Loic is doing it again -> Seesmic Look Tries to Take Twitter to the Masses

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At this point, just about everyone’s probably heard of Twitter, but as recent stats suggest, far from everyone is using it. Today, Seesmic looks to change that with the launch of a new desktop app dubbed Seesmic Look that comes with Twitter’s blessing, a Microsoft partnership and a bold distribution strategy.


Tweeting’s Not For Everyone


Why don’t some people tweet? Frankly, not everyone has something to say (and many will admit it when asked about Twitter). But with celebrities, media, and brands continuing to flock to Twitter, there’s plenty to watch on the microblogging service. That said, Twitter’s new user experience and interface isn’t the most conducive to an entertainment experience — that’s what Seesmic Look is trying to change.


Seesmic Look – Not For the Power User


If you use one of Seesmic’s other Twitter apps (or a competitor like TweetDeck), have numerous custom lists of users you follow, and update multiple accounts simultaneously, Look isn’t for you. But if you’re a typical Internet user looking to kill 15 minutes by browsing news, celebrity gossip, and photos and videos, Look might just be your app.

Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur likens the experience to a game, and with its “playback mode” that presents tweets in what looks more like a screen saver than a desktop app, it’s visually quite different than the Twitter clients you’re used to. You can also browse tweets from celebs and big brands in neatly organized interest channels like entertainment, sports, and politics All of that can be done without having a Twitter account.

If you do have a Twitter account, you can perform all the basic expected functions like sending tweets, checking your replies and tracking saved searches. More advanced features, though, like managing multiple accounts, are not supported.


Big Brands Already on Board


In addition to the interest-themed channels, there are brand channels, with companies like Red Bull, Kodak and The Huffington Post already on board. These channels feature custom designs, tweets from selected Twitter accounts (like employees or celebrity endorsers), and prominent placement within Look.

Most importantly for Seesmic, though, these partners both provide the company with income and will promote custom versions of the app that default to their channel. That’s part of how Seesmic will try to take Look beyond the typical power user crowd that flocks to new social media desktop apps.


Twitter, Microsoft, and Hardware Makers


Le Meur was pleased to point out to me the “powered by Twitter” icon that resides in the lower-left hand corner of Look. The app has Twitter’s blessing, and it’s the first time they’ve officially endorsed an app in this way according to Le Meur. The app was also developed in partnership with Microsoft, who helped Seesmic optimize for Windows 7 and make Look touch-ready.

The biggest play of all though might be getting Look to come pre-installed on new PCs. Le Meur says Seesmic is currently in discussions with a number of hardware manufacturers to make such deals happen.


Can Seesmic Take Twitter Mainstream?


Look is a slick-looking app that Twitter should offer up to new users looking to figure out what the site’s all about. Seesmic has a smart distribution strategy in place, as well as a logical way to monetize. Given the amount of media exposure Twitter’s already received and the plethora of mainstream content that is easily accessible in Look, if this can’t get Mom and Dad connected to Twitter, I’m not sure anything can. It’s going to be a good measuring stick for Twitter’s viability beyond its current audience.

Tags: seesmic, social media, software, trending, twitter

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Hulu Considering $5 Per Month Fee For Older Episodes [Hulu]

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We knew this day was coming, but it may be sooner than we realized. The LA Times is reporting that Hulu is looking to introduce a pricing model within the next six months.

One plan being considered by Hulu would allow you to watch the five most recent episodes of a TV show for free, while the back catalog beyond that would require a $5/month subscription to access. They're looking to include at least 20 shows in the package to make it appealing to users, but of course the issue won't be how many. It'll be which ones.

This all comes on the heels of Boxee's announcement yesterday of plans to charge for premium content, and Pandora's pay service announced in May. Five bucks doesn't seem like much, but it does all start to add up. [LA Times via Business Insider]

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interesting analysis -> Google Is Now Apple’s Greatest Enemy: Here’s Why

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Apple Microsoft Google LogosLet’s take a trip back in time. The year is 1994, and two tech giants are going to war over copyright. They are Microsoft and Apple, and they are fighting over a copyright claim by Apple over Microsoft and HP’s use of graphical user interface elements from the Macintosh OS. The resulting court case, Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation, ended with a ruling in Microsoft’s favor, mostly due to a contractual license agreement between the two.

The matter was never fully settled by the case though. Instead, negotiations that took place several years later resulted in the two companies agreeing to make Internet Explorer Mac’s default browser. Microsoft also agreed to keep developing Office for the Mac. Most importantly though, Microsoft invested $150 million into Apple to keep it afloat.

This series of events, which happened while Steve Jobs was being reinstated as the CEO of Apple, set the stage for what is happening today between Microsoft, Apple, and Google. While Microsoft and Apple are still bitter rivals, several recent events have inadvertently brought them closer together in order to fight their common enemy: Google.

The phrase “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” comes to mind. Let’s explore how we got to this tipping point.


Android: Google Enters Apple’s Turf


When Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined Apple’s Board of Directors in 2006, the move made perfect sense. Here’s what Apple said about Eric in its original announcement:

“Eric’s 20 years of experience as an Internet strategist, entrepreneur and technologist give him a well-seasoned perspective which perfectly complements Google’s needs as a young and rapidly growing company with a unique corporate culture.”

At that time, Google wasn’t in mobile, hardware, operating systems, or browsers. Now Google is directly competing with Apple through the Nexus One, Google Chrome, Chrome OS, and even possibly in the tablet computer space.

It all started with Android, though. Back in August 2007, details began to leak about Google building a mobile OS or even a GPhone. It turned out to be Android, the open-source mobile OS that is now the fastest growing smartphone OS on the market.

At first, Android didn’t pose much of a threat, but as more phones utilized the software, the relationship between Google and Apple became very uncomfortable. Eric Schmidt sat out board meetings discussing the iPhone due to conflict of interest, but the relationship only eroded from there.


Watershed Moment: Eric Schmidt Resigns from Apple’s Board


Tensions between the two companies grew worse after Apple rejected Google Voice as an app on the iPhone.

The resulting FCC inquiry, along with an FTC investigation and the announcement of Google Chrome OS were just too much. On August 3rd, 2009, Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors.

In retrospect, this was the moment when Apple, Google, and the rest of the world realized that the two companies could no longer be allies. Google’s expanding interest outside of search was pouring over into Apple’s domain on multiple fronts. With the search giant free of its Apple association, it could go all-out on its agenda to bring more people onto the web for longer (read the Google Revenue Equation to learn why).

The culmination of the breaking of the Google-Apple alliance? It was the release of the Nexus One, a direct competitor to Apple’s lucrative iPhone.


Recent Events: Apple and Microsoft Talk Bing


Yesterday we learned that Apple and Microsoft are in talks to make Bing the default search engine for the iPhone. While we’ve heard this rumor before, the talk seems to be heating up. Most of our readers expressed their dismay or shock over the potential deal, some questioning why Apple would ever team up with Microsoft over Google.

Really though, the deal makes perfect sense, given the new competitive landscape. Earlier today, Jim Goldman at CNBC provided some interesting new information on the dynamics of the Apple-Google-Microsoft relationship. According to his source, Steve Jobs hates Eric Schmidt (it wouldn’t surprise us) and Microsoft is offering a bigger cut of iPhone search revenues than Google.

While Microsoft and Apple’s relationship grew cold after the Redmond, WA company bailed Apple Computer out, it never vanished. Moreover, Steve knows that he can work with Microsoft, especially if it helps Microsoft hurt Google.

Android has become the de-facto alternative to the iPhone OS, and the Nexus One is closest thing yet to a smartphone that can stand up to the iPhone’s dominance. While Microsoft and Apple are still in competition over Mac vs. PC, Apple clearly believes that its future isn’t just in computers, but in other Internet devices such as the iPhone and the fabled Apple Tablet. Microsoft poses far less of a threat in these areas than Google does.

It’s time to call it: Google is now Apple’s greatest enemy. Soon Google will be entering its OS turf with Chrome OS. Apple increasingly sees Google as a major competitor over the next few years. While the company Steve built doesn’t particularly like Microsoft, it knows that it has to work with the lesser of two evils in order to succeed.

Say hello to the new dynamic. It’s Apple + Microsoft vs. Google. May the new battle begin.


Reviews: Android, Bing, Google

Tags: apple, bing, business news, Column, Google, google search, iphone, microsoft, Opinion, social media, trending

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YouTube Will Start Charging for Some Videos

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Starting this weekend, YouTube will be dipping its toe into the waters of paid content.

This behavior follows a trend we've noted in traditional media outlets. First, media mogul Rupert Murdoch said no more freebies for search engines, then the New York Times hinted (and today confirmed) that users would have to start paying for a certain amount of access to articles. Now, YouTube is partnering with the Sundance Film Festival and filmmakers to charge users around $5 to view a range of movies from the 2009 and 2010 festivals. It's still cheaper than a movie ticket - but is this a direction users will follow?

Sponsor

Five Sundance films have been selected for this venture. It's what we'd consider a test run to see how users will respond to paid content on the site, and whether this could be a new revenue stream for the web video giant, which has historically struggled with profitability.

The films include The Cove, an underwater adventure about dolphin capturing in Japan; Bass Ackwards, which chronicles an improvised road trip; Children of Invention, about two Bostonian orphans; One Too Many Mornings, a "coming of age comedy about two guys who are too old to be coming of age"; and Homewrecker, a comedy about a locksmith. The filmmakers will determine the exact asking price for viewing each movie, but all will be in the range of $5.

YouTube execs told USA Today the move is helping independent filmmakers find distribution avenues for their films. The movies will be shown without ads, which would be an aesthetic disaster for any director who chose to put his creation online.

What do you think: Would you pay $5 to watch an indie flick on YouTube? What other revenue models should YouTube be considering? Let us know in the comments.

For more on paid content, including movies, see today's Open Thread: There's No Such Thing As Free Content.

Discuss

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Amazon Opens Kindle Up for Development: App Store Ahoy [Kindle]

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Amazon just announced that the Kindle will have its own app store, with partners ranging from publishers like Zagat to, believe it or not, game makers like EA. E-ink gaming? What?

Says Amazon's vice president for Kindle:

We knew from the earliest days of the Kindle that invention was not all going to take place within the walls of Amazon. We wanted to open this up to a wide range of creative people, from developers to publishers to authors, to build whatever they like.

In that spirit, they've opened up development to selected partners (not everyone, yet—a wider release will come later this month) to create apps for the Kindle platform. There'll be three kinds of apps: Free, one-time payment, and monthly payment. Interestingly, because the Kindle is sold without a monthly fee for the wireless connection, these developers will have to pay 15 cents per megabyte for content delivery. They'll keep 70% of the revenue after those expenses are recouped by Amazon—more info on that stuff here.

There are also some basic limits on both bandwidth and app size. Free apps must be smaller than 1MB and use less than 100KB of data per user per month. One-time purchase apps and monthly apps both have the same data usage limit as free apps, but have a size limit of 100MB (although any app larger than 10MB can't be downloaded wirelessly—gotta do it via USB).

Amazon expects to start adding apps "sometime later this year," which is a nice vague thing to say in January. They'll also retain control over the types of apps added, restricting offensive apps, VoIP apps, viruses, that kind of thing. Now: What kind of things are we likely to see in a Kindle app store?

The Kindle is extremely limited by its hardware, most importantly its e-ink screen. The kind of glacial refreshes that are acceptable while reading a book make it totally useless for pretty much any game. The only ones that can deal with the limited screen are essentially pen-and-paper games, like Sudoku, word games (crossword puzzles, Scrabble) and, um, hangman. Scrabble is a fair bet to make an early appearance, since it's owned by EA, one of the two partners specifically named in the NYTimes announcement.

Other apps mentioned include searchable travel books, like a Zagat app that could find, say, local restaurants with specific criteria. But apps like that are really better suited for smartphones, which is an argument you could make about the entire idea of a Kindle app store. We'll have to wait until the plan actually launches before we see if it was a good decision—and who knows, by then the Apple Tablet will probably have revolutionized the publishing industry, solved the economic recession and rescued the world's kittens from the world's trees. [Amazon and NYTimes 1 and 2]

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Facebook Phasing Out Microsoft Ads in Favor of More Social Formats

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When Microsoft invested $240 million to take a small stake in Facebook at the then gargantuan valuation of $15 billion, the deal was as much about securing an ad deal as an equity bet. But now, Microsoft is seeing some of its advertising pulled as the social network continues to build out its own ad options and revenue models.

According to BusinessWeek, Facebook has dropped Microsoft’s banner advertising in several international markets, and is considering doing the same in the US. Currently, Microsoft serves fairly generic banner advertising on Facebook, but the social network is pushing more engaging formats, like brands promoting their Pages and encouraging users and their friends to become fans.

Perhaps then, this a sign that Facebook’s social ads are performing well and its business is maturing – so much so that the company needs to grab back some of the inventory that has previously been filled by Microsoft. At this point, that looks more likely than any sort of riff between the two companies, whose deal also includes Bing powering web search results on Facebook.

Recent estimates suggest that Facebook is on track to bring in more than $700 million in revenue for 2010.


Reviews: Facebook

Tags: advertising, facebook, MARKETING, social media

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Boxee Plans a Payment Platform for Premium Internet TV

As we saw at CES 2010, IPTV is going to become real in a very big way this year. Boxee has been one of the big players in this space for quite some time and today the company is announcing a move that will offer users and content partners more options and flexibility: Boxee Payments . Boxee plans on releasing a Payment Platform this summer so that users can make purchases with one click of the remote. This will allow content partners to offer shows, movies and channels that were previously unavailable on Boxee. Partners can price and package content however they want, whether it’s pay-per-view or subscription. The details are still being worked out, but Boxee will charge a small fee for the transactions (the plan is to charge less than the 30% that many other app stores and content ecosystems charge). By doing this, Boxee is, in their words, “[tying] our success as a business to the success of our partners.” Having micro-payments built into Boxee has huge implications for the platform as a whole. Right now, the only downside of a system like Boxee is that although more and more partners are signing up to offer content through the service or offer an enhanced experience, when it comes to getting movies or TV shows that are accessible through platforms like iTunes or VUDU or CinemaNow, users are out of luck. This gives Boxee as a platform the opportunity to offer those enhanced options. I’ve long wanted to see one of my favorite streaming content services The Auteurs on Boxee, because it’s really just a beautiful fit. The Auteurs streams premium film content from partners like The Criterion Collection to users at an affordable price. With a Payment Platform, stuff like The Auteurs could be accessible on your Boxee Box or HTPC, as well as on your laptop or desktop computer. Make no mistake, subscription content plans that are aimed at IPTVs are coming. Apple might not have hit Apple TV out of the park, but the idea of being able to buy or rent content on your TV that you can also watch on your Mac or PC (or even iPhone or iPod) is compelling. Boxee is legitimizing itself in a sense by making it clear that it wants to play in this space. The convergence of media options is upon us, and it will be fascinating to see how content providers, content platforms and consumers respond and react to these changes. Tags: boxee , iptv , micropyaments http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/vWV2HvLE-ls/

Amazon Fires Missile At Book Industry, Launches 70% Kindle Royalty Option (AMZN)

Bing Maps Takes on Google With New Location Features

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Microsoft’s Bing search engine has just dropped the beta tag, a month and a half after Bing Maps was released. Not only that, but Bing Maps is now sporting a few additional nifty and useful applications.

Microsoft’s been looking for any edge it could get in its race to beat Google’s dominant search engine. The tech giant launched the revamped service to the press last month, demonstrating its Silverlight interface and array of apps, including a Twitter app that lets you find tweets based on geolocation.

Microsoft now believes that Maps has undergone enough testing to become a full part of the Bing experience. This of course is different from Google, who is known for leaving beta tags on Google apps for years.

Coinciding with the announcement comes two new apps, Destination Maps and Local Events. Destination Maps lets you select a map area so that you can provide friends detailed directions from any direction, while Local Events will pop up the time and locations of nearby shows and community events.

As we’ve said before, the new Bing Maps is very slick, although its directions still have a ways to go before it can match Google’s algorithms.

[Source: Bing]

Tags: bing, Bing Maps, microsoft

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