Ben Shoemate's Notebook

Steve Rubel via Micro Persuasion shared by 8 people

Social networking is on fire. eMarketer predicts that in the US the category will reach 44.3% of Internet users by year's end. According to Google Insights, related searches are up 3,000% over the last four years. It has a ways to go before it's truly mainstream on a global level. (More than half of adults in 17 countries don't know what social networking is, according to Synovate.) Still the phenomenon is a sure thing, even though the individual winners and losers will surely shift.

What has me most excited though about social networking is a capability that isn't really in place yet in a powerful way - and that's search.

Much like the early days of the web, social networks have yet to fully exploit search. Recall that before Google came along 10 years ago web search was woeful at best and also un-monetized. Eventually that all changed. Even though Facebook's search is weak, already it's one of the fastest growing search engines. That's remarkable.

Search will become a core feature of the social network experience, add in social elements, usher in easier monetization and in the process revolutionize advertising. Here's a look at some trends to watch...

TRUSTED SEARCH TRUMPS UNTRUSTED SEARCH - Do you trust Google? I do as does most everyone. Do you trust what's in Google? For me, that depends on what I am searching for and where it comes from. However, I do trust the 1,000 people I have added to my social network on Facebook. In fact, it's why I limit my connections there to people I have either met or corresponded with. I value what they talk about and share there.

However, there's a gaping hole in the Facebook experience. While I can search through my friends, find new friends and also groups, I can't search the content my network creates. In addition, I can't go a layer deeper to see what my friends' friends are sharing (as I can on Friendfeed). Look for search to get embedded deeper into the social networking experience and create a split between trusted and untrusted search. The impact on PR will be major here too.

Microsoft's forthcoming integration of Live Search into Facebook could be the first step toward trusted search. MySpace has already site-wide search and can tweak it to achieve the same. (MySpace and Microsoft are Edelman clients.)

CONTEXTUAL SEARCH ADS GET SOCIAL - Google and MySpace have an advertising agreement going back to 2006. Facebook and Microsoft have a similar arrangement that started last year. So the search engines clearly view the social networks as a monetization venue and vice versa.

Social network advertising to date, though, has been a mixed bag. Everyone is innovating. But the draw on social networks is your friends, which makes it harder to be distracted by ads. Enter search. Watch for contextual search advertising and programs like Facebook's social ads to mix. New models will emerge where contextual ads are surfaced based on the content created and recommended by your friends.

SOCIAL NETWORKS BECOME SEARCH ENGINES - If you went through my browser history, you would be bored. I spend most of my time in Google's universe of sites and on The New York Times site. Beyond that, you will find a bushel of social networks - Facebook, Friendfeed, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Now, what if I could interact with any or all of my favorite sites all from a single social network and have my friends add value to that experience? It's coming. Today, for example, on Facebook I use Six Apart's BlogIt to Twitter. I also catch up with my favorite sports teams using Sportsline's Facebook application. These are simplistic though. Notice what's missing - I can't search the web yet from inside Facebook. However, on MySpace I can. But this is the beginning.

In the near future the search engines will all create applications or hooks into soc nets that let you search and annotate the web in conjunction with your friends, changing the web experience. The image above from the Shifted Librarian shows how she is able to search her local library direct from Facebook. Now imagine that same search application gets social and you can see that a major evolution in how we mine the web with friends is coming soon.

via http://www.verysmallarray.com/?p=419

Matt via Signal vs. Noise shared by 4 people

Labor Day recently passed. That means you may have received a shared photo album from a friend or relative. You know the type: It’s usually dozens (or hundreds) of shots of vacation fun.

But you’re not into it. Now, it’s not that you don’t care; It’s fun to peek in and see what happened. But who wants to sort through a glut of 200 photos of someone else’s vacation (or baby photos or whatever)? What actually happens: You wind up deleting the email with the link and don’t even bother seeing any of them.

The power of editing
It’s about the power of editing. What if these people picked out the five best shots instead? The five photos that are the cream of the crop. The five that undeniably kick ass.

Then the whole thing shifts. Instead of it being a chore to see how their vacation went, it becomes a pleasure. It only takes a few seconds. Plus, that means they can just attach the photos to the email, instead of forcing you to visit (and sometimes register) at some random photo site. It’s only five photos, no big deal.

36:1
I had a photography teacher (Richard Stromberg at The Chicago Photography Center) tell me once that if you get one good shot on a roll of 36, you were doing good. That’s the ratio: 36:1. When you edit ruthlessly like that, you come out with great results. People think you’re better than you are. It’s not that you became a brilliant photographer, it’s just that you started exercising taste and restraint.

It’s one of the biggest challenges in the digital age: When you can bombard people with everything, it’s tempting to do so. That’s why taste, restraint, and editing are so important. Sometimes it’s about throwing out the 35 bad shots and revelling in the one great shot.

Omit, then submit
What you leave out is often what turns good into great. What you leave out is the difference between something that is either 1) never seen or used or 2) simple, clear, and actually digestable. It’s true for photography. It’s true for features in software. And it’s true for plenty more too.

P.S. Fun bit about Stromberg, the photography teacher I mentioned: He required all students to purchase a fixed 50mm lens for their camera. Students would invariably ask if they could use a zoom lens instead. His response: Every lens is a zoom lens. Just walk closer or further away to zoom. I always loved that.

Related
Eureka: We’re editors [SvN]
Ask 37signals: Is it really the number of features that matter? [SvN]

via http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/sequester.html

via http://www.benedictredgrove.com/FOLIO-1/BERTONE/07-BERTONE-7

(author unknown) via FreelanceSwitch - The Freelance Blog shared by 4 people

Einstein once said something to the effect of, “you cannot solve problems by thinking within the same framework or mindset that discovered the problems.” The implication is that you need to step into another mindset, another level of thinking. So how do we step into another mindset, as Einstein implies we should? One possible method

Adam Hirsch via Mashable! shared by 4 people

Out of the hundreds of articles and posts out there on how companies should utilize social media and Web 2.0, CNN seems to be one of the few major corporations out there that have paid attention. CNN is one of the few broadcast networks with an expansive line of shining examples in the Web 2.0 space, from basic RSS and bookmarking options to embeddable videos, and its fully user generated content platform iReport.com.

What amazes me most about CNN has not been the millions of iReport submissions or the Web 2.0/social media, it’s that it seems CNN is now the first official broadcast network (not just news related) to start using Twitter and heavily promoting it on air. For instance, today I watched as CNN Anchor and Editor Don Lemon fished for Twitter replies after various segments. I’m sure this is only one of the many mentions to come and I’m sure we’ll see a large jump in his followers from here on out.

So, CNN gets it… What do you think about their on air Twitter plugs? Is there any other major company you can think of that’s an early adopter and getting it right?

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Twitter Mobile Interface
Quick Fix For Twitter Troubles
Don’t Send Bac’n: Use TwitterSearch
Mosio Uses Twitter For Mobile Q&A
Twitter Adds GMail Contacts Import
How Messed Up Is Twitter For You Right Now? [Poll]
30Boxes Brings Us Power Twitter