Facebook & Google Racing to Establish In-Store Mobile Connections

A few months ago Google sent out QR code stickers for local businesses to put in their windows. If a passer-by snaps a picture of the QR code with their phone they're brought directly to the business's Google Places page where they can read reviews and learn more about the store. It would actually make more sense for stores to put the QR codes in other places, like on their delivery menus or on print ads, since when shoppers are at the store window they can just walk right in and experience the business first hand.

Well rather than be left out of the storefront window Facebook has now answered by shipping their own stickers that advertise a store's Facebook URL and the ability to "like" (formerly "fan") the brand's Facebook page via text message. As it lies now, Facebook's value proposition seems more significant. If a consumer is interested in the brand after browsing the physical destination, it's a great time get them to join the business's social network to kick off a lasting relationship. Google's Places page (at least right now) doesn't offer much to someone who's already been to the store.

It actually makes complete sense for Twitter to get in this game as well. I already see stores advertising on their signs to "follow" their Twitter feed, but that actually isn't so quick in a mobile client. Most people don't know you can just text "follow [twitter handle]" to 40404 to follow a profile immediately, but Twitter could definitely help stores advertise this.

Has anyone seen the Google QR or Facebook stickers in a local store? Which brands do you think make the most sense for in-store promotion? What type of offerings would you like to see as a product of the merging of web presence and physical presence through mobile moving forward?

The New York City Food Trucks are all Over Twitter

You can follow several of the popular New York City food trucks on twitter - keep up on where they're parked, what their specials are, even receive coupon codes for free stuff (like toppings on your waffles):

The Waffle and Dinges Truck 

The Treats Truck 

The Rickshaw Dumpling Truck 

You can also follow Midtown Lunch, though they haven't made any updates yet.

Any other good New York City finds for Twitter?

Using Jott to send emails from a phone call

You don't need a blackberry to have a multimedia phone - lately I've gotten in the habit of using a voice tool called Jott. Jott enables me to call in and voice a command of a location, such as "myself" or "calendar" and then leave a voice message. When I hang up, a transcription of the message (and a link to the message recording) is sent to the location I directed. Through the Jott website you can link email addresses, calendars, blogging tools, and more. Right now I have it set so when I call Jott I can leave a message for myself and it sends an email to my work e-mail address. This way when I am out at night and remember something I need to do the next day, I make a quick phone call and have it waiting for me in the morning. You can also set up a text messaging option, for when you can't make a phone call. On Jott itself you can keep track of your to-do's that you've sent to various locations, listen to your messages, organize them, set reminders, and more.

Yesterday's post reviewed: Web, Tech, Music, and Entertainment Analysis

Yesterday's post ended up being much longer than expected, so I wanted to sum up the major points made in the numerous sections:

1. We should be able to make purchases, initiate downloads, and more via text messaging.  Pizza Hut and Papa John's are doing it now.
2. Facebook continues to work on the news feed to improve it's value but it needs to open up to more sources of information.
3. Google Reader has a ways to go to become an information hub, and the first place it should look for features is gMail, and then ReadBurner.
4. Musicians need to stop fixating on the album and start embracing the single; the target audience has.
5. Video games are going the way of television and music in the modern era  - free, ad-supported.
6. HBO needs to speed up its embracing of streaming online to keep up with competition and cut off illegal downloading.

Love to hear your comments and thoughts on all of these points.  Read the whole thing here.

Technorati Tags: text messaging,sms,pizza hut,papa johns,facebook,news feed,google reader,gmail,readburner,music,musicians,albums,video games,ad-supported,hbo

Weekend Web, Tech, Commerce, Music, and Entertainment News from the Reader

It seems like there were a lot of small, interesting, news stories that came up in Google Reader (My RSS Reader) in the last three days, so I thought I'd lay them out briefly:

• Fred Wilson calls for companies to implement purchasing through text messaging, noting that texting is now a primary way that most people communicate, and small things like movie/song purchases could easily be activated through SMS. Jott is showing how much can be done via short voice and SMS. Interestingly I read in the same weekend that Pizza Hut and Papa Johns are now accepting pizza orders via text message; I don't advocate eating their pizza, but if sub-par fast pizza chains can leverage modern technology, I'm sure other commercial companies can take the next step.
• Facebook continues to refine the way information is added to the newsfeed, and what rights 3rd parties (applications) have in interacting with users en mass. I'm a big fan of the information stream (I wish people leveraged social resources more), and expect that it will change in a big way this year. Companies like friendfeed are showing more interesting progress, and that same technology could be used in Facebook to make the newsfeed more all-encompassing and more valuable. In any case it's good to see that Facebook is continually looking to improve user-experience and information value. [see my friendfeed page here or at the right of my blog or left of my facebook profile]
• Google Operating System has an interesting article outlining how Google Reader could benefit from features that exist in Gmail. All of the suggestions are strong, could leverage long term value out of Google Reader (similar to how adding search functions changed the information store value of Google Reader), and when you think about it, seem obvious. Another interesting web application, ReadBurner, is leveraging the shared item function from Google Reader to create a Digg competitor of sorts; this seems like an obvious application that Google could do natively stronger than ReadBurner could do, and I don't see how they can stay out of this space. Hopefully innovation rolls out in a big way in Google Reader this year.
• Mark Cuban wrote about how musicians need to let go of the concept of the music album, and recognize the success of micro-payment / micro-purchasing, i.e. the $0.99 cent single. He says 27 single tracks sold more than 100k times in a single week, which shows how big the single is, how big our threshold for small, inexpensive purchases is, and calls for bands to start offering subscription-type single track models. It's a good idea, and the next in a long line of suggestions that are being made across the web about how the music business could reform to fit the changing digital entertainment sales landscape. The larger point is this - the music industry is not dead; there is a lot of money to be made, all it takes is recognition that making money will require flexibility and innovation.
• EA announced they will begin offering games to be downloaded and ad-supported. This is newsworthy because it's the first real venture into ad-supported video games beyond the Pogo / Real Arcade / etc. free online casual games subset. EA is recognizing that there can be more engaging, higher-level games that fall between the casual game and the hard-core game, which will attract players if the price is right, which means if the price is free. By offering these games by online download, it also means that they can sell dynamic advertising to be streamed in like Massive does with XBox360, and that's a valuable opportunity for advertisers, which means it's a valuable proposition for EA. This could be a market-changing move by a company that has traditionally relied on a few big key franchises that come out at a significant price year after year to the same fans.
• HBO has started testing an online offering where HBO subscribers can access content via streaming broadband. On-demand movies seems like a must, with Netflix, Apple, and others offering it. The real question, though, is how they are going to combat piracy. Networks are finding that offering free content with ad-support online is a great alternative revenue stream and alternative offering to make illegal downloading less worthwhile (it is often about content accessibility). HBO isn't addressing this problem by only having offerings for their current subscribers. Ultimately all content that people can get for free somewhere (legally or illegally) needs to be unlocked and offered via value proposition to the masses.

Technorati Tags: google reader,gmail,sms,rss,text messaging,texting,hbo,broadband tv,streaming content,EA,video games,free,download,music,mark cuban,readburner,digg,facebook

Twitter Life Blogging and the Facebook Wall

Is anyone using Twitter right now? I imagine most people aren't even familiar with it, but the basic idea is short form blogging (a few sentances) that can be subscribed to via RSS and SMS (tex messaging) so that people can make mass statements to their circle of friends. It's basically text messaging to a group, but integrated into RSS so it can be mixed with other messaging sources.

I'm playing around with it, subscribing to a few feeds, but I'm not sure how it can add value to the average person. I suppose if everyone got into it this could replace or supplement the Facebook wall, which people use to update their social circle on their life, but would join up with news and information sources.

In any case, the average person in my life doesn't have a phone they receive RSS feeds on, doesn't have a pocket pc phone that makes it easy to receive 10 text messages a minute for information purposes. Without the ability to easily manage and consume mass information via mobile, does Twitter make sense for the average audience?

Speaking of the Facebook wall - how easy would it be for Facebook to become the start page for millions of people? They already spin in advertising directly into the news feed; let us ad our own news sources to our news feed, ad a Google search box up top, and you have a customized start page that would attract most of the 18 - 24 audience. Think about it, this would be so easy for Facebook to implement, and it jump ahead of Google Personalized or Netvibes in a second.

Technorati Tags: twitter, facebook, news feed, netvibes, google personalized, start page, text messaging, sms, rss

Text Starbucks to Find the Closest One Nearby (And Free Coffee)

Starbucks launched a new text message campaign where you can send a text message with your zip code to "MYSBUX" and you'll be sent back the closest 3 Starbucks to your location. To promote the new program, they're offering a free cup of coffee to anyone who comes in on March 15th between 10 a.m. and Noon.



This would be more interesting if it was GPS enabled; there are probably plenty of zip codes that have more than 3 Starbucks in them, so do you really find out which is closest to you?



Courtesy of Gizmodo, some Starbucks facts:

• Number of web searches for nearest Starbucks in 1/07 = 3 million
• Number of locations in the US = 9,400
• Number of new Starbucks stores opened every day = 4

Technorati Tags: starbucks, sms, text message, free, coffee

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