Your Head Explodes: iPhone in an iPhone

We’ve seen all sorts of augmented reality applications for mobile devices, with varying degrees of usability, but this one, created for Orange Telecom, definitely takes the cake when it comes to originality and craziness.

Created by augmented reality specialists Ogmento, the application lets you launch a simulated iPhone on your iPhone screen. You can zoom your virtual iPhone or spin it around, but (here comes the crazy part), you can also run applications on it. The virtual “apps” aren’t real applications, but still, if there ever was an iPhone app that threatened to break the time-space continuum, this is it.

Source: http://mashable.com

Putting a Bar Code on Places, Not Just Products

If you walk past the gift shop of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, or Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, or Cheeseburger Baby in Miami, the chances are that you will see a sticker in the window that has a Google Maps logo and a one-inch-square with a series of pixelated black-and-white cubes called a QR Code.

In the coming weeks, Google plans to send out 100,000 of these stickers, each with their own QR code, to a new demographic of businesses Google is calling “Favorite Places”. These favorites are based on search results from users interacting with local business listings on Google Maps.

Google Sticker A close-up of a Google sticker.

As Louise Story reported on the front page of The Times in April 2007, QR Codes have been around for several years across Asia. In Japan, for example, you can find the codes on food wrappers in grocery stores, helping customers get more information about calories or possible recipe ideas. The codes are also visible on bus stops, allowing access to up-to-date bus schedules, or in real-estate agents’ windows, allowing passers-by to click with their phones to view more images and floor plans of a property.

The idea sounds great on paper (or pixels), but because of privacy concerns in the United States, the process can be a little laborious in reality. First, you have to download the right code reader for your specific mobile phone.

Then, when you see a code in a store window, you have to start the correct code-viewing application, allow the application to access your camera, take a photo of the code, and then agree again to allow the application to use the image to open the particular Web page with the additional information. With all these legal hurdles, it can take 45 seconds or more to look up a code.

In Japan, by comparison, nearly all phones ship with an embedded QR Code reader, and the legal hopscotch doesn’t exist. Activating the code becomes a one-click adventure.

In most instances, when the experience works, it can be incredibly rewarding. In Google’s case, if you pass the myriad of legal warnings, you will be taken to an associated mobile Web page with rich information about a specific venue, including user reviews, a star rating, maps, contact information and a link to the Web site of the business.

Google is also promoting another great use of these codes by allowing businesses to share mobile coupons. You follow the same drill as above, but the end result shows a coupon on your mobile phone which can then be redeemed at a respective store.
Bits QR CodeThe New York Times A QR Code for the mobile version of Bits.

If you want to give it a try, you can download a code reader for your mobile phone and try out some codes on Google’s Favorite Places page.

Source: New York Times

The power of Social Media and UGC – Success stories

YouTube is probably the most famous example of the network effect power. It benefits from 2 closely interdependent factors: 1- the first mover advantage that allowed the company to 2- reach a critical mass of users. The paradox is that it's win-win situation: this critical mass gives as much power to YouTube than it does to the crowd. Users flock to YouTube because they trust their network, or at large the crowd, to find the best videos that are out there. They also find first hand information they wouldn't find somewhere else: it' the social journalism aspect. It's a snowball thing. And then great success stories happen with unknown people uploading a little video reaching fame and production deals. And that's the cherry top: who doesn't like a funny video or a great story where a John Smith gets a break.

Before telling you of 2 such stories reported by the BBC, I have to add that there is more than that to YouTube. First there is amazingly great content out there: I am thinking for instance about the TEDTalks videos. Second, there is so much content on YouTube that can you find tutorials about anything. People are stating to use YT as a Search Engine and that's where the Google/YT wedding makes sense. Search and content organization. Third, it's social and convivial, and a great sharing tool. Fourth, it's still under used by companies to reach their customers.

In conclusion, as promised, 2 success stories reported by the BBC.

- YouTube video leads to Hollywood contract
- Web makes Tajik migrant a star

The Social Piece of the Customer Service Puzzle

Social CRM employs the wisdom of crowds to improve service delivery. As customers search, shop, browse and work in forums, that information found to be most pertinent can be used to drive success for those that follow. Companies can quickly enhance service -- automatically changing, reprioritizing and improving information presented to a customer based on the collective input and insight of the crowd.

A decade ago, electronic communications channels were new to customer service. This discipline was dubbed "eService" and touted as an entirely different way of providing value to customers. eService came in a variety of flavors: Web self-service, email, SMS, instant messaging, to name a few. Many people felt that eService was completely different from a company's overall customer service strategy Download Free eBook - The Edge of Success: 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales. They were wrong.

Over the past decade, companies and their customers have grown accustomed to eService. In most cases, electronic communications channels have been merged into the overall service strategy and are considered by successful business leaders as just another way for customers to interact with the brand. While companies might handle eService inquiries differently on the back end -- compared to the traditional phone channel or in-store experience -- customers still expect the same type of service experience whether it's over the phone or via an electronic channel. In fact, businesses have gotten so used to electronic communications channels that "eService" has become simply "service."

It's important to keep the story of eService in mind when thinking about social media's role over the past few years in reshaping the ways customers interact with brands. Undoubtedly, the influence of social channels has been at least as profound -- and perhaps even more profound -- than that of eService. With social networks, forums, blogs and so on, customers now possess powerful, public channels for voicing their opinions, crowdsourcing and, ultimately, exercising their influence over how brands are perceived. Businesses are no longer in complete control of their images.

Because the popularity of social media engagement has risen with such fervor, many are advocating a need for completely different "social CRM" strategies. However, to be successful in the long run, companies must look at social channels as part of an overall strategy -- much like the evolution of eService -- ensuring that their brand remains aligned with customers across all touch points. Their service offering must be consistent across all types of communications. Business leaders need to devise and implement strategies for their employees to engage customers within social communities while keeping in mind the broader framework and philosophy of service at the organization.
Align Service With the Brand
Before companies extend their brands into the social arena, business and service leaders must ensure that they're controlling customer expectations and properly aligning the service experience with their brands. Customer service needs to be in line with the company's business model and meet customer expectations. In some cases, this means that the highest quality, highest-touch service may not be the best choice for supporting a brand.

If a company's brand offers low-cost, do-it-yourself products, then its customer service offering can reflect that with simple, self-help Web service and limited assisted-channel support. If a company's brand offers expensive products delivered with the utmost care, then its service offering requires multiple high-touch channels, including the phone and live chat.

Determining the type of service that best fits the brand requires careful analysis and understanding of service operations, as well as the nature of inquiries, customer preferences, costs and infrastructure demands. Businesses need to translate their brand promises into measurable service key performance indicators (KPIs) such as cost of service, customer satisfaction, retention and compliance overhead.

To do this, they must accomplish the following:

* Understand their target market and the customer segments within it,as defined by marketing;
* Understand the goals and objectives for each persona within these segments;
* Measure customer satisfaction and loyalty according to the different personas, or segments, by establishing benchmarks for relevant KPIs and using techniques, like the Net Promoter score, market awareness, and customer satisfaction surveys, at the end of each customer interaction; and
* Alter the customer service experience and re-measure the service KPIs so that business and service leaders are relying on hard data, instead of "instinct," to identify the best service experience for their brands.

Once business and service leaders understand how to align service with the core brand -- and have tested this understanding by improving service KPIs and meeting customer expectations across other, more traditional communication channels -- they can determine how to properly extend their brand into social environments. Businesses must apply the knowledge they've gained in these other service channels to define an effective social CRM strategy that reinforces their brand promise and remains constant across all service channels.
Social Media Moderating and Monitoring

Most businesses today have company forums and blogs that they moderate. The purpose of these social media outlets is to provide an open, constructive environment for information exchange between the community and the company. To be successful, these communities must be in line with the entire service strategy and uphold the brand promise. As with other service channels, businesses must actively monitor KPIs, regularly gauging the effectiveness of communities in meeting service expectations, and tune their offering based on results. Data gathered might be applied to, for example, improving marketing campaigns, updating service processes and aligning product offerings with customer requirements.

Dell's (Nasdaq: DELL) IdeaStorm discussion board serves as a good example of a moderated community. IdeaStorm helps the company determine which ideas are most important and most relevant to their customers. After registering, users are able to add, promote, demote and comment on content. Dell also influences rankings to promote content that it feels is important -- for instance, by polling user interest. The company demonstrates it's listening by labeling content as "implemented" once it has been incorporated into brand, product and service strategy. It's also actively measuring KPIs that allow it to determine whether it is upholding the brand and meeting service expectations.

Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) is also successfully moderating a community through its Comcast Cares Twitter profile. Social pioneer Frank Eliason established the community a few years back to address the overwhelmingly negative customer feedback the company was receiving across the social network. Because its customer base actively engages within Twitter, Comcast likely monitored the social forum from a distance before choosing to moderate its own Twitter community.

Businesses can also extend their reach of the brand by judiciously monitoring and reacting to feedback from communities that are not under the purview of the company. They are communities where customers express emotions and opinions about brands, products and their service experiences. They often include social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter; rating and review sites like Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Yelp; open source communities; and/or popular industry publications and blogs that solicit reader input.
Social Strategy to Support the Brand

Whether businesses choose to moderate or monitor communities, it's important they create a social strategy that is true to the brand and allows the company to control the service experience for their customers. Like any other channel, these strategies differ from company to company.

For example, a low-cost, do-it-yourself home improvement company with a loyal customer base might want to create a moderated community where customers contribute content. This fits with the customers' expectation of the brand -- one that listens to customer input but doesn't necessarily provide live agents to discuss the ins and outs of product and service offerings. Alternatively, a high-end retail brand that demands white-glove service may choose not to have a social media offering, opting to cultivate a client base in more traditional, face-to-face ways.

So, how can business and service leaders tell which strategy is right for their brands? The way they would for any other communication channel: experiment, measure and refine.

Businesses that haven't yet engaged in the social space should start slowly, picking a handful of communities to monitor. Based on their observation and careful measurement of core business metrics across these social channels, they can decide how, if at all, they will begin moderating communities and actively engaging customers.

Those companies that are already deep into social media should also be experimenting with ways to more effectively moderate and engage. They must continually implement changes, measure results and optimize their strategy based on hard facts. This experimentation loop is of utmost importance if businesses are to ensure that their social CRM strategy is consistent with other communication channels and aligned with the brand.

In the real-time world of the social Web, it's critical that companies drive a dynamic and precise strategy -- one that's just another arm of the overall service offering.

Source: E-Commerce times

War? There is an app for that!

American military contractor shows off iPhone application intended to help soldiers track and kill insurgents on the battlefield

In little more than a year, applications for Apple's popular iPhone have become a sensation - with more than 100,000 downloadable programs that do everything from stargazing to virtual farting.

But now one of America's biggest military contractors is taking the concept to extremes, by building a series of apps for use on the battlefield.

At a conference in Arizona on Wednesday, US defence company Raytheon announced its plans to launch a new range of military-oriented programs that can turn the popular touchscreen mobile phone into a tool for use in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first application in its plans, called One Force Tracker, uses satellite positioning and mobile networks to give soldiers constantly updating field maps that track the position of friendly troops and enemy fighters in real time.

The program – dubbed a "situational awareness application" by Raytheon executives – would combine data from many sources to try and give an accurate picture of hotspots such as sniper hideouts and vantage points. Troops could also use their iPhones for secure communication, said the company.

"We are committed to providing innovative technology solutions for warfighters and all of our customers," said Jay Smart, chief technology officer of Raytheon's intelligence and information systems business.

The application can run on ordinary iPhone handsets – a decision that came, Smart said, because building software for the gadget was cheaper and simpler than some of the expensive options specifically designed for military use.

"Raytheon's experience with mobile communications in the tactical environment and the government customers' need for low-power, simple plug-and-play applications led to the development of a real-time situational awareness application using Apple's touch technologies," he said.

It is not the first time the iPhone has been linked with military uses, however. Earlier this year Knight's Armament Company, an American weapons maker that supplies rifles to the Pentagon, launched a $12 ballistics application called BulletFlight which helps snipers and sharpshooters to hit their intended target.

Although it is most notorious for hi-tech weapons such as the Silent Guardian – a pain-inducing microwave gun - Raytheon, which based in Massachusetts, has a history of using popular technology for military purposes. Among its innovations are systems used in the unmanned aerial vehicles that are based on video games consoles.

One Force Tracker is not only for the battlefield, though. Raytheon told the Intelligence Warfighting Summit that the software could also be used – with some tweaks - by emergency workers such as doctors and firefighters responding to major incidents.

Source: The Guardian

Avent Calendar for Geeks… and Gamers

If you are as lucky as me, you have a traditional Avent Calendar at home. But to add a little zest to your digital life, here are 2 links to online Avent calendars.... This first one offers 1 free game for your iPhone everyday, and only during this day: http://appventcalendar.com/ . This other one, http://24ways.org/ "offers throughout December a daily dose of web design and development goodness to bring you all a little Christmas cheer".

Enjoy!

Google Publishes Zeitgeist 2009

Google is probably the hidden master of the world. I mean if humanity disappeared tomorrow, it could be recreated using Google's knowledge. It is the biggest content repository ever dreamed of, it also organizes this content and in order to do that, it studies our queries to understand what information we are looking for. In fact it publishes every year what are the most researched subjects in the world and by country. It's a fascinating snapshot of what's on our minds.... Have a look: Official Google Blog: Zeitgeist 2009: the collective consciousness

Twitter: What’s happening? Death of traditional information media companies

I think that Twitter made a great move by changing their tag line. I doubt that three years ago they were foreseeing that they had created an information network. Projections are that there will be 18 million users by 2010, that's about 12% of internet users.

There are many reasons to use Twitter. For one it can be fun. There are hilarious posts out there. But this is not the main thing it morphed into. As often, crowds have appropriated this new communication medium and made it what it is now: a unique real time information network. Because of its reach, ease of access (even in countries where acess is restricted by using proxies) and most of all instantaneousity Twitter proved to be a great way to communicate many to many and share information as it happens. We've seen it with the wild fires in San Diego in 2007 and people posting info about what they could see in their streets, with the recent Iranian elections and protesters organizing themselves using Twitter. One more example today with Tiger Woods car accident: the info was available on Twitter 45 minutes before CNN put up a breaking news. One last example, closer to home: a few months ago I was waiting for a friend coming from London to Paris using the Eurostar. Four hours after the scheduled arrival time, still no news from her. Nothing on the Eurostar's website either. So I turned to Twitter and sure enough I got info from people stuck in the trains and talking about electrical problems. It's the CB radio of the 21st century. With a platform where everybody can post and listen.

So this new tagline will hopefully help people understand what Twitter is about, better than the old "What are you doing?". Twitter is not a social network. It's an information network. Granted there is some filtering to do to find relevant information but the community is getting organized, using hashtags for instance and the platform is adding new features every day. This is the new preferred way of communicating: many to many. With self monitoring by the community. Think Wikipedia or eBay ratings. That is were marketing will need to get closer to sociology to understand how to communicate with their customers. They won't trust a brand just because of pretty ads anymore, no they trust and listen to each other.

Will Augmented Reality iPhone Apps be the driver to upgrade from 3G to 3GS?

The iPhone 3.1 update enables a new realm of “augmented reality” iPhone apps, which use the iPhone’s GPS, compass and accelerometer to impose a virtual layer of information over a view of the real world as seen from your iPhone’s camera.

Augmented reality iPhone apps will revolutionize the way we access information on the go.

The iPhone is already becoming the multimedia tool used to access the web on the go, doanload and read books, take pictures, watch tv and movies, read the news, play games, check emails, stay in touch with social networks, listen to music etc, etc and.... make calls! Now, with the new capabilities brought by the AR apps, the way we interact with the world will change forever. Information Age is taking an all new meaning!

Check out a few amazing apps available today in the App Store:

1- cAR Locator


cAR Locator is an iPhone 3GS app that shows you in the camera viewfinder where your car is located and how far away. Just press “Save Location” when you get out of your car, then point your iPhone camera in any direction and you’ll be reminded where your car is.

2- Cyclopedia


Cyclopedia shows you information about nearby landmarks and historic locations in your iPhone’s viewfinder. Point your iPhone’s camera at the Statue of Liberty, for example, and it will overlay the Wikipedia entry for that landmark. Cyclopedia relies on the 65,000 entries on Wikipedia that are geotagged.

3- Nearest Tube (UK only)



Nearest Tube is a UK app that shows you train/tube stations in the vicinity.

Source: appleiphonereview.com

Twitter on TV a reality in Europe

Twitter can be used for as many purposes as there are types of communication, many of them of great social and political importance as well as to monitor what is happening in the world. For many of us, it’s also way to discuss TV shows as they are broadcasted without running the risk of swamping a traditional message board forum with one-liners.

The one big hassle with this – and let’s be clear that “big hassle” is a relative term – is that most people have the TV show on one screen and their Twitter application on another. That can mean switching your attention between the TV and a smartphone, or switching back and forth between the TV and a computer including, in some particularly catastrophic cases, actually having to walk into a different room to share your views.

But not for long.

Viewers in France, Spain and Poland will soon be able to send and read Twitter posts directly on their television screen. That’s because mobile phone operator Orange provides integrated TV and broadband packages in which the TV signal is sent via the broadband phoneline, allowing interactive services to be built directly into the TV picture.

It’s not yet clear whether the Twitter function will be limited to particular programs or will be able to be used at any time (as imagined in our mock-up image).

Source: www.geeksaresexy.net

Why a Mac user will now feel like killing herself only a little bit when using a PC

So today I spent most of my day hooking up my mother with a new laptop and her first printer (yahooooo!). Yeah, I know, I am a good daughter (sometimes). But the point I wanted to share is that her new PC came with Windows 7 and I was curious to put my little hands on this new OS. And I have to bow my head down to Microsoft for such an upgrade from the usual Windows experience. Granted, it's just a first impression: I need to spend more time playing with it and I am sure that I'll give you updates. But then again, you only have one chance to make a first impression, especially to someone who is a die hard fan of your arch enemy. And Windows did it. I read everywhere that Microsoft admitted themselves having found inspiration in the Mac OS experience and they did a fair job at it.

Now the most ironic part of all this is that my mother, who had never used a Mac, was more confused than anything by the "Mac-like" features.

So my first thought is: with Windows 7, Mac users won't feel like traveling in another backwards dimension anymore, but Windows users will need some training like the ones provided by Apple to the Windows escapees!

Why is everybody so shocked by Orange’s customer service quality level?

So an Orange customer received his monthly bill for internet access for a total of... 45 923€. Mistakes happen, it's not the issue. What is typical of (way) too many French businesses is the level of customer service he was confronted to when he contacted Orange:
- first call: the agent hung up on him
- second call: another agent tells him that everybody has problems, deal with it
- third call (and final decision from Orange at this point): he was generously offered a 40 years plan to pay off his bill!
Morale of the story: Orange makes the headlines with all of France ridiculing them and customers checking their contracts to see how to terminate their contracts, when they had the opportunity to handle this case appropriately and improve their image already compromised by the wave of suicides in their employees ranks (yes, too much stressed by the quality of work expected from them).

It is sadly very representative of the attitude customers can expect from businesses in this country. Who has never had the feeling to annoy the sales people when asking a question, or has never been snobbed by waiters, etc. ?

Three lessons: 1- From a business perspective, someone needs to tell them that it costs 5 times more to gain a new customer than to win a new one. 2- In a world of hyper communication, every customer interaction is an opportunity (or a risk) to make headlines 3- Treating poorly customers is just plain and pure bad karma.

It reminds me of the attitude of an IT PM in my last job who put a very low priority on improving the online user experience by arguing that "if someone doesn't understand how the site works, he's just an idiot and there is nothing we can do about it". The most ironic part is that management agreed with him and fired me for being disruptive when trying to be the customer advocate. I guess nobody had told them about the two golden rules of business: 1- the customer is always right 2- Refer to rule number 1. With this kind of attitude, no wonder their business is going down. Which might also be Orange fate if they don't make a radical change in their policies and don't start putting the customer first.


Image source: http://www.pcinpact.com

It’s Harder to Get a Job At the Apple Store Than It Is to Get Into Harvard

It's apparently significantly easier to get admitted to Harvard University than it is to get a job at the Apple Store. At least for Apple's newest store in New York.

At a press event today, Apple said that 10,000 people submitted applications to work at the new store on Manhattan's Upper West Side, according to Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan.

Of those, just over 200 got jobs, for a 2% acceptance rate.

Meanwhile, Harvard's acceptance rate was 7% this past year, according to a March report in the Boston Globe. That's 29,000 applications for about 2,000 admissions.

Obviously, the requirements and admission processes for college and a retail job are much different -- these aren't direct comparisons. But it's amazing how selective Apple can be with its retail employees. And it's amusing that, at least statistically, the odds of getting into Harvard are better than getting a job selling iPods.

This may put new meaning into the term "Genius Bar."

Source: Business Insider

Google on what the Web will look like in 5 years

Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is "the great challenge of the age," Schmidt said at last week's Gartner symposium in Orlando.

Highlighted comments include:

- Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.

- Today’s teenagers are the model of how the web will work in five years - they jump from app to app to app seamlessly.

- Five years is a factor of ten in Moore’s Law, meaning that computers will be capable of far more by that time than they are today.

- Within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance - and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away.

- “We’re starting to make significant money off of Youtube”, content will move towards more video.

- “Real time information is just as valuable as all the other information, we want it included in our search results.”

- There are many companies beyond Twitter and Facebook doing real time.

- “We can index real-time info now - but how do we rank it?”

- It’s because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that “is the great challenge of the age.” Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.

Watch the interview on YouTube

Source: www.hotelmarketing.com

Apple Store Opening in Paris!

The opening of a retail store near the Louvre draws huge crowds in Paris

Who says Parisians are blasé? Tout Paris, it seems, turned out Saturday morning for the opening of Apple's (AAPL) first retail outlet in France. The video posted below shows lines of shoppers that stretched for blocks.

Planning for the store, located in the Carrousel du Louvre, an upscale shopping mall beneath the Tuileries garden and adjacent to the museum, began more than two years ago. A second store in Montpelier was actually ready before this one, but its opening was postponed, according to ifoAppleStore, in deference to the City of Lights.

Source: http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com by Philip Elmer-DeWitt



Video Source: piratec.net

Happy Birthday Internet!

At the occasion of the 40th birthday of the first network connection, the Guardian has put together a great timeline retracing this adventure. Who would dare saying that internet is not the biggest invention since the print?

Source: The Gurdian.co.uk

Finaly, Apple Store arrives in Paris!

Apple has issued the city of Paris (France) a formal announcement of its future Carrousel du Louvre retail store, with a storefront construction barricade banner that features a graphic design based on iPod colors and its circular control wheel. The banner graphic also has elements of the huge glass pyramid that sits above the underground visitor entrance to the Louvre art museum, which is adjacent to the future store.

Tipsters first identified the location in mid-2007, and Apple executives confirmed the store earlier this year. But this new banner is the first on-site acknowledgement of the store. As reported by the MacPlus Web site, the banner graphic that just appeared bears a single-word greeting to Parisians: “Soon.” According to previous statements by Apple executives, the store will open before year’s end.


Sources: www.ifoapplestore.com and the Apple Blog

If Facebook was a country….

Great physical representation of FB as a country map by Permito agency. They used rivers length to show the size of the main population groups etc. Very nice job at using a physical metaphor to map a virtual kingdom.

La face cachée de la nature humaine révélée par Google

Il y a des questions que vous seriez embarrassé de poser à votre meilleure amie mais pourtant auxquelles vous mourez de trouver une réponse.... Et bien Google est là pour vous... Comme compilé dans la fonctionalité "suggestion" de la boite de recherche on ne se censure pas face à Google et la liste des questions posées par les internautes est édifiante.
Sans doute la plupart sont elles de la simple curioisté pour voir quelle réponse le moteur de recherche ramenera, mais la liste est incroyable. Voici quelques exemples compilés par slate.com. Mais allez vous même voir quelles questions nous gardent éveillés la nuit.
Au moins ces listes sont anonymes. Pour le moment. Jusqu'à ce que les forces de l'ordre se demandent qui peut se poser de telles questions.

Subliminal communication…..

Have something to say to your neighbors? Forget fliers or notes under the door: simply rename your Wifi network!

Graphique du jour: l’ absolu monopole de Twitter

Twitter n'est pas le seul service de microblogging/messaging qui existe sur le web. C'est simplement le seul que les internautes utilisent.

[ENGLISH] CHART OF THE DAY: Twitter's Natural Monopoly

Twitter's not the only messaging/microblogging service that exists on the web. It's just the only one that people use.

Source: Jay Yarow for Business Insider

Radar Social: Top 50 Social Brands (March 2009)

Si le pur volume est une indication, Twitter est la marque la plus "hot"sur internet. En effet Twitter domine une liste de marques tres orientées Technologie sur ce Radar Social. Ce Top 50 mesure les marques les plus sociales en comptant le nombre de conversations/posts/articles qui les mentionnent sur des sites différents. Ces marques sont donc à l'esprit des consommateurs et des bloggers.
Liste complète ici

[ENGLISH] If sheer volume of conversation is any indication, Twitter is the hottest brand in the market. Twitter dominates a tech-heavy list of brands in our March 2009 Social Radar Top 50. The Social Radar Top 50 measures the most social brands by the number of unique topics of conversation. These brands are top of mind for consumers and bloggers today — Social Radar determined rankings according to the number of individual websites with at least one post about each brand to accurately capture the brand’s reach across the web.

The list is based on overall conversation volume through the month of March 2009, including blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter posts. The +/- number represents the ranking change since February 2009.

Source: buzzstudy.com

Ajax sans code: bonheur des marketeurs et maintenant des développeurs

Au commencement était Tim Berners-Lee. Il créa HTTP et le web. Mais il n'y avait pas shopping cart et le web était vide. Arriva Jeff Bezos et il dit: créons le e-commerce et le shopping cart en 1-click. Et le web généra des ventes et le monde retrouva son sens.

Il parait difficile d'imaginer le web sans e-commerce. Il a transformé un monde d'information en un monde d'e-commerce. Un nouveau changement est en train d'arriver sur le web et cette fois c'est une technologie qui l'amène.

Cette technologie c'est Ajax, ou Asynchronous JavaScript et XML et elle rend l'expérience des internautes beaucoup plus interactive et agréable en offrant la même rapidité qu'une desktop app.

C'est une bonne nouvelle pour les sites qui veulent améliorer l'expérience de leurs visiteurs: pensez Google Docs, Gmail, Meebo pour des exemples de sites qui utilisent Ajax.

Dans le monde de l'e-commerce, une meilleure expérience peut faire la différence entre un achat complété et un shopping cart abandonné.

Mais jusqu'à présent Ajax était un défi pour les développeurs. Même avec l'utilisation de frameworks, la tàche prenait beaucoup de temps. Maintenant l'Ajax sans code commence-t-à apparaître et devrait faciliter l'amélioration de l'expérience des visiteurs tout en facilitant la vie des développeurs.

[ENGLISH] The Groundbreaking Potential of Codeless Ajax

While a framework reduces the amount of "coding from scratch" that has to be done, developers still have to build all the pieces needed to tie all the components together, writes Alpha Software's Jim Dusoe. Frameworks represent less code, but they're not codeless. Codeless Ajax promises to free devs from the complexity, drudgery and time constraints associated with Ajax programming.

In the beginning, Tim Berners-Lee created HTTP and the Web. And the Web was without commerce, and void. And darkness was upon the face of retailers. And the spirit of commerce, Jeff Bezos, moved upon the face of the Web. And Bezos said, "Let there be electronic shopping carts, and one-click buying." And there were sales. And the computer gods saw the sales, and saw that it was good.

It's hard to imagine the Web without the electronic shopping cart. It was a seminal advance that transformed the Web from an information resource into a business platform. A fundamental shift is happening again, and this time, a programming technology is driving the change.

The technology is Ajax, or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, and it's making the Web as engaging, interactive and, most important, as responsive as native desktop applications. Better still, Ajax does this without the deployment, management, or overhead costs associated with managing desktop environments.

That's good news for businesses looking to give their customers a better, more responsive online experience. Look no further than Google Docs, Gmail, Meebo, and Outlook Web Access for popular Web apps that get their mojo from Ajax.

Better app performance means a better user experience. In the world of e-commerce, that can be the difference between a sub-par user experience that leads to shopping cart abandonment, and a spectacular one that keeps people shopping and builds word-of-mouth referrals.

Real-World Benefits

For example, Ajax-powered e-commerce apps can allow shoppers to hover their mouse over a product to get a pop-up window with the product's details, including photos. There's no clicking, no data transfer, no page refreshing. The information is at customers' fingertips.

Applications with a database back end, such as inventory control, accounting or shopping carts, can respond with the same look, feel and functionality as non-Web desktop apps. Software updates are painless, requiring no effort on the part of users, desktop IT, or database administrators (a big plus).

However, while Ajax is a win for users and marketers, it has a dark side for developers. It's an entirely new way to code applications, and the learning curve is steep. Compared to other programming paradigms, many more lines of JavaScript and other code must be produced, tested, debugged and maintained for Ajax apps to function.

As with all programming languages, Ajax has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, even skilled developers have built Ajax apps that -- due to their asynchronous nature -- end up overloading servers or bogging down databases.

For database-driven apps (meaning, all e-commerce apps), many Ajax development tools pose problems when dealing with updates. Typically, developers have to refresh the entire database, pull up all affected forms (screens), update each form's logic, rewrite the layout code, and test the changes before redeployment is possible.
Back to the Future

Tools vendors faced similar challenges in the GUI (graphical user interface) and client-server eras. The first graphical Mac and Windows applications required coding line-by-line in C++, Pascal, or (gasp) assembler, coupled with a masterful knowledge of the operating system's primitives and, later, application programming interface.

The vendors responded with visual RAD tools that generalized common application requirements, such as creating windows, buttons and menus; connecting, reading and writing database records; accessing network resources; and so on. This allowed developers to focus on the core business logic they needed to encapsulate in their applications, and left the UI and resource utilization details to the programming platform.

The result: Developer productivity skyrocketed, along with the sheer number of custom-built business applications. Who among us hasn't fielded an application built in tools such as Visual Basic, Delphi, FoxPro, Alpha Five, FileMaker, Paradox and the like?

Now the era of "codeless Ajax" is upon us. In general, codeless Ajax promises to free developers from the complexity, drudgery and time constraints associated with Ajax programming. Several vendors are now talking about or offering technologies that provide some level of codeless Ajax functionality.

The scope of these offerings differs. Most nibble around the edges and provide some sort of reusable widgetry that makes it possible to create, say, an interactive pop-up window or application grid. Anything more sophisticated, however -- such as complex "parent-child" relationships like you would see in an invoice or sales order, or the components of a contact management system with extensive report filtering -- requires significant manual coding.

Framing the Frameworks

Some provide reusable frameworks that attempt to solve a broad range of programming problems in an Ajax namespace. Several of these frameworks are very good and highly evolved. Some focus on the GUI. Some focus on server-side components. Some do both.

The problem is, they're frameworks. Adopting a framework simply replaces the basic Ajax learning curve with a higher-level learning curve. Developers still have to learn the framework's namespaces, objects, components, conventions, patterns and so on.

When the vendor deprecates some aspect of the framework, apps built on it will require updating or risk breaking. Moreover, frameworks still require developers to build portions of their applications by hand, often line by line, using a 4GL.

So, while a framework reduces the amount of "coding from scratch" that has to be done, we still have to build (and debug) all the pieces needed to tie all the components together and use them. In other words, we're still not focusing efficiently on building business logic, but rather burning productivity cycles building the plumbing and the GUI.

In my opinion, frameworks are "less code," but they're not "codeless." I've been waiting for a platform that treats Ajax functionality the same way desktop RAD tools treat desktop functionality; that is, largely or entirely codeless. I know I'm not alone.

Codeless Ajax doesn't mean one size fits all. The tool should provide extensive customization capabilities. These could be based, for example, on properties pages that can be set by developers with a few mouse clicks, as opposed to having to grind out custom code for every desired behavior.
Ajax: The Next Generation

Using codeless Ajax, developers don't have to be JavaScript or XML gurus to create polished Ajax apps. The GUIs are created visually, and the code to manage asynchronous presentation and database operations is generated, optimized and maintained automatically.

I estimate that eliminating manual Ajax coding can cut my development time by 40 to 50 percent. Based on the pre-betas I have seen (and am providing feedback on), anyone with a modicum of development skill and experience will be able to use this tool to create online solutions that look, feel and behave with the same quality we expect of an enterprise app.

That's a game changer. Try that with ASP.Net, Flash, Ruby on Rails, Perl, PHP or pretty much any other application development environment today. Contemporary development platforms have become squarely focused on professional developers, cutting out the entrepreneur, the small business, or the penny-pinching mid-sized organization.

Codeless Ajax could be the breakthrough that, like earlier generations of RAD technology, changes this equation.

Source: Jim Dusoe
TechNewsWorld

La carte 2009 du Web 2.0

La troisième édition de cette carte du web 2.0 par Information Architects représente les 300 sites les plus importants et influentiels du web sur la carte de métro de Tokyo.

Les différentes lignes représentent différentes tendances comme innovateurs, informations, réseaux sociaux etc.

Enfin, le graphique en dessous de la carte montre la perception de chaque site par ses visiteurs selon les mêmes criteres par lesquels les restaurant sont jugés: expérience de l'utilisateur, usabilité et interface (simplicité, personalité et capacité de laisser un feedback).


Agrandissez l'image

[ENGLISH] A Closer Look

The map pins down nearly 300 of the most successful and influential websites to the greater Tokyo area train map.

Different train lines correspond to different web trends such as innovation, news, social networks, and so on.

The Forecast

We’ve brought back the weather forecast from version 2 and incorporated it along the main Yamanote train line.

Brand Experience

The bottom layer includes a rating of brand experience analogous to restaurant experience. It illustrates our perception of user experience and brand management of the main stations. We studied the usability, user value, and interface (simplicity, character, and feedback), and rated each site on a scale of eating at various types of Japanese restaurants.

Source: Information Architects

Piste pour améliorer le référencement de votre site/blog

Aujourd'hui je vous invite à lire un excellent article sur le référencement de Miss Tics, Spécialiste de La Veille et Débats sur les Technologies de l'Information:

Il est vrai que parfois, à force de tout tester pour être mieux référencer dans Google, on peut en venir, par désespoir, à tester les solutions de dernier recours... En ce sens, le site referencement-magie est assez prometteur : le mage N'Bolo Googlyaoo, grand thaumaturge reconnu mondialement (vu à la Télé) vous dévoile les sortilèges qu'il a mis au point pour optimiser votre référencement et faire de vous le site numéro 1... Les références clients laissent rêveurs (autant que le prix forfaitaire inscrit en caractère 2 en bas de la page)... Mais ce que l'on pourra également noter, c'est que le magicien en question n'est pas seulement un spécialiste du virtuel... Une petite recherche sur le nom de domaine :


Source: http://misstics.canalblog.com

Wikirank: déchiffrer les trends des recherches sur Wikipedia

Wikirank est un outil analytique très sympa qui mesure les trends de recherche sur la plus graqnde encyclopédie du monde. Non seulement il montre les 10 articles plus lus dans les 30 derniers jours mais il laisse aussi les visiteurs comparer jusqu'à 4 sujets de recherche.
Wikirank utilise directement les données des serveurs de Wikipedia pour donner à ses utilisateurs une vue d'ensemble ou personnalisée de ce qui se passe dans cette mine d'information. L'interface est très fluide et web 2.0 avec des résultats présentés graphiquement comparant le nombre d'impressions de 4 différents articles et comprenant des graphiques, le contenu des articles sur Wikipedia et des liens vers des articles connexes sur Google News, Twitter (Twitter Reviews) et le New York Times.
Un des aspects les plus sympa de Wikirank est la présentation des trends sur la page d'acceuil. Les sujets les plus populaires sont classés par pourcentage de changement et représentés sur un graphique montrant les changements en nombre de page views. De plus la liste des articles les plus lus dans les 30 derniers jours donne une formidable vue d'ensemble sur le buzz sur une plus longue période de temps. [ENGLISH] Wikirank is a nifty analytics tool that tracks trending topics on the world’s largest online encyclopedia, displays the 10 most read articles in the last 30 days, and gives users the ability to compare stats for up to four different topics.
Wikirank uses the actual usage data from Wikipedia servers to give visitors a better global or custom view of what’s happening across the information hub. Cooler features include the ability to graphically compare impressions on four different articles, embed graphs, view Wikipedia entries, and quickly search for related content on Google News, Twitter (Twitter reviews), or The New York Times.
We really like Wikirank’s trending topics on the home page. Topics are ranked by percent change and certainly provide a great graphical view of major fluctuations in page views. Plus, the most read topics in the past 30 days give us an awesome glimpse at what’s hot over a longer duration.

Source: Jennifer Van Grove pour Mashable

Vidéo du dimanche: Peut-on résister à twitter sa vie? [humour]

Une des vidéos les plus vues sur YouTube: un cartoon expliquant Twitter genre South Park. Un jeune homme tente de résister à la pression de twitter sa vie. A ne pas manquer!



[ENGLISH] One of the most viewed videos on YouTube: A young man struggles against the pressure to Twitter his life away. From: "SuperNews!" An animated sketch comedy series airing on Current TV.

Information is Power! Sharing is powerful... Le site Dummies.com

Pour tout ceux qui, comme Ulysse ou moi, pensent qu'on ne perd jamais son temps à pérouser le web, voici un site Dummies.com, que je viens de découvrir. Qui ne connait pas l'édition papier? Et bien il y a une version en ligne. Allez spécialement visiter la section internet qui vient d'être révisée.
Bonne lecture du dimanche!

[ENGLISH] For all of you who think like me that one never wastes her time perusing the web (my middle name is Browser), here is a site I just discovered: Dummies.com. Who doesn't know the paper version? Well, here is the online version. Specially check out the Internet section that was just relaunched.
Happy Sunday reading!

Hunch: agent de recommandation intelligent

Caterina Fake, la co-fondatrice de Flickr, vient d'annoncer sa nouvelle startup: Hunch (intuition), un agent de recommandation qui espère bien tourner l'indécision en bénéfices.

Le but de ce service est en effet d'aider ses utilisateurs à prendre des décisions en leur posant une série de questions. Jusque là cela parait simple: rien de nouveau me direz-vous en baillant. Que nenni, il y a bien plus. La beauté de Hunch est qu'il combine plusieurs éléments pour proposer ses recommendations:
1- traditionnel decision tree
2- à chaque utilisation, il en apprend davantage sur vous par vos réponses et vous pose quelques questions hors sujet (optionnelles)
3- il combine les réponses de tous les utilisateurs dont le profile est similaire au votre sur le sujet en question (Amazon quelqu'un?)
4- il vous demande de donner une note à ses recommandations, voire de les corriger si vous le voulez

En un mot.... Hunch apprend!

Le site est encore en Bêta testing privé mais on peut imaginer à quel point il va pouvoir raffiner ses recommandations quand il aura des millions de résultats à combiner.

De plus le site fonctionne comme un Wiki: tout le monde peut ajouter des liens et des revues d'utilisateurs sur chaque sujet pour enrichir la base de donnée.

En bref un potentiel fascinant de proposer un service que les moteurs de recherche ne peuvent pas fournir. Le business modèle? click thru et partage de revenus sur les ventes pour les sites e-Commerce. Si Hunch parvient à devenir un agent de recommandation efficace en lequel les gens ont confiance, cela veut dire un énorme potentiel de devenir le leader des agents de recommandation.


[ENGLISH] Caterina Fake, Flickr co-founder, just announced her new startup: Hunch, a recommendation engine aiming at turning indecision into benefits.
The goal of this service is to provide recommendations based on your answers to a series of questions. Nothing new will you tell me, yawning. On the contrary! The beauty of Hunch's design is that it combines multiple elements to propose a recommendation:
1- a traditional decision tree
2- every time you use it, it learns more about you and refine his suggestions. He even asks you (optional) additional questions just to get to know you better
3- it combines the answers of all other users whose profile is similar to yours (Amazon anybody?)
4- it asks you to rank its results and even correct them if you wish

In short: Hunch learns!

The site is still in private beta testing but one can only imagine how much it will be able to learn when it can draw references from millions of usages.

Furthermore, the site works like a wiki: any user can add links and reviews about any subject.

In conclusion: a fascinating potential to offer a service that search engines can not provide. The business model? Revenue share and referral fees. If Hunch proves itself to be an efficient decision making tool and trustful recommendation agen, that means potentially becoming a leader in the big market of recommendations.

Source: Ben Parr pour Mashable

Présentations de DigiWorld 2008 disponibles sur Booble.com

Merci à Nathalie Magniez, Digital TV Marketing Consultant, et founder de Blooble.com d'avoir précisé dans le groupe FrenchWeb.org (LinkedIn) que toutes les présentations de DigiWorld 2008 (Montpellier, Octobre 2008) étaient disponibles sur Booble.
Je viens d'y passer quelque temps et compte bien y retourner! Alors bonne promenade à vous.
[ENGLISH] Thanks to Nathalie Magniez, Digital TV Marketing Consultant, and founder of Blooble.com to have informed us in the FrenchWeb.org group (LinkedIn) that all the presentations from DigiWorld 2008 (Montpellier, Octobre 2008) were available on Booble.
I just spent some time there and intend to visit again! So enjoy.

De l'importance du "re-branding" pour réveiller le buzz

Comme chaque année, ReBrand vient de publier la liste des ReBrand 100® Global Awards gagnants. Ces prix reconnus par la presse et l'industrie récompensent les efforts de re-design / re-branding de compagnies de toutes tailles, d'organisations, d'universités, d'entités locales et publiques du monde entier. Cette année, en addition de gagants américains, des projets venant du brésil, du canada, de chine, d'inde, d'italie, du liban, de roumanie, d'australie et d'angleterre ont été recompensés. (Au fait où est la france???)

Cliquez ici pour voir la liste des gagnants et surtout leurs dossiers de candidature qui incluent les exemples avant et après de leurs websites.
Alors admirez les efforts de ces gagnants et n'oubliez pas de "rafraichir" votre brand, même si elle n'est que personnelle auquel cas vous êtes la marque, pour garder le buzz bien vivant et votre présence intéressante!

Le gagnant de cette année: la fusion des marques Cisco et Webex.
Source: ReBrand.com

[ENGLISH] ReBrand, the only expert-led resource focused on brand transformations, was created to provide examples, help organizations avoid pitfalls, and identify partners for their initiatives.

Global organizations, Fortune 50 corporations, small businesses, accomplished entrepreneurs, respected nonprofit organizations, cities, and renowned universities from around the world are regularly represented in the ReBrand 100® Global Awards winners; some of which are based in Brazil, Canada, China, India, Italy, Lebanon, Romania, Australia and the United Kingdom, in addition to the US.

Click here to see the winners list and their portfolios that include before and after screenshots of their websites.
Enjoy these artworks and don't forget to refresh your brand, even it's only a personnal one, in which case you are the brand, to keep the buzz buzzing.

Revue du mercredi: 3 pistes pour suivre les Trends et Hot Topics

A moins que vous ne soyez un ermite vivant dans les bois (auquel cas vous ne liriez pas ceci!) vous aimez - voire avez besoin de - savoir quels sont les Hot Topics du jour, que ce soit à titre professionel pour votre industrie ou société ou en tant que terrien qui veut savoir ce qui se passe dans le monde et quel est le dernier buzz sur internet.

Voici donc trois sources qui vous permettront d'être un terrien averti ce qui en vaut 2.0!

1- Social Media et Réseaux Sociaux

Les média sociaux ont vaincu le monopole des grands groupes de presse et d'information et l'ont étendu à l'effet network. Si il y a un Hot Topic, vous le trouverez sur Twitter, qui est le futur de la recherche en temps réel, sur des aggrégateurs comme Digg et même sur les réseaux sociaux comme Facebook.

2- Search Engine Data

La majorité des internautes commencent leurs sessions sur un Search Engine. C'est donc la meilleure place pour trouver des infos sur ce qui intéresse des millions d'internautes.
On peut citer Google Trends et Yahoo!Buzz.

3- Les sites e-Commerce

Avec l'adoption du commerce en ligne, de plus en plus d'internautes font leur shopping depuis leur ordinateur. Suivre les trends des grands sites e-Commerce est donc un excellent moyen de se tenir informé des trends de l'e-Commerce. Nommement, Amazon Bestsellers and Movers & Shakers et eBay Pulse.

Social Media Marketing Industry Report March 09

Le Social Media Marketing étant de plus en plus perçu comme la prochaine ruée vers l'or, Michael Stelzner vient de publier pour whitepapersource un excellent compte rendu de recherche sur l'utilisation de ce phenomène par les marketeurs.

Dans ce rapport vous trouverez des réponses à vos questions telles que:

* Combien de temps les marketeurs investissent dans le social média
* Les bénéfices du social média
* Comment le temps investi influence les résultats atteints
* Les meilleurs outils social média
* Et bien plus!

Alors que vous soyez un débutant dans cette arène ou que vous cherchiez des éléments de comparaison, n'hésitez pas à lire ce compte rendu et regarder la présentation qui l'accompagne.
Kudos à Michael Stelzner

[ENGLISH] Social Media Marketing Industry Report

Social media is seen by many marketers as the next gold rush. To understand how marketers are using social media, WhitePaperSource commissioned the Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses.
WhitePaperSource set out to uncover the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing with this report. Nearly 900 of your peers provided the kind of insight that previously has not existed. In this report you’ll find:

* The top social media marketing questions marketers want answered
* How much time marketers are investing in social media
* The benefits of social media
* How time invested impacts results
* The top social media tools
* And much more!

If you’re pondering starting social media marketing, these findings will help push you over the edge. If you’re already onboard, feel free to examine what the really experienced marketers are doing (and use this study to persuade others).

Source: whitepapersource.com
By Michael Stelzner

Ada Lovelace Day Post: African women, key to achieving Green Revolution

Dr. Florence Wambugu is the CEO of Africa Harvest and this year's Yara Prize laureate , as a key contributor to the fulfillment of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals “MDG”.

For Africa's Green Revolution to succeed, women must be involved and empowered. It is important for women farmers to be involved in decisions about which technology will drive the Green Revolution. For example, women-friendly technologies that help reduce on-farm workload are likely to be successful. Equally, technologies that increase and tilt ownership of assets to women are likely to get their support.

Africa Harvest believes that the continent must use every weapon in the agricultural arena to fight poverty, hunger and malnutrition. We believe biotechnology is one of the technologies with the potential to greatly empower women.

African women are the glue that binds the society's fabric. Even in today's African urbanized societies, women are the backbone of family and national stability. African women contribute about 70% to food security but despite this, women continue to bear the brunt of an ever worsening food security situation.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, women have less access to education, labor, fertilizers and other inputs that are available to their male counter parts. Despite the enormous contribution women make to agriculture, they are often forgotten and rarely consulted when new technologies are being developed. Researchers maintain that even though women are the pillars of Africa's agricultural sector, they lack technological skills to boost productivity. Empowering farmers especially women is therefore important for uptake of technologies that enhance agricultural productivity. Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural inputs to agricultural outputs. While individual products are usually measured by weight, their varying densities make measuring overall agricultural output difficult. Technology can help women farmers by reducing their workload and increasing their productivity and income.

As such, Africa Harvest believes that women have a very big role to play in Africa's Green Revolution. We successfully focus on the use of technology to improving crops, and we have witnessed the importance of women. For example, the technology transfer of high-yielding, disease-free tissue culture banana has been successful, partly because banana was previously viewed as a 'woman's crop'. The objective of this project was to increase the banana yields and incomes to growers by providing institutional framework as a support to the production programme.

Africa Harvest's TC Banana Program has changed the paradigm where division of labor and male farming system confined women to subsistence food production and men to cash crop cultivation. Banana is today a cash crop; studies show that men--who previously ignored this crop--are showing renewed interest. Africa Harvest has trained women on appropriate technology and also provided business training as well as start up loans and access to market their bananas. This has contributed to the reduction of poverty and provided food, education and better health for many families.

Source: The Free Library

Sales 2.0: SalesForce.com pour Twitter

Vos clients critiquent vos produits ou services sur Twitter? Pas de problème: SalesForce.com a une nouvelle application pour vous.

C'est maintenant un fait établi que de plus en plus de compagnies surveillent Twitter pour voir en temps réel ce que le public dit d'eux (JetBlue, Starbucks, Dell)et si possible se servent de ce medium pour proposer des solutions. Mais comment passe-t-on d'un service client ad-hoc à une vrai solution intégrée avec vos procédés de CRM?

SalesForce a un nouveau module qui intègre cette capacité avec leur application. Les représentants client peuvent directement faire des recherches sur ce qui se dit de leurs produits sur Twitter, sans passer par search.twitter.com et importer dans leur système tous les messages relatifs a leur compagnie.

De là, il devient facile de cross-référencer les critiques et de fournir des réponses basées sur des expériences précédentes. C'est l'évolution naturelle: support par téléphone => email => web self-service => Twitter.
Cela permet aussi aux managers de mesurer l'efficacité du médium et d'affiner les réponses.

Quand Twitter est né il y a trois ans, personne ne savait trop quoi en faire et encore maintenant nombreux sont les gens qui pensent qu'il s'agit de dire au monde ce que l'on mange au petit déjeuner.
Mais Twitter a su se développer et prouver son utilité dans un nouveau web 2.0: recherche en temps réel sur l'actualité, partage de l'information et maintenant support client.



[ENGLISH] People Complaining About Your Biz On Twitter? Salesforce.com Has An App For That (CRM)

By now, it's old news that lots of businesses (like @jetblue or @starbucks) use Twitter to monitor what the Internet is saying about them in real time, and, where possible, respond to people's questions. But as Twitter keeps growing, how do companies transition their twitter-based customer service from an ad hoc thing to a robust, full-fledged customer-facing experience?

Enter Salesforce.com (CRM). At a Salesforce meetup in New York this morning, CEO Marc Benioff introduced "Salesforce for Twitter," marrying Salesforce's customer care software with the 140 character tweet.

Here's how is works: Salesforce plugs in to the Twitter API, and customer care reps can start Twitter searches from within Salesforce's service, bypassing search.twitter.com. If a company discovers someone tweeting about them (good or bad), a button click can import the entire Twitter thread into Salesforce's software.

From there, it's almost the same as if the Twitter user called in on a 1-800 number. A PC user complaining about a faulty graphics card on Twitter can be cross-referenced against similar reports that originate from traditional customer care lines, and if a workaround exists a company can tweet back with a tinyurl (or whatever) link to the solution.

The advantages are obvious: Beyond better customer care, Salesforce's approach is scalable as Twitter continues to grow. With multiple designated Twitter repliers at a company, it's easy for customer care managers to track who on their team is answering how many Twitter questions and how helpful individual staff are being.

Source: Silicon Alley Insider