Tip of the Tail

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Facebook Connect as the basis for a new kind of adsvertisign platform

I think it is entirely feasible to create an ad network specifically for Facebook connected sites, that are able to serve relevant content based on information scraped from a users (and their friends) Facebook profile (which is precisely what Facebook connect gives a site access to). The idea is very much related to Media6's ad platform, but instead of looking for overlaps and interactions between cookies on specific "socially relevant" sites, this would map directly to a user's social graph. What is more is that the ads, more than highly relevant, could be personalized. The display advertisement could theoretically have an output field with the user's name highlighted... or maybe the name of their girlfriend... or maybe the name of a family member whose birthday it is.

Think about this example: Amazon integrates Facebook Connect and can now see what you have listed as favorite movies and favorite books. This information could be used to make even better recommendations than Amazon's recommendation system can make alone. Furthermore, they could see what books and movies your friends have listed as favorites, and on top of that, how relevant each friends taste is to your own based on how frequently you connect with those friends. All this information could make for much more sophisticated recommendations. The way this example is different than the information listed in the Facebook Connect deck below is that this would be a specific agency built on this idea, who would specialize in developing the necessary algorithm's for delivering relevant ads based on Facebook Connect data... It is unlikely that Amazon would invest to develop such a system, but it is likely they might white label a system from an agency that does only that.

Another far fetched idea would include the include the extra data richness of applications, some of which map even deeper information than what a Facebook profile is capable of by itself. For instance, the Ancestry application indicates who is in someone's family... the causes application indicates what someone really believes in and stands for. I think you are beginning to get the idea.

In addition to this, this platform could figure out which advertisements you are likely to click on, based on which advertisements your friends clicked on, and how relevant that friend is to you based on how frequently the two of you interact.

So in summation, an advertising platform premised on the information derived through Facebook Connect has X advantages:

Relevancy: It can serve highly relevant content based on a wealth of information you have provided yourself, along with the implicit information derived from your social graph / context.
Targeted: Facebook could advertise directly to you, using your name or the names of those close to you.

Some of this may sound big brother-ish, but given the fact that advertisement is here to stay on the internet, should it just be something that is relevant?

Friday, January 2, 2009

Thought on the Kindle

When is the Kindle going to open up its platform for third party developers? The opportunities both within and outside of reading on the Kindle are tremendous:

Reading:

Highlighting - Get a page of just your highlighted text with annotations and footnotes automatically appended. This would surely popularize the Kindle with students.
Note Taking - I love to write notes in my books, and if I could do this on the Kindle, that would improve my position regarding its value!
Touch Screen - This would be in the service of highlighting, but also a more fun way of flipping from page to page. It would restore some of the tactile euphoria lost by the transition from an analog to a digital medium.

Other:

Pictures
Games
Web browsing

Just a tentative off the cusp list... Any additional thoughts?

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

My Brush with Chris Anderson

I had a fun accidental exchange with Wired Magazine editor and author of The Long Tail Chris Anderson last night.

This is how it happened:

I was watching a TED video that I decided to share over Facebook. In order to do that, I have to copy the link to the video page, sign into my Facebook account, go to my profile page, and share it through the standard link sharing functionality found there. Recently, I helped Shiv Singh and Jesse Pickard publish a deck about Facebook Connect, Facebook's newest API which will allow websites to enables websites and users to:

Sign into a website using their Facebook Account
Import their social graph to third party websites
Design functionality and personalization around the data contained within the social graph
Export their activity from these third party sites, back to Facebook through the newsfeed feature

It's the type of thing that would work beautifully with a website like TED, given TED's naturally viral nature. On a side note, I also wanted to suggest that they set up an affiliate partnership with Amazon so they could promote TED speaker's books through the website, and at the same time develop a small revenue stream to help TED grow. So, I went to go find the feedback spot, but to no avail. So I looked for someone in the NY office that could possibly make a difference: I found their editor Chris Anderson. I happen to be re-reading The Long Tail right now and it just made sense that the author of The Long Tail, and the curator of TED should be the same person. Apparently, it is only a coincidence. At the time I did not know that, so I went to go find Chris Anderson's email address, which was surprisingly easy to do. Here is the brief exchange:

Me:

Subject: Facebook Connect & TED

Message:

Hi,

I don't think I really need to say much more than the subject line of this email… it would be great. I constantly send videos I watch on TED to my friends through Facebook, and have converted quite a few to fervent followers. I wish I could broadcast to my community every video I favorite without having to manually post the link.

That, plus the benefit of SSID and the layering of my social graph onto my TED experience would give me a lot more to do on TED than simply watch videos.

On a separate note, I think you guys should also be offering TED speaker's books on the TED website. Through an Amazon affiliate program it could even be a revenue stream for TED as well as a great way to help support the speakers. My intuition tells me that the community wouldn't be offended. I recently bought a book, a piece of which should have been diverted to TED instead of Amazon!

Thanks for a great website

Daniel Stern

PS - Not that it necessarily means anything, but I work in User Experience at Razorfish and have a love for social media, and I would happy to help participate in TED in any way that would make sense for me on a volunteer basis. I am truly a fan.

PPS – Thanks for The Long Tail… it was a great read!

Chris:Wrong Chris ;-) It's my namesake that does TED.

Me:No way… That's remarkable. Funny how it automatically made sense that you could be the curator for TED (particularly ironic since the other Chris Anderson also got his start in the magazine world). Sorry for the inconvenience, but I appreciate you taking the time to let me know.

BTW: When is your next book coming out… I've been waiting ever since The Long Tail. Also, if you want to mention something to the other Chris Anderson about Facebook Connect and why it makes sense for TED, I think it would mean more coming from you.

Chris:July 6^th…

Me:Cool… looks interesting, I am looking forward to it. Funny how The Long Tail became a hit, no? Good luck on repeated success.

In the end I felt like more of a nuisance than anything else, but it was a mildly fun and interesting experience none the less. I thought it was really big of him to take the time to write me and let me know that I had the wrong guy, and really indicative of the culture that exists on the web, and in the social media space.

There is one additional coincidence though, that I find worth sharing. The other Chris Anderson, the one who curates TED, also happens to have gotten his start in the magazine business. He started a company called Future which was responsible for more than 130 magazines including PC Gamer, MacAddict, and Business 2.0.

Anyway, that was my last night.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Net Neutrality Hullabaloo

The Wall Street Journal wrote an article on Monday that alleged Google's dealings with ISP's over CDN's and "edge caching" to violate net neutrality principles. The Wall Street Journal seems to have gotten the issues dead wrong, however, causing quite an uproar in the community. The most informative components of this article reside in the 'comments' section.

Furthermore, The Wall Street Journal drew the ire of Professor Lessig, an internet scholar at Stanford University. You can read his blog responses here (1st one), and here (follow-up).

The article also elicited a response from Google itself, which clearly delineates its intentions and limitations with CDN's and edge caching strategies, and futher expounds on its commitment to net neutrality.

What are the lessons is all of this?

1. The Wall Street Journal does not have a thorough understanding of ISP's, internet infrastructure, bandwidth, or net neutrality.

2. Professor Lessig is more preoccupied with defending that his position hasnt shifted, rather than the meat and potatoes whats really important here.

3. Google is doing nothing wrong by trying to bring content faster through the use of CDN's and edge caching.

4. Net neutrality is a really big issue that not enough people understand because they dont know enough about network infrastructure and the business concerns of ISP's and content providers.

5. Obama and the FCC better get this right.