Digital media: explained by others, compiled by me, presented to you

Google in the midst of creating a mobile phone device. I know! We just got used to the iPhone craziness. Rumour has it the first device with this software (called Android) will launch will happen in the States sometime in November. The phone is built by HTC and will include Google software and lots of other features.  

Web Monkey studies the six reasons why the iPhone will deliver where Android won’t.

There’s also some talk that it’s more than just a mobile device and might reach TV sets. The iPhone already acts as a universal remote for the Apple products, so this isn’t too big of a surprise.

This is pretty big because it’s Google, a company that offers free usage on products that have traditionally gone with a paid-for model. For example, they have a free-to-use documents path that leads users to services that work just like Word and Excel. Its Analytics service is used by many companies (and me!) as a free way to monitor website usage. Did I mention all this is free? Perhaps this phone is another device that may, or may not, shift how business is done.

Bring this up next time someone asks you why you don’t have an iPhone yet.

This post from Julian Cole on Adspace Pioneers in Social Media marketing is interesting. He lists the top 12 moments that help define some of social media moments for advertising. It’s a clever look back at how social media has grown in just three years. It has gone from a niche service for the computer savvy to everyone on the planet, then slowly back to niche.

Organic’s Three Minds outlines whether niche social networks will attract marketing dollars as corporate media focuses its attention on the idea of spreading the word online.

I just wonder if the marketers will get it right in the niche world. If they don’t speak the language, or end up insulting those in the group, it can backfire. Also, some marketers are using social media all wrong. As ReadWriteWeb pointed out,  why is there a site for those who want to talk about cat litter? 

It would be OK if the litter site turned into a place where users could mock the ability to comment on kitty litter. But I guess that would put the delicate brand into the hands of the masses. It happened at Amazon.com when its users could describe their experiences with every product available, including groceries… and Uranium Ore. One favourite: “This Uranium Ore facial scrub has given my skin a beautiful glow!”  Also read about Land Tanks “… it also has plenty of room for groceries.”

Sadly, Amazon took down the over 1,000 reviews for milk.

Let me know if you’ve seen other ridiculous social media sites.

There’s a new music site called Jogli that boasts over 12 million albums and 500 million songs. And it’s all packaged into an easy-to-navigate site

Don’t judge me, but the first thing I looked up when I came across the site was Duran Duran. Maybe I’m nostalgic, or maybe I wanted to age myself. But after searching and finding a link to their not-so-popular New Moon on Monday song (and realizing I hadn’t seen or even thought of searching for that video since I was 12), I watched it.  What a horrible video. But what a good service to see it on.

When Jogli launched the video, it started up (courtesy of You Tube) with additional information such as lyrics (wow! even the lyrics are bad on New Moon on Monday – and yet I still love it) and the song’s album information. 

I won’t touch the copyright implications, although I’m sure this will work as an easy tool for future lawsuits against You Tube. This site is pretty cool, though, and it’s all still in beta.

Some work-related… and not work-related fun:

The phrase we hear more than anything when it comes to the web is “how do we monetize this?” Well, if you’re starting up some social media on your site, or you’re about to, Mashable offers up some interesting tips and a suggestion to read a blog by KD Paine.

If ROI measurement isn’t your thing, maybe you’ve always wanted to know what your name would be if it were a piece of IKEA furniture. How’s that for a natural jump in logic! For Your Reading Pleasure translates into FJÅRD YOUR REDDING PLESJUR. Foryourreadingpleasure is:  SFORIÅYRREDDYNNGPLESJUR.

Speaking of funny names, my pal once typed in her name, Jayne, and it spell checked “Do you mean Kanye?” Read her stuff for some really funny observations on life. And any comments to her should be address as Kanye, for kicks.

No. Seriously. She will probably try to kick me if you do that.

And yes… she did push For Your Reading Pleasure on her site too, but that’s what teh interwebs (sic) is all about!

This news is everywhere to those who love wordgames, Facebook and copyright infringement. Yes, I’m sure someone loves copyright infringement. Scrabulous, the incredibly popular Facebook game that played an awful lot like an online game of Scrabble, if off Facebook for North American users. Speculation runs rampant that it’s down because Hasbro (its IP owner since the ’80s) just debuted its own Scrabulous inspired Facebook Scrabble game, thanks to a partnership with EA Games.

Why is this news? The new marketplace is about “if you don’t build it, your fanbase will.” Scrabulous was huge on Facebook (approximately 2.3 million users) because it played well (once the bugs were sorted out). It’s success was built purely from word of mouth (or in this case, word of the Facebook wall). Seeing this potential of losing possible revenue, Scrabble’s IP owner Hasbro decided to sue in a New York court. This lawsuit started back in January 2008, but only now the hammer has been dropped because EA’s version is online and available to North American users.

This has given Hasbro a whole lot of bad press. So much bad press that someone hacked the Hasbro Scrabble game. 

I used to play Scrabulous, so much so that I almost considered buying the Scrabble board game. I’m sure many other users gave money to Hasbro via Scrabulous. This will be interesting…