Now you can get a map of an area downloaded to your Android device so that map can be viewed offline. As we see this is only for Android devices (at least for now) the divide between iOS and Android grows wider and wider.
Along with this announcement comes an improvement in the Street View functionality as well. The Google Lat Long blog tells us
When you’re presenting a highly-anticipated conference to the entire world, it behooves you to come up with some exciting antics to keep the audience engaged and talking.
I’d say Google succeeded when they hired skydivers, extreme bikers, and a mountain climber to deliver their latest product to the stage. Even more amazing, they followed the progress using Google+ Hangouts. To quote an old TV show title, that’s incredible!
The product was Google Glass, the lightweight, “unobtrusive” pair of glasses that doubles as a webcam and mini-monitor. When you wear them, you can broadcast a first person video of whatever it is you’re doing.
You know that old saying about content being king? Well, it truly is on Google’s brand new tablet the Nexus 7.
Google introduced the product along with several other key items and online upgrades at the Google I/O conference which is currently running in San Francisco. The conference is aimed at developers and from the beginning you could see that Google is working hard to open up the Android platform in hopes of getting more apps and more innovation.
The other thread running throughout the presentation is the idea of seamlessly moving from one activity to another and if anyone can make that happen, it’s Google.
If you are the NBA you should be feeling pretty good right now. Despite a strike shortened seasn you just ended on a very high note where your most loved and hated player, LeBron James, finally got his ring (although his big mouth lessened the impact since he was talking about 7 championships in Miami but no one said he was sharp).
The trouble is that though the season ended with a bang how do you make headlines now? Well, you have a player who ultimately gets fined $50,000 for using an anti-gay direct message on Twitter and your esteemed commissioner uses the subject of wife beating as a wedge against a pesky reporter. In this world of online reputation potholes the league is now axle deep in two when it should be promoting one of its greatest moments. All of this after the league went through the trouble of putting on the first annual social media awards show!
There is a lot of interest in teens these days. That’s not so special because there is always interest in teens. Of course most of that interest is self-generated. No one is more interested in teens than themselves which, in this ‘me, me, I, I’ social media world we live in, only enhances the already natural ability to focus on themselves with incredible intensity (I know from which I speak having a 15 yr. old daughter so don’t think I am writing in a vacuum here).
The folks at Common Sense Media put together an infographic from data collected in their report ‘Social Media, Social Life: How Teens View Their Digital Lives’. It’s an interesting look especially for marketers because teens today are growing up with social media as the norm vs. something you learn. That makes them very different and important to keep an eye on for the future.
Social media and email are like brothers. One is flashy and exciting and gets all the attention, while the other gets the job done with little fanfare or praise. I’m guessing you can figure which one is which.
To get the best of both worlds, Experian Marketing Services’ CheetahMail has added the hottest trend in social media to their old school emails and the results are pretty sweet.
Late last year, CheetahMail began adding Pinterest functionality to some of their email campaigns. With one (or a few) clicks, consumers could link products listed in a promotional email directly to their Pinterest pinboards.
In the case of Ballard Designs, an online, home decor store, the returns were significantly higher than previous campaigns without the “Pin It” icon.
Before social media, the success of a marketing campaign was generally measured by ROI — how much did we make, versus how much we spend.
But when talking about Facebook, Twitter, or other social media campaigns, that number is rather illusive and sometimes non-existent. This leads us to the discussion of brand awareness versus conversions, which leads me to a great quote from AdAge.
In a recent interview, Erich Marx, Nissan’s director-interactive and social-media marketing said,
“From a pure ROI standpoint, are we selling hundreds of cars through social? No. But social media has to be a responsible part of any media package now. You have to be there. It’s not about ROI, it’s about COI– cost of ignoring. It’s too big to ignore.”
by 
by 
