to mobile, putting the user first. I think 2012 will be the true demise of RIM, plagued by software delays, disappointing hardware and corporate mismanagement. In it’s place, I can see Windows phones rising to the occasion, dramatically increasing market share.

I really want Windows 7 to succeed. The system feels fresh and will force Android and Apple to up the ante to deliver even better user experiences. While I’m not quite ready to trade in my iPhone for Win7 just yet, I think Android may see Windows 7 turn into a formidable opponent. And with integrated Office support, I can see the Windows platform destroying RIM’s Blackberry platform and stealing this business-oriented user base. Microsoft has a ton of potential here. Windows Phone 7 feels more like XBOX than Windows- and that’s a great thing.

In this third and final installment, Senior Developer Kevin Malone shares his thoughts on Facebook’s workflow improvements from a tech perspective.

What are they going to break this time? That’s probably the question most Facebook application developers were thinking at the start of the f8 2011 conference. When it comes to Facebook, change can be scary. While users of Facebook get all worked up over interface changes, those of us who build applications on top of the Facebook platform have legitimate concerns. Namely, did the changes break our applications? Unfortunately, it happens more often than anyone cares to think about.

Thankfully, this post isn’t about what Facebook broke. It’s about what they have made better. Facebook has introduced a number of changes that will make the lives of developers a bit easier.

Platform Documentation

All platform documentation has been updated. With clients increasingly asking for Facebook applications or integration into their web properties, we need documentation that accurately reflects and describes what can be accomplished using the platform. If we’re to push through new and compelling uses of the platform, we need a place to validate the functionality we would like to create. Only time will tell if the documentation will remain current.

As part of this change, the top 5 related questions from the Facebook-specific version of StackOverflow are included in every page of documentation. For those of you who aren’t developers, StackOverflow is an invaluable resource for getting answers to development related questions, and Facebook recently partnered with StackOverflow to create a Facebook-specific version of the site.

Developer App updates

The Developer App allows developers to create and manage new applications. Some of the updates to the Developer App outlined below have been rolling out over the last month or so, but they were officially unveiled at f8.

Let’s not be friends

Previously, users who were given roles on an application (admin, developer, tester, insights user) had to be friends on Facebook. This created an extra step to adding and assigning users to different roles. Previously, the user with the role of application admin (or developer) had to first friend the user. That user then had to accept. Once both users were friends, the application admin could then assign the user a role. Now, there is no requirement for users to be friends on Facebook in order to jointly work on an application. This greatly streamlines the development process, saves colleagues the discomfort of getting more personal than they might like, while reducing time spent curating personal profiles.

User groups

You can now add Groups to any role within an application. If you don’t have a Group already created, you can create one right from the Developer App. If you already have Groups created from previous applications, those Groups can be easily added. This makes it nice if you have a team of people that always develop or test your applications. You can create the appropriate Groups and manage those Groups like you would with any Group on Facebook. By adding a Group to a role, you don’t have to add each person individually, eliminating the risk of leaving someone off the list.

Test users

The ability to create test users is essential to testing the functionality of any application on the Facebook platform. For example, how would you know if the code you wrote to crawl a user’s social graph is working if you don’t have any users to test against? For obvious reasons, you wouldn’t want to add real users to an application that is in development.

Developers have been able to create, manage, and add test users for a while now, but it had to be done using the test user API. Now, developers or application admins can create and manage test users through the application settings within the Developer App.

Before the introduction of the ability to create test users (and I’m sure it’s still happening now), people would create fake accounts for testing applications. However, be warned, Facebook is actively searching for fake accounts, and they will be removed as they are found. You can’t blame them, either. Fake accounts are also created for spamming, and we can all get behind a more safe and secure Facebook.

Where am I going to host this thing?

One of the first things a developer needs to know is where the application will be hosted. Whether it’s for QA or production, every application needs a home. In a few simple steps, you can now add Heroku application hosting directly through the Developer App. If you don’t have an account with Heroku, one will be created for you as part of the setup process. You can choose the development environment you want to use: PHP, Node.js, Python or Ruby. As part of your application hosting, a Git repository (version control) is created and a sample application is installed on your site. You can be up and running in a couple minutes. Even if you don’t end up hosting your production-ready application on Heroku, it can be a great resource for hosting the QA version of your application.

While these updates may not be as high profile as the new Timeline or News Ticker, they are key to simplifying the process of developing on the Facebook platform. The quicker we can get our apps out, the better it will be to refine and iterate on them.

We’ve asked our team to comment on the changes to Facebook announced at the F8 summit from the perspective of different disciplines. In this second installment, our community moderators, Lauren Lindsay, Steve Mannino and Amy Gosalia look at user reactions and community management challenges.

Lauren: Changes in User Behaviour
Facebook’s move to the Timeline is going to make users focus first on altering and updating their own profiles. The yearbook-like format means a lot of work for people who’ve had Facebook since college and are now going to have to downplay years of partying photos. During this transitionary period, we may see a slight drop in brand interactions, as users pull their attention away from the Newsfeed to focus on making sure those old pictures won’t cost them their jobs.

I’m interested to see how users can take advantage of the organization factor of Timelines without many personal photos. Some people just don’t use Facebook as a place to display photos of themselves – how will they keep their timelines interesting? Will book apps and updates have covers attached to them? Can you put in movie clips attached to the movies you’ve seen?

With Open Graph, Facebook has removed the need for the self-measurement aspects of using GetGlue, Foursquare, and a host of other self-reporting apps. Right now, I’m using them to keep track of what I’m reading and doing as well as to get badges and points. If they introduce badging and rewards, many users will probably never need to use those external apps again.

Lastly, I wonder how much Andy Samberg was paid to be Fake Zuck. It’s interesting to see how much of a cultural spectacle a developer conference can be. It’s sad to say, but I find myself more interested in the fallout from F8 than in any political debates and speeches. I think this may be because Facebook is making it explicitly clear what effects these changes will have on my day-to-day life, which politicians don’t accurately do. Isn’t that a little strange?

Steve: Common User Apprehensions
With every change to Facebook’s functionality, we always see a backlash as longtime users question their loyalty to the social network, feeling as if “big brother” is making its move. With the changes announced at F8, this effect appears to be amplified.

If we take a step back and really look at the two major new features, Ticker and Timeline actually represent very minimal changes to publicly available user data. Yes, Timeline will definitely be a big change in the way that data is represented, but in reality it’s simply a new, fluid way of viewing all the content users have already been sharing with friends and connections.

Everything in the Timeline was already available to everyone else; it’s just now readily available in a user friendly experience, threaded by year.

With the upcoming integrations with other services like Spotify and Netflix, Facebook promises to provide value to the user as well as an increasingly interactive environment, simplifying the sharing they were already doing via multiple apps and plugins.

So, to the Facebook users who see these changes as an invasion of personal privacy, just remember one thing: Facebook is still an opt-in medium.

Amy: A Community Manager’s Perspective
The unveiling of Timeline during September’s F8 presentation has created quite the social media buzz lately as users try to navigate through Facebook’s new features. Emotions have been mixed; some see the changes as an opportunity to humanize their profile while others think the changes are unnecessary and pose even more complications to an ever-changing Facebook user interface. But what will these changes mean for brands and how will companies engage consumers past the “like” button?

Currently, brands have a limited bag of tricks when it comes to pictures, posts and content distribution. Once content has been posted it has the potential to fall into an abyss as users have the option of hiding status updates – no one wants to be bombarded with promotions and meaningless chatter! If Facebook does indeed decide to roll out Timeline for brand usage, not only will this present a huge opportunity for engagement but it will completely change the game for companies on Facebook.

Brands will now be able to shift their primary focus from building and maintaining conversations to compelling content that tells a story. Instead of treating Facebook as just a community that’s updated post by post, moderators will be able to connect with consumers on a more emotional level by capitalizing on the infinite scroll feature that is Timeline. Brands will be able to speak to the present as well as the past, reigniting nostalgia and forgotten sentiments. The look and feel of Timeline brings Facebook closer to a blog and away from a “chat-like” forum. It will be interesting to see how companies use Timeline to their advantage as it opens the door wide open to be creative and think outside of the box.

In our third and last post on this topic, CM’s tech team will discuss the ramifications of the proposed changes from a developer’s perspective.

Leif: Overall, I think the new Facebook interface has a lot going for it and at the same time, may have some hurdles besides the general distaste for change from users.

Brand Implications
It will be interesting to see how the new Newsfeed and realtime content Ticker will impact impressions and engagement on branded content from Pages. Already, we’ve noticed that impressions are no longer published on brand posts. How will “Top Posts” integrate branded content or will it at all? Will brands, in the future, be able to buy “Top Posts?” If branded content is not published as frequently or is secondary to Top Posts, will consumers and fans interact with brands as much as they did before? If so, how will brands prepare for decreased engagement?

News Feed and Ticker
The revamped Newsfeed and Ticker went over like a lead balloon with users, due perhaps to its unceremonious introduction. I’ve heard the Ticker called “a Facebook within a Facebook”–Inception style. It is and it isn’t. It offers the most up-to-date, low impact information for the user without congesting the Newsfeed. I’m all for it. The more ways a website or application can organize and publish information, the better. They say it’s all about the information, when actually it’s all about the organization and analysis of the information.

Well done Facebook. I don’t know if it was your tactic to change over Newsfeed and Ticker before the keynote, to get the “Facebook Change Hate” out of everyone’s system, then present the “pretty-change” that everyone loves and can’t wait to get their hands on. If it was, ingenious. If it wasn’t, well, it worked to your benefit.

Scot: From a measurement standpoint, the Facebook changes announced at F8 – while very welcome from my perspective as a user – have so far amounted to no change at all in my role as a data analyst.

The new design and sharing elements are undeniably cool, but despite the changes, Facebook remains the only party with full insight into any users’ integrated history, and the exchanges across the social graph created by its users.

Implications of Open Graph
Facebook’s business is still built on targeted marketing and its expansion of interest signaling from “liking” to any verb will certainly improve its ability to target based on unique and shared interests. Every business on Facebook would benefit from an understanding of their consumers’ shared interests and key influences across their social graph, but Facebook retains a tight hold on their sole position as market-maker.

With their changes in user experience and interactive capabilities, Facebook is seeking to solidify a place as the one true personal portal. In this context, marketers need to immediately begin a shift from thinking of Facebook as a forum for messages from brands that users have liked, and/or a system for serving targeted ads. What Facebook ultimately wants to to with its data is drive highly targeted and personalized apps serving every sort of commerce, and I’m sure they have a plan to extract some value for their role in each exchange.

Facebook Insights
Facebook Insights offers a very shallow level of insight into users and their engagement in the social graph. The Facebook API and Facebook Query Language (FQL) have historically offered some opportunity to access more depth in users’ interests and interactions, but access to the true depth of insight into preferences, influences/influencers and social interactions available to Facebook itself has always been stifled by API limits and awkward FQL indexing schemas.

Ultimately, marketers have no right to the data that Facebook has collected, so there is no real basis for protest from this standpoint – we data-driven marketers must take whatever Facebook is willing to offer.

The exchange for the new and fun ways to express your “true self” and interact with “friends” is that this can only happen in Facebook. While it’s true that all of the information you enter into your profile can be exported (in Facebook’s token nod to calls for data portability), none of your history of activity on Facebook – your likes (and now other verbs), the comments you’ve made on other posts – none of that stuff that is the true core of your Facebook use and history, that is of true value for marketing insight, none of that can actually be exported. That history is not yours, unless you stay in Facebook. (To paraphrase the Eagles, you can check-in any time you like, but your data can never leave).

In a truly open semantic web, each individual could access and share any part of their prior history of digital interaction as well as current interests and preferences within and across that web with any party or site, and for any purpose, be it social exchange, play, commerce, etc. Facebook is becoming a really compelling place to hang out online. Unfortunately, Facebook’s current model seems aimed at becoming the only place to hang out online, at least if you want a web that understands your preferences and networks. (Read a longer post from Scot on Intelitecht.)

*In our next post on this topic, CM’s team of Community Moderators will discuss the changes from a branded user’s perspective.

…Especially when that flying object comes flying out of the screen!

With every recent Hollywood blockbuster available in 3D I ask myself if this is a new technology that makes entertainment better, or if it’s simply a throwback to the cinema experience of the 1920s.

Developments in technology and the film industry might determine if 3D trend here to stay or a technology gimmick that will a be a stamp on the second decade of the 21st century. How will 3D affect our work and devices? Will I have to wear those goofy glasses in order to do my job?

Why is 3D so popular?
For one, it sells. What a great way for the movie industry to offset the audience created by the growing segment of home movie viewers. We all know it is now more economic to wait for that movie to come out on Tivo or Netflix (which are gearing by the way into broadcasting 3D soon) than spending $80 for the family at a theatre (popcorn included). So your nearest movie theatre will charge $3 to $7 more for a 3D movie compared to a regular viewing.

But we’re only talking about movies. What about TV content? Should we get as excited about American Idol in 3D? Maybe not, but TV producers can be as resourceful as movie producers to generate a new audience, and we might see in a near future more TV shows geared for a better showtime for a 3D audience at home.

I still have a puzzling question in the back of my mind: do I need to buy a new 3D TV, when I just bought a new flat screen TV 2 years ago to watch the brand new release of The Bridges of Madison County on Blu-Ray?? Since I shed a tear for that movie every time, my 3D glasses might fog up!

As a consumer, I am confused by the different technologies out there.
Samsung doesn’t use the same viewing glasses as Sony, and does it mean one is better than the other? Yes there are manufacturers out there with TV screens that don’t require glasses, but so far, the picture quality is less than satisfactory.

A few companies, like GoPro, have introduced this year hardware and software support for 3D. Now instead of one camera, you get two (but not for the price of one) so that you can film your skydiving jump, or your mountain bike ride, and edit it at home on your PC. They have simplified the filming and editing steps so that anyone can create their own 3D movies to be posted on Youtube. And that’s where I can see an application for it, because the “wow” factor works with motion and action.

I can also see the practical application of a 3D monitoring display for surgery, or any other scientific field of research that would benefit of a three dimensional environment.

The Current 3D Experience
I don’t want to be cynical, but there are a lot of signs proving 3D isn’t a new way to enjoy a feature film. The first one being: it’s not new! Our theaters are bigger, the images sharper, the sound crisper and louder and with James Cameron’s help, it’s all shot in digital format. But the only improvement in 3D is how we view it. From Anaglyphic red and blue glasses, to polarization, alternative-frame sequencing, and auto-stereoscopic, there’s many different methods to make that monster appear to reach beyond the screen.

Nonetheless, news articles, customer surveys, and recent studies all agree: 3D can be a painful experience. The pain comes primarily from poor video editing, pulling on some eye muscles that are not meant to be strained- Just like that carpal tunnel syndrome with your computer mouse! Catching a 3D flick here or there won’t send you to the hospital- the most common effect reported is dizziness.

These feelings are caused by misalignment during the editing process mainly, as the editor might not properly set up the 3D planes. And low-quality recycled glasses with warped lenses can cause even more discomfort.

Unfortunately, many Hollywood feature films are poorly rendered in 3D, and only a few are ready for a pleasant experience. But it’s just the beginning, and the flaws that come from the start may disappear as the industry fine tunes 3D techniques. But for now, the audience is still left with a pair of glasses to wear, yes even if you have a 20/20 vision! Or worse, if you don’t have a good vision, you have to now wear a double pair of glasses!

What it means for the interactive world

I see an interesting use of 3D online through digital channels. Wouldn’t it be cool to explore the inside of a car in 3D? Or spin that shoe around in front of your nose before you order it online? For me personally, as a video editor, it’s an other technical challenge that I’m ready to learn.

From the NAB show in Vegas this year, I did learn that it wasn’t an easy  learning curve, and also that software manufacturer were actually challenged. 3D editing almost doubles the hardware requirements of regular editing, and because of the complex nature of it, it is a interface design challenge as well. But all of this put aside, we must consider our audience, and just like a plugin to download and add to a browser, we are asking them to make a step towards a new viewing system.

So far Hollywood is showing no signs of slowing down its 3D film production, and might impose on us a new way of entertainment to be the standard. There are still room for improvements, and I can’t wait for the day where this holographic feature film is jumping at while I’m savoring my popcorn, with no glasses!

Yet, the audience might get tired of the trend and realize that watching a movie in theaters is becoming expensive. I still rather enjoy beautifully shot cinematography and a great script on a 2D screen, but that’s just the photographer in me speaking.

No matter how much we advance, I’m reminded of a quote from director Christopher Nolan: “I don’t particularly enjoy watching films in 3D because I think that a well-shot and well-projected film has a very three-dimensional quality to it, so I’m somewhat sceptical of the technology.”

Google’s highly anticipated foray into social media networking, Google+, debuted to the broader public last week as invitations began leaking out to those participating in its limited trial. Given the high-profile failure of Google Wave, and last year’s rumors of declining innovation after of a rash of executive defections to Facebook, we felt justified in greeting Google’s entry into game with some misgivings. After a week of exploring the network’s landmark features and mercifully simple interface design, we are pleased to report that there is quite a lot Google has done right. That said, it may not be enough to kill the elephant network in the room. It may be most interesting to watch them continue to compete toe-to-toe and find a way to co-exist.

With the web full of hyperbole like “Facebook-killer!” and “game-changer!” we thought there might be room for a reasoned look at the network’s features, benefits and the opportunities they present for private users and brands.

*Because we’ll be referencing Google+ features throughout the post, feel free to reference our friendly Glossary of Features at the end.

In the Beginning…
It’s still in the invite-only beta phase of rollout, and users are coming online in a steady stream. Google hasn’t released usage stats yet, but a list has already surfaced of the top 100 Google+ users by followers, with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg topping the chart at nearly 45,000 followers at the time of this writing. If we make the thoroughly unscientific assumption that half the population of Google+ has Mark in their “Following” Circle, then Facebook can probably rest easy for the time being.

Due to the invite-only nature of the membership spread, the current population seems to be mainly tech-loving early adopter types (or Nerds, for short.) Most of the conversations in our feeds still seem to be about the experience of using Google+, rather than the spontaneous posting you see on Facebook and Twitter. Given that Google has tried twice to shoehorn their network of Gmail users into a social network–and failed twice, gaining membership is stepping into the territory of “forced.” Considering that Twitter and Facebook grew naturally, if Google+ needs to be explained, hyped and artificially made “exclusive” we don’t feel positive about the ability to truly compete with the giants. If it were, somehow, to catch on with the hundreds of Millions of gmail users who now have access to the network, that wont be something for 750,000,000 Facbook accounts to sneeze at.

What’s the Benefit for Consumers to +1?
Consumers tend to be resistant to change when it comes to social media, but when a vocal majority adopts a new network and abandons their old haunts, the rest follow. The network has some key differentiators that could tip the scale in favor of its use.

First up, Sparks. As a long-time advocate for a healthy and profitable transition of traditional journalism to web, Jeana is wild about the potential of Sparks. In its current state, the tool is more Google Alerts than Google Reader, which is a pretty big missed opportunity given the value of Google Reader. Right now, you can only create a Spark that pulls in content from search term rather than a source. This integration would make Google+ a little like having all of your smartest friends in one room, along with Wolf Blitzer and all of the authors of NYTimes Bits blogs.

Next up: the multitude of communication choices that are hardwired into the network. By bundling low cost video conferencing, with the customization privacy of text-based posts and seamless mobile integration, Google is positioning the service as the switchboard of the Internet. Every niche network that you could think of has a counterpart on Google+. Google really wrapped its arms around the breadth of social networks and represented as many as it could in its first iteration: check-ins, photo sharing, news aggregation, video sharing, status updates, chat, video chat, group chat and I cannot confirm, but probably Ashton Kutcher. If uptake is swift and support is ongoing, this could be the angle that sells Google+ to a large group of users. (He’s a social network, right?) Google should be feeling the pressure to get Hangouts and Huddle up and running on the double, particularly after Facebook’s announcement of their own video chat powered by Skype, both for groups and one-on-ones.

A factor that may slow growth is the network’s current lack of applications and games. The purists among us may hail this as a decision that will keep streams free of clutter and obnoxious Farmville requests, but excluding a fun factor from the network could make it a hard sell to people who like to use social media to unwind and catch up. As a result, the network may always be a niche destination, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Brand Opportunities
Brands have a unique opportunity on Google+ that they don’t have on Facebook–they can interact with consumers in the same way that they interact with each other.

Google says brand pages are coming and companies are currently discouraged from starting their own profiles, but that hasn’t stopped early adopter brands from descending upon the service. Social Media news blog Mashable already has over 9500 followers and are seeing a lot of responses to every post. Starbucks even has a rough-in for a profile, but no activity or posts have been published, so it’s difficult to tell whether the page is the real deal or an early example of brand squatting.

The brands in there now are commenting on fans’ posts, adding influencers and consumers to their Circles and sharing with different Circles as they see fit, creating tailored content based on known customer interests or soliciting feedback from beta test groups. Ford Motor Company’s profile started out syndicating content from their Facebook pages, but has been engaging with users a little more actively recently, trying to feel out the type of presence people want to see in the space. With interactions that focus more on the excitement and controversy of being the first major brand active in the space and next to no comment on the brand’s product or content, it leads to the inevitable question: What is the strategic value of being first past the post if the core audience is currently elsewhere? As well, addressing many unique Circles will quickly become exhausting for a single moderator, which means a brand looking to fully explore these possibilities can’t expect to run a Google+ program as easily (or cheaply) as a Facebook page.

An additional considering in in the inherent focus of the network on individual use. Perhaps this means that the stronger opportunity is for more individuals to step up as brand representatives. The Google+ structure makes it possible to do this without the reps being forced to make the choice to be either professional or personal. They can interact with friends and family in their “real life” Circles, and present an entirely different face to brand followers and work acquaintances. Given how much consumers seem to like certain brands that have a transparent “face” (ie. @ExpressLisaG, Barry Judge from Best Buy or the everlasting example of Frank behind @ComcastCares) this could be a great way for brands to expand their usage of social media and encourage more truly social organizations internally.

Hangouts presents a huge opportunity for brand representatives with a following to host Q&As, demonstrate new developments, get real-time product feedback, and give users the experience of knowing an accountable and inspiring representative at their favorite brand.

All these opportunities call for a solid content strategy from brands looking to enter the space. Given the current audience, just syndicating the push marketing content that brands release on other networks will likely fall flat in such a news-driven sharing environment. This is good news though; it will force brands to develop a more interesting and compelling story to drive engagement.

While tracking sales is likely to prove just as difficult as it’s been on other social networks, brands with a stake in reaching Google+’s demographic can capitalize on high awareness at the moment, and those who move quickly can expect to enjoy big fish prominence in a pretty comfy pond.

Although we’ve tried to look at both pros and cons, opportunities and threats, we’re struggling to look at Google+ in its own right. At the heart, this is a toe-to-toe battle with Facebook–there is no blue ocean here. It will be a critical six months to watch who sinks, who swims and who must redefine.

What do you think?
Have you been using Google+? Where do you see it going?

Glossary of Key Features
Circles: Your social connections are grouped into Circles (e.g., Friends, Best Friends, Family, Colleagues), which essentially define your relationship to those people, allowing you to assign each post to the appropriate group. The privacy afforded by this selectivity is one of the greatest advantages Google+ offers over other networks.

Sparks: The Sparks tool automatically aggregates content according to subject area and delivers a feed of articles and sites of interest directly into your information stream, mating the functionality of Google Reader with the immediacy of Twitter. It’s a little hard to find, as Sparks can only be initiated from the Welcome page, but once set up, they’re visible from any screen on the site.

Hangouts: Hangouts are meant to be video chatrooms where groups of friends can spend time together online when they can’t be together in person. You have to download the Google chat plugin, and the functionality has been full of glitches in these early days. We have yet to successfully initiate a Hangout, but the technology remains promising, and at least the error image is entertaining.

Mobile App: The iPhone app is currently clearing the App Store, but iPhone users can access a mobile browser version.

The native Android app provides location-based check-ins and a super convenient Instant Upload feature that natively syncs photos and video to both the mobile and web galleries with no upload time or physical connection required. The group messaging service Huddle is currently offline for maintenance, but offers a BBM-like environment for coordinating real-life group meetups.

On top of books, furniture and Kindles, Amazon also sells a comprehensive suite Web Services used by a number of big players along with thousands of smaller ones. These web services are often used by developers and application maintainers to help alleviate some of the struggles often encountered when trying to “scale up” their web apps by deploying them to Amazon’s “cloud”. Well two of those services (EC2 and RDS) went down on April 21st, and they went down hard.

The outage took out sites like Netflix, Foursquare and Reddit for several hours (and some cases even days). Blame’s been placed on developers improperly using Amazon’s Web Services since sites like Twilio were unaffected, others say the customers shouldn’t be blamed. Either way, it’s clear both Amazon and website owners learned a lot this past month.

LastPass Loses Portion of User Data, Handles Situation Responsibly, Blogosphere Ruins It for Everyone

If you’re unfamiliar with LastPass, they provide a great service that makes it easy for almost anyone to create and sync secure passwords across computers and even mobile devices.

Last week, however, LastPass posted a fairly detailed note about one of their databases being compromised. They detailed how user data was still safe and encrypted and the hackers would still need the users master password to unlock any useful data — which could potentially be deduced with the data the hackers if the user had a weak master password. To mitigate this, LastPass enforced users to change their master password. Problem solved. All was well, right? Potential P.R. mess diverted, right?

Wrong. As soon as the blogosphere caught wind of the situation it went nuts. As this blogger notes: “LastPass acted exactly like we wish most companies would act: responsibly. And the media’s response? Declaring LastPass ‘hacked’ and ‘vulnerable’”. Morale of the story: P.R. is hard with bloggers.

Sony Loses Personal Data of 70 Million Customers

The names, billing addresses, birthdays of 70 million Sony customers was obtained by “an unauthorized person” last month according the Playstation creator. This is one of the largest security breaches (if not the largest) I can remember in recent history.

There was some speculation that Sony was running out of date software, others say that’s not the case. In any case, with a breach of this scale on a company like Sony, it’s hard not to wonder if all an attack like this takes is a capable and determined hacker(s).

We learned a lot about our smart phones recently, and about the kind of location data they track about us. A post on the O’Reilly radar blog provided a downloadable application where iPhone or iPad 3G users could see all of the location data being recorded about them on their device.

Just as the blogosphere usually goes, initial assumptions were that Apple was sending GPS data back to their data centers and major privacy concerns were raised. After things cooled down, we learned that it was actually cell towers and WiFi hotspot locations being sent anonymously back to Apple.

Oh, and we found out Androind and Windows Phone 7 does very similar things.

Maybe it’d be better if we all just disconnect for a couple weeks.

QR Codes Are So 2010 — 2011 Is All About The NFC
In 2011, NFC has nothing to do with football — although you might be able to buy the next game’s tickets by swiping your cell phone at the ticket booth. NFC stands for Near-Field Communication, and it’s coming to a mobile platform near you. Near-Field Communications is a method for transferring bits of data over short distances. One popular use (already very prevalent in Japan as Mashable mentions) is mobile payments. A number of big players like Amazon, Google, Apple and Microsoft are already rumored to bring support for NFC-based technology to their existing platforms. Time will tell as to whether or not we’ll be able to replace our wallets with our phones.

Java Creator Leaves Oracle, Joins Google
The man known as the godfather of the Java programming language and former employee of the Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems, James Gosling, is now at Google. Normally, such a move wouldn’t mean so much but as we know Oracle has raised a copyright/patent lawsuit against Google over their implementation of the Java technology in the Android platform. While it’s been a bit of a tug of war thus far, it’ll be interesting to see what effect the acquisition of the Java inventor will have on the suit and whether or not this sets any precedence for future suits.

Firefox 4 Beats Internet Explorer 9 in Initial Release
With all the buzz around the release of IE9, I think many were surprised to see Firefox 4 blow past Microsoft’s new browser in terms of downloads. While Microsoft has been typically slow to push users to the new version of their browser through Windows Update, I suspect them to do so more hastily than they have in the past. Microsoft has seen a sharp decline in the use of their browser over the past decade — and for good reason. They’ve refused to follow standards and have, in my opinion, set the web back at least 3 years. But IE9 is a great step forward, and I applaud Microsoft’s efforts to not only create a fast browser, but to listen to developers.

However, I think the bigger story might Google’s Chrome browser eating away at both Mozilla and Microsoft’s browser market share…

It’s time to bring the traditional resume into the 21st century. Creative job seekers can gain an edge in today’s competitive market by integrating social tools with their application. It’s not just any resume; it’s your digital resume.

Here I am, fresh out of school and, after a tiring search in post-recession adland, I’ve landed my dream job in Critical Mass’ exciting Calgary office. From creatives to project managers to developers, from augmented reality to iPad – this is where it all happens, and for some of the biggest names in the business. I was one of many students armed with only a degree and no experience to back it up, so how was I lucky enough to end up here?

I did what I was taught and used digital tools to make a new kind of resume, one that highlighted my marketing skillset instead of my restaurant know-how and proficiency with a cash register. This isn’t a top ten mash-up you’ll read on a thousand other blogs and it’s not a kooky MadMen-esque story from advertising’s infancy. It’s worthwhile advice that actually works; or, at least it did for this (former) student.

By now it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many employers do online background checks to study up on candidates before the actual interview. As a job seeker, it’s becoming increasingly important to manage your online presence. As a result, some opt out entirely, or use an abbreviated name to make themselves harder to find – seemingly a clever response to a new kind of problem, but it’s not bulletproof. After all, others can still write about you or tag pictures that you would prefer they don’t. Information is going to slip through the cracks and when it comes down to it, burying your head in the sand isn’t sound strategy.

A BETTER WAY

A different approach is to embrace new technology and use it to your advantage. The fact that recruiters are willing to do extra research and really get to know a candidate is a good thing. This is an opportunity to add a personal element to an otherwise impersonal job application! Even better, being transparent about your opinions and interests – and showing that you have a functioning social filter – reduces the risk to a potential employer because you’re no longer an unknown. It isn’t a handshake introduction, but it’s the next best thing – and taking advantage of this opportunity is downright simple; include digital content in your resume that points recruiters to tailored social feeds, blogs and profiles.

There’s another perk to using this type of tool though: it makes your application stand out. A surprising number of candidates in the U.S. pay lip service to their innovative qualities, so it seems like this is something employers are actively seeking. The problem is that it’s generally hard to prove whether you’re actually innovative or just think it sounds like a good buzzword. A digital resume is proof that you’re not afraid to think or act differently.

By embracing and controlling the digital channels, you can highlight job skills that will make you attractive to employers. If somebody types your name into Google, it can be difficult to control what pops up, but, if the information is on your resume and easily accessible, you can cut out the middle man and control the process in your own way.

SEVEN THOUGHT STARTERS

1. You’ve got headings for “Education,” “Work Experience,” and “Interests” – maybe it’s time to add a social header to the mix. Some possible titles: “Connect with Me,” “Buzz,” or any other name you like. This is new territory for most so enjoy the freedom of blazing a new trail! For example, I included a short description of my career goals and aspirations under the heading “140 or less.”

2. Use about.me as a single launch pad for your online profiles. Better yet, buy yourname.com and design your own. Giving your potential future employer a single, clean link and placing it in a prominent location will help encourage them to make the cross-channel leap.

3. Don’t dismiss your online contacts. Relationships online, and how you manage them can have an impact in the real world. There’s a lot of noise on a site like Twitter, but you should always try to remember the person on the other side of the screen. I actually got introduced to a Creative Director at Critical Mass through a contact I met on Twitter and something like that can definitely help you get your foot in the door.

4. Blogs demonstrate thought leadership. Good blogs are the result of time spent reflecting on and responding to the problems and issues faced by professionals. Another option if you’re time-stressed is to use a platform such as Tumblr or Posterous to link and react to articles across the web (presumably you’re reading them already so this is fairly low effort). Finally, there’s another benefit to blogging that people don’t talk about often – when you go to the interview, you’ll already have answers prepared for the tough questions.

5. LinkedIn is a no brainer. Chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you’ve already built yourself an account there, so I’ll just share a few quick pointers. Connect with a few local groups, and if you can make real world contacts through those groups then you’re doing better than most. You can also put up an online portfolio if you have some work worth sharing and be sure to get a few recommendations from your peers. A word of caution: LinkedIn has an option to distribute either all of your tweets or some of them. Remember that this is a conservative audience, so don’t blindly dump your Tweets into LinkedIn. The nice thing about this network? If an employer takes a look at your profile, you’ll know.

6. YouTube is more than silly videos. Try creating a personalized interview before the interview (be enthusiastic, but also professional) as an introduction to the person reading the cover letters. Explain why you would be a good fit in sixty seconds or less. Practice, practice, practice and don’t post it until you’ve got your elevator pitch perfected.

7. Consider QR codes (2D bar codes that link mobile phones to a web page) as your call to action on the physical page. If you do, be sure to optimize your profile for mobile and show them you’re on the ball with up-and-coming technology. Also, remember that QR codes are designed to solve a problem in print. A QR code on a computer screen is just a gimmick (unless you have a good reason for switching to the smaller screen).

FINAL THOUGHTS

Connect your online profiles. An integrated strategy works better for marketing campaigns and the same is true with your social presence. Answer questions on Quora, write blog posts about ideas you get from Twitter and put a deck that condenses the topic on SlideShare. Then bring it all back to LinkedIn and About.Me as well as any other tools you’re using. Save clippings of interesting articles using a service such as Instapaper, Trunk.ly, Delicious or Pinboard.

Remember that there will always be new tools, but sometimes it’s the originals that are most effective. Here’s an example: I made some connections through a local hockey message board because other users began to read my blog. Keep your eyes open for opportunities, sometimes they come from the most unexpected places.

Deciding what you’re going to do with Facebook is a tough call. I prefer to keep it personal, but you might have another strategy – be sure to manage it appropriately because nobody’s going to believe that you ‘get’ social media if they see the pictures from last weekend’s party plastered over the Internet.

Consider your audience. Social Media is a perfect fit for advertising/creative-type jobs or even smaller businesses looking into the social space but in some positions, especially where confidentiality is important, being open could be seen as a liability. In this case do your best to keep an untarnished image online and tread softly.

Lastly, be awesome (seriously). It doesn’t hurt to be human, but you do need to approach social with the same kind of attitude and work ethic that you would the office. Remember that everything online happens in the open and is permanent so try to play to your strengths and always put your best foot forward. Select a template if you’re not a web designer; think carefully about YouTube if you’re not an editor – these are personal selling tools, not magic pills.

Hopefully these ideas will inspire you to build your first digital resume and maybe they’ll be as helpful for you as they were for me. But here’s a closing question for you… What’s the best way to describe this new breed of resumes? Are they Digital, Social or eResumes? Do you think we’ll witness a shift in how job applicants approach their search in the next couple years or is the traditional resume simply an untouchable part of corporate culture? Let us know what you think and good luck in your own job searches!

Andrew is an Associate Planner in the Calgary office.

The electro-bass voided, the rock and roll of the high-tide faded, the scene of holiday boaters and people dancing on boats for the sake of a three day weekend blurred into a distant background and suddenly my ears fell numb to all but the words “Finding these vulnerabilities, you can train a monkey to do it… But at the same time, hacking is about the path of least resistance. There’s no need to overly complicate things if a simple sequel injection can work.”

Those chilling words, spoken by Patrick Stoey, a key contributor to the Biggest Cyber Crime in History, were recanted in the June 10th issue of Rolling Stone. Albert Gonzalez, commonly hailed the “Capone” of Cyber Crime, enlisted Stoey and dozens of other hackers to execute some of the most sophisticated hacking heists of all time- targeting hundreds of high-profile companies like TJ Maxx, Barnes & Noble, and 7-11. The most pervasive of them all pirated the credit card numbers of over 130 million Heartland Payment Systems customers.

I put the magazine down for a minute to digest what I’d just read. As sympathetic for the victims as I naturally wanted to feel, my rationale classified both parties as naive. If a monkey had the brains to make off with hundreds of millions of credit cards and check out with millions in cash from a series of hacks that impacted an unquantifiable number of people, then “farming” money from 400 App Store Users seems like no-brainer to me.

Catching both stories simultaneously put a lens on the state of my own information security, pin-pointing it’s gaping holes and flimsy insulation and the more I sought to isolate my vulnerabilities, the more of myself the lens began to reveal. In a World boasting ease of access, we can quickly and efficiently maneuver into, out of, and between windows. So easily in fact, that we’ve begun treating them like the ones on our homes, leaving them open for a cool draft of cyber crime to circulate within and swiftly cash out. As the evolution of Web 2.0 has begun shaping the way we work, it has blindsidedly begun to shape the way we are.

Our everyday social behavior on Web 2.0 and mobile applications, can tell us a lot about our vulnerability to cyber crime because web applications and related technologies accounted for 82% of all security vulnerabilities on the web last year, according to a report released by Cenzic, a leader in web application security. More sobering than that, are the vulnerabilities themselves- Cyber Criminals not only capture our private data but our behavior as well. The top ten vulnerabilities on the web today fit seamlessly into the little things we do online everyday, living on the profiles of those we “add as a friend” but vaguely know at all, yet we trust to share our play-by-plays with and trust the info they share too. They patiently wade in the background of sidebar widgets on websites we trust enough to visit everyday. They hang out behind the buttons we so love… I mean “Like.” They dress themselves up as character limit-friendly little links and do all of the things we do on the websites we visit most

Using a scenario we commonly run into on Facebook as an example, the Flow Chart below demonstrates the ease of access a hacker has to execute the top ten types of attack mechanisms on the web today in one fell swoop.

This is the scenario to which we go through in interacting with applications all over the web; granting them access to our identities, then authorizing them to use and share it. Because these applications are being accessed through the social networking sites, web and mobile apps that we know and trust, we naturally assume they’re safe to use. But by simply injecting a malicious code into a web or mobile application authorized continuous, two-way communication with us like the action demoed in the flow chart, the hacker is positioned, depending upon the complexity of his code, to execute all top ten attack mechanisms on the web today at the push of a button…

And all because you wanted to play a little game.

While I hate to play the role of devil’s advocate, I think the saying goes “you get what you give” and our social behavior seems to indicate that for every identity stolen, there’s one given away and a filthy rich monkey saying “damn, that was easy.”

So now you’re probably wondering how you can protect yourself from Web 2.0 Cyber Crime; I found these tips, from a Web 2.0 Hacker himself, infuriatingly helpful.

Lindsay is a Community Moderator for the Nissan Altima and the Nissan Quest, working from the CM Chicago office.