Ice Painting

Betamax photo courtesy jurvetson at Flickr CC

Ear to the (Geek) Ground:Tech News You Can Use

Thanks for joining us today on the Webinar!

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Your Nerd Guide...

Sheila Scarborough

@SheilaS on Twitter

I love talking about this stuff!

If I don't know the answer I'll try to find it for you.

It IS hard to keep up with all of this (I consider it part of my full-time job and it's near-impossible for me) so find yourself a tech guide or tech mentor.

Someone a bit further out than you just on the horizon if they fall out of sight, you may not want to go there. :)

If you follow me on Twitter, please at me and say Hi!

What This Is....

A broad-brush look at:Tech/social media trends

What those trends might mean for you as a communicator

Always asking the So What? question

We're covering a lot of territory, not enough time to go into much depth.

I want you to walk away ready to do more research in the areas that make sense for your business

I want you to be able to say, I've heard of that....

What This Is Not....

A note-taking test!

Reference material will be availableGeek Dashboard Pack handout

Slides on SlideShare.net

So, put down the pen/keyboard if you'd like, and let's get nerdy....

The Geek Dashboard Pack has links and references, and is a good place for starter kit information about today's topics.

SlideShare, if you haven't heard of it, is a wonderful research resource (and it's Google-indexed, so your SlideShare channel is another way to get your content found. Title, tag and describe with that in mind!)

Big Themes for Today

Search engines and SEO

Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality

(Pause for mid-session Q&A)

Mobile and smartphones

Google Voice, Buzz and Wave

Location-based games and apps

(Wrap-up Q&A)

I'm going to blast along here, but making every effort to leave time for questions at the halfway point and at the end.

Search Engine Changes: Lots!

Google search engine changesReal-time, personalized and social

Google's niche search enginesBlog search, books, images, video

Other search enginesTwitter, YouTube, Facebook, Bing, Yahoo

Lots of shifts and changes that you may have missed in life's general hullabaloo, so we'll skim through the big ones here.

Your Search Isn't My Search

Control key closeup courtesy renatotarga at Flickr CC

It used to be that if you and I sat down and searched for great microbreweries in Nebraska in Google, we'd get the same results.

Today, if you do that, our results might not be exactly the same.

Here is why....

What's New in Your Search

Recent Google changesAdding real-time data: incorporating tweets and Facebook information

Making it personalized: keeping track of your search activity and tailoring your SERPsSERP = Search Engine Results Page

Making it social: letting you find out what your social circle is saying

** Real-time: Bing added Twitter, MySpace and FB Fan Page results first, and now Google has them as well plus Google Buzz posts (not all show for all searches.)

** Personalized: Google tracks your search data and keeps it for up to 180 days (used to be opt-in, but is now opt-out.) Your results are targeted to your previous preferences (SOX for baseball vs Sarb-Ox for accountant) so you may have different SERPs than someone next to you searching the same term. Is this a problem/echo chamber?

** Social: What results do your friends like? (my social circle is ppl connected thru Google my G. Profile is pretty complete, so lots.) Do you even want to know? Make content something ppl want to share!

Drilling WAY down

Google's niche search enginesBooks

Scholar: academic papers, theses, abstracts, court opinions

Images

Video

Blogs: http://blogsearch.google.com

As you can see, Google lives to organize information.

If you search Web, you will get a mix of results (news, text, images, video)

If you want to get very specific with pages of results, go to the specific search engines.

How to Keep Up with Google

Most people never look past the Web link at the upper right, but all of the other Google search engines, tools and services are findable through the drop-downs here.

For the truly curious and geeky, go to Google Labs for all the newest experiments and products.

Other Search Engines

Latest comScore data shows Google holding about 65% of the U.S. search engine pie

There ARE other search engines:Twitter....http://search.twitter.com

YouTube....2nd largest search engine!

Facebook....insane growth

Bing....innovating, market share increasing

Yahoo!....still out there

** Twitter search: Although we just heard this week that every tweet since the beginning of time is going to the Library of Congress, Twitter Search only goes back a few weeks. Best for pulse checks.

** YouTube: Although owned by Google, when broken out it ranks as 2nd largest worldwide.

** Facebook: (with a FB account) enter search terms in the Search box, get back related people, pages and results from your FB friends.

** Bing: 12% - Market share increasing, I'd never bet against Microsoft when stakes are so high and they have money. Richer more visual, intuitive search (4sq data going to Bing Maps: what's hot, literally!)

** Yahoo: 14% - still a player

So What?

Best SEO practices aren't One Size Fits AllOne Size Fits Most will....mostly....work

Know how your customers searchVideo: do you have any? Is it SEO'd?

Is your content mobile-friendly?

More plain language/full sentence search

Increase in the use of nearNeed a dry cleaner near Interstate 10

Craft your content to contain the words that your customers use to search

Always create content with search in mind. Keywords matter everywhere. Don't obsess, but....

For example, your Facebook Fan Page updates now matter for SEO.

Title, tag and describe your videos and photos; the bots can't see photos or video (yet, HTML5 in video may change that) but they can crawl text related to those visual items.

Remember that people are driving around looking for info on a mobile device. If your sites are a pain to navigate on a smartphone, people will vote with their Blackberries and iPhones and go to sites that CAN use.

Augmented Reality

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Example: Spotted by Locals

A presentation on SlideShare called:

Augmented reality for city travelers

So What?

How can you augment your customer's reality?

It's just additional info: what database does the service use for listings?

Are you IN those listings?

If you're in travel/tourism, this is a big deal

Want Some Virtual Reality?

Second Life is Still Alive

Training in Second Life courtesy Working Inworld Blog

** Dell

** National Geographic

** A SLURL is just a SL URL.

Example: National Geographic

Blog post about their presentation/participation in a Second Life conference:

Virtual Reality for the Real WorldNational Geographic's Blog Wild

Virtual Reality Can Mean Business

Mainstream organizations use it for training and conferences

Saves money, engages participants

So What?If you're in the events/conferences/training industries, consider a virtual reality component

BlogHer in Second Life gave me my startGreat idea for sold-out events!

The Pause That Refreshes:
It's Q & A Time!

555 LED flasher candy creation (courtesy oskay at Flickr CC)

Mobile/Smartphones

Mobile

Mobile

Mobile

Mobile

Mobile

OK, no, really....MOBILE

Just went to a corporate event as part of a speaking engagement, very not-trendy group, and iPhones and Blackberries were everywhere.

iPhone = total game changer

Android = power is in the spread of many devices across all carriers

RIM/Blackberry = not dead yet

Nokia = still dominates the planet market share, but are they too late? Never count out those Finns! Many thought Motorola was dead....

Smartphone courtesy rianvanu on Flickr CC

Combination of smartphones and social networking is incredibly powerful.

Those of you who remember the Dick Tracy watch? Well, it's here.

Mary Meeker on Mobile (at Web 2.0 Summit)

Meeker thinks were in a new computing cycle with the mobile web. Meeker believes Apples iPhone and iPod touch are leading the way here, big time.

She thinks the mobile web will be 10 times as big as the more traditional desktop Internet, and that it will grow much faster.

She also notes that the technologies around it are exploding: Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G, Bluetooth, etc. And all of this is exploding in a recession, she notes.

(as quoted by TechCrunch)

Meeker is a Wall Street securities analyst who has been covering the tech scene for years.

Mobile/Smartphones

This is how people are looking for infoEx: Walt Disney World mobile version

Grandma is on Facebook, AND....She has the Web in her purse

New twist: livestreaming to the WebQik.com, USTREAM Mobile

Makes everyone a $50,000 TV news van

So What?

If you do nothing else today, go figure out how to make your site(s) mobile-friendly

Try Google's mobile optimizer: http://www.google.com/gwt/n

Have a WordPress blog? Try MobilePress:http://mobilepress.co.za/

More Google Toys

Google VoiceA portable phone number (implications for mobile) and voice-to-text

So What? One number to rule them all.

Google BuzzMaking gmail social but not private

So What? Not everything is better when social

Google Wave (here is mine)Possible collaboration tool

So What? Docs/presos via email STINKS

** Google Voice is still in beta, so invite-only, but anyone can request an invite. Might be worth checking out

** Buzz - Sharing in your email IN box not always a great idea. Anyone could see who you email and connect with the most.

** Wave no one really knows yet, but interesting to watch.

Great example of collaborating in the cloud, as with Google Docs. Can attach large files to a Wave, people can replay it if they come in late, very flexible.

Location-based Games/Apps

Foursquare and Gowalla

How they work

So What?Physical presence of customers

The fight to be mayor is good for you!

Customer tips on venue page are feedback

Venue checkFoursquare: Whole Foods flagship, Austin TX

Gowalla: Whole Foods flagship, Austin TX

What's the big difference? Not a whole lot. Maybe that Gowalla is more geared to the travel experience (with Nearby Trips) & photos

Foursquare is badge-collecting, Gowalla's game is more of virtual items in a passport more like virtual geocaching/scavenger hunting in some ways. More share-y and fun in that way.

Which phones they work on, which cities have venues. Name recognition key for each brand. Others incorporating location (Yelp, Twitter)

Key in blog post comment: Winner = who can make check-in/local info more fun, useful and relevant

Takeaways

Get some tech mentors to help youGeek Dashboard Pack handout has some

You really need to pay attention to :Mobile

Video

Location-based services

SEO: your content all counts, so make it count

Whew! Thanks for Coming Today

She's geeky! (courtesy Cambodia4KidsOrg at Flickr CC)

Go Get Nerdy

Sheila Scarborough

@SheilaS

Co-founder, Tourism Currents

This presentation was made with Impress open source software