Since the release of Google Buzz, I have been thinking quite a bit about usage cases of public and private ( even without the mobile usage case as this goes even to a different level).  In our daily lives we touch many different products that serve this kind of public/private usage case and have been an established behavior associated with them.  Our emails have a certain privacy shroud wrapped around them even though we may have conversations with people on many different levels….

Here is my first pass thoughts on why Buzz has opened the debate around Privacy.   It is not that Buzz is any different from the status box on Facebook and twitter, or even the one that Linked-in has added.  I think the real debate is about around the social behavior around privacy and the tools we use to manage our conversations.  Twitter exists on its own with the tools surrounding it as a certain usage case for many-to-many public discussions.  I would not think that I would want to include these types of communications in the inbox of my email, but Twitter has in fact done so with SMS and Text messaging that has been private.

I am still trying to figure out in my mind the ethos of social behavior and the tools we use, but email and twitter seem to be on completely opposite sides of my social communication graph.

As we all waited patiently for the Third Quarter of the Super bowl on Sunday to see for the first time Google’s brand ad as part of their media strategy, it dawned on me an interesting thought about how Google really does marketing in this Web 2.0 world.

We all know that after the Superbowl on the following weekend starts the Vancouver2010 Olympics ( #VO2010, #Olympics, #Van2010). Even though there is a usage case  for people  to use search the web during the superbowl, it may not be as much high-density searching as we we are going to probably see globally during the Olympics.  Google’s ad campaign was considered Brand building, but given the fact that Google has over 70% of the search penetration in most countries around the world and on average more then 50%, most likely people at some point during the Olympics are most likely going to be coming to Google and searching for an event information, results, etc… anyway regardless of brand building. Why was it so important to start this now when Google has made a statement they do not believe in this form of advertising in the past?

Up until now, Google has not been spending money on traditional media. Moreover, for an event like the Olympics,  sponsors are dishing out 100′s of Millions of $$$ for brand building. Google has traditionally used search and its own assets in search results at the top of the page as their form of marketing.  As they have said, “We are not keen on tweaking the organic results, but always like to follow their regimented strategic algorithms for determining what gets on the top of the pages”.  Some of the best marketing during the Olympics is going to come through Search during the weeks the events are live.  What I found interesting was that Google has really built up  its own strategy as a method to get the maximum exposure to their own properties without spending money on traditional media.    Have you seen their initiative around Google Earth and the 3D creations of all the different venues as a form of sponsorship?  Google offered to do these 3D models of the venues as a service for the Olympics Events.  I find this a very interesting offer, but can only imagine that the real reason behind this is to give themselves good ranking if the Olympics puts these links on the pages of Olympics site.  They become the masters of their own game, a way to use their own algorithms to finesse the system to give Google assets high-ranking during the events; thus driving traffic to Google maps for visitors to find local information on the go during the events.  With the billions of Dollars spent by the sponsors during the events, Google may have just again gotten away with a kind-of-freebie for its own marketing efforts to potential spoof the traditional marketing system.  This is only my guess, but it somehow makes sense to me. Would love the gamet of SEO experts out there to comment on this if you can?

Back to the Superbowl…..so then why did they buy advertising the week before?  Again I am only thinking and guessing and I do not have facts to support this, but again it makes sense to me in the greater scheme of things this kind of thinking:

If Google is getting all this search traffic during the Olympics for somewhat free at the expense of the traditional sponsors by leveraging their own algorithms to their own advantage, it might just kick-up a stir amongst traditional media  in the effect that Google using its own engine to get marketing value and  not spending money on traditional media.  ” Oh No”, they can say….. did you see we do spend money on traditional media as well. Did you see our ads that ran last week?  So by spending money on traditional media from time and again makes for a good balanced media strategy when the pundits start to sniff…..Smart I would think.

Again, I am only thinking from the standpoint of business strategy and it makes perfect sense to master mind the shell game of spending money on different media.  In this case for them,  the pea is under all the shells?…… for us, maybe there never was a pea?

It was announced today that in the last Six Months Google has hit is 1M Android with T-Mobile.  Information Week Article.  The amazing thing here is that even though Apple has been widely successful >5M Units sold in North America, companies that follow directly behind with large volumes; such as Blackberry achieving the 1Mth quite quickly, etc…

Even though Nokia is shipping 1M units a day, there is no comparison when it comes to scale, but the US Market still seems a quite bit distance for the marketing prowess of Nokia….. I am sitting and waiting for that Nokia Beauty to emerge…

TechTree India writies about the new release of Googles Gmail for Android and iPhones below.

I am excited to see that even with all the GaGa only about iPhone Apps ( understandably so, but) that there are new announcements every day on some of the most practical usage cases of mobile linked to web development and the mobile browser.

As it does make sense to have an application based strategy, there is still a lot to be said about the browsing experience off of the

OpenSource Webkit ( Safari) browser that is used on Android/iPhones/Nokia devices and many more.  As the browser is equivalent to web browsing we experience on PC’s, having a mobile experience that lends itself to the smaller screen size and the user interface of a mobile device is a very smart approach for scaling your existing web/publishing digital strategy to mobile.

I am a very active user of Gmail on both my PC and Device and find that the hardware does not matter anymore. What matters is my seemless ability to connect to the services that I use frequently and email is something that is extemely important for me to have virtually on all the time and extendable in a very usable form from either my PC or my Nokia E71.    I did find it strange that Google has only launched this for iPhone and for Android, when it would make sense to have this for all devices that support webkit from the starting point.  I am sure we will see the announcement for Nokia support in the near future.

********************

Gmail has announced a new web interface for iPhone and Android platform based mobile web browsers. Built over a new engine, this Gmail Mobile interface closely resembles the Gmail Desktop version. The whole mail browsing, reading and composing experience has become faster, even over weak network connections.

The user interface has been optimized for snazzier inbox, a new ‘floaty bar’ and offline Gmail support. The new floaty bar allows archiving, deleting or more options for the email like Mark as Unread, Add star or Report as Spam. This floaty bar follows as one scrolls down further to select more emails. Navigation and display of threaded email conversations has been simplified and made faster.

Searching specific mails quickly is possible by poking the Magnifier button representing search. More messages can be viewed by hitting ‘Show more messages’ and the page hardly takes half a second to load more emails.

The new Gmail for Mobile is available on Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices with firmware 2.2.1 or higher. All Android-powered phones are supported.

The iPhone OS 3.0 brings landscape keyboard support in the Mail application but it still takes a while to load messages. Scrolling between the messages often results in sore fingers. Also, search emails and labels are still difficult to use. However, the Gmail team has made many Gmail fans happy with the new desktop-like mobile web interface iPhone and Android platform.

As I have been an early adaptor for just about anything mobile, when Google launched this new product, http://www.google.com/latitude [PCWorld] I thought about giving it a try.  For me, I have always felt in control with Facebook and others, and when it is about user opt-in and control- that is my motto.

I slept on it, and decided to go for it and install Google-Latitude.  As it installed, it gulped my contact book in my Google Gmail account and before I knew it, many friends and not so close friends were getting pinged left and right with the invitation. I felt in control, but the ease with which it spreads is a bit nerve racking.  Once they were invited, I kind of asked myself- this is a bit creepy, is it not, even my picture is a bit strange the way they show it.

Before, i knew it, I was getting acceptances from a variety of different people and the application was now in action. What I found interesting is that it only just tells you where your friends are?

I have not found the real value in an application that just tells you where your friends are with such precision.

For me, I have started to become an active user of Facebook’s instant messaging presence application. What is so powerful is to know that certain people are now online and I can have a quick chat with them. There are many of my friends that are just as busy as I am, and they are hard to reach in real time with email. However, with this app on facebook, we are connected when we are both in that mind-frame to connect ( why else would be be looking at Facebook to begin with?).   However, with Google latitude, I can see where my friends are now but can not connect.  This is where I see the total flaw in this application.  If you are going to launch a social media application where you can connect with friends, there needs to be the ability to connect with those friends…… not just follow them around like a stalker.

Why did they not include GTalk or somekind on IM capabilities in the application? Why is only a reference and directions to getting to your friends?

The other question I ask, is why now at this time and on many devices ( my Nokia E71) but not on Android yet? I guess they are just testing the market.

As Google has been a platform company where many companies have been building thier own mash-ups on top of the Google API, why go head-to-head withthe many of the companies that already have social media applications that use a similar methodology? Take Loopt for instance?  The were one of the first true Social Compasses.  Is Google trying to disintermediate  Loopt? http://www.loopt.com

When I tried to download Loopt  to compare the user experience, I found that Loopt is not available in my region of Canada.  Carriers do not yet support it.  So Google did go independent from the carriers now globally with this Location product and especially in Canada.  However, one of my friends in Japan said they were unable to install the application. So I guess they have not found a way to get into Japan as easy as Canada.

I think the application works great, and another great release for Google, but the product does not make sense yet to me at this time. Why are they coming out with products of this type when others are looking to Google as the platform to build on top of with these kinds of services.  If it is about user data and advertising, to make better recommendations to the friends around me, then this is an interesting opt-in and ad sales proposition I am very excited to see how they do it.

Well for all those folks out there that got my invitation- please note, I am just trying this out, nothing more.  If I find it useful, I will let you know, but in the mean time if you have a problem with my ping, Sorry about that.

-MS