Josh Benner

Author: the Josh Benner Blog

  • Facebook ads, starring y-o-u

    Facebook announced a new feature called ”sponsored” stories today. Advertisers will have the opportunity to sponsor certain types of responses, such as ”likes” or check-ins from users, and from those responses, they will be able to put these in the right margin as ads.

    As an example, let’s say that Target wants to have ads based off of who checks in to Target on Facebook and you check-in at your local Target. That’s something that can be a possible ad.

    These ads will only be posted to people who are already your Facebook friends, but they’re doing this without your permission. Many of these same types of posts could just as easily wind up on your Facebook newsfeed and all of the information is information which you have already chosen to put on your Facebook. The company is trying to depict this as being no different from what would post to the news feed, but it IS different. You’re involuntarily going to be put into advertisements that Facebook is getting paid for.

    Facebook is trying to make this seem like it is ultimately going to benefit you, the user, however given their history, I’m pretty sure this is actually being done to benefit them. Facebook’s advertising platform does not work. Companies pump money into Facebook and the results are horrible. They are doing whatever they can to spark interest through advertisers, and apparently this includes pimpin out users as unofficial spokesmen for products.

    jrb

  • What headlines are missing about new Google CEO

    According to Google’s blog, it was announced earlier this afternoon that Eric Schmidt is stepping down from his role as CEO of Google. This is true, but Schmidt is not leaving Google. He is still going to be heavily involved with the company and is simply assuming a different role.

    Larry Page who is the co founder of Google will become CEO on April 4 while Schmidt will become Executive Chairman. Page was the original CEO of Google until 2001 when Schmidt took the helm. Page has remained heavily involved with the company and serves as Google’s products president.

    Google’s other founder (Sergey Brin) is currently the company’s president of technology. His role seems like it will be much the same, and he will focus much of his time to working on new products, according to Schmidt’s post this afternoon on the Official Google Blog.

    So what will Schmidt do in his new role as Executive Director? In his own words:

    “As Executive Chairman, I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.”

    To the average person, this will have a largely unnoticeable impact. I get the sense that a big part of the reason was to make shareholders happy. It’s not that they were unhappy with Schmidt, but the change will more clearly define who is responsible for what and the hope of Google is that this will lead to increased accountability.

    jrb

  • Why 2011 is Groupon’s year

    Groupon is already a popular web service with over 35 million members worldwide. Since its founding in 2008, the site’s growth has occurred at a remarkable rate, and while there are millions of people who already use Groupon, I think that this is the year the site truly explodes and becomes ubiquitous within our society.

    I realize social networking is different than Groupon, but it is interesting as the popularity of Facebook and Twitter have grown, that

    As an example, there are lots of people who know about Twitter but who don’t use Twitter and who have never had Twitter accounts. With Groupon, I believe that 2011 will be the year where it trul

    The reasons why Groupon will explode so dramatically this year:

    1. While people have obviously known about Groupon before now, I feel like this will be the year where the stie truly breaks through the fabric of popular culture and becomes ubiquitous within our society. As more people start to realize the idea is about saving money and how easy Groupon is to use, the numbers of registered users will continue to shoot. Think of it like Facebook’s expansion, but coupons instead of social networking.

    2. More and more people are going to have access to the site. In the U.S., Groupon is available in over 150 cities and can be found globally in 27 countries (both figures according to Wikipedia).

    3. Their advertisements are going to tighten up this year. Earlier this month, it was announced that people are going to have more customization options in terms of which groupon offers are sent to them. I feel like the fact that this hasn’t happened already is in large part due to the phenomenol success of the site so far, and difficulties in keeping up with huge demand from businesses to partner with Groupon.

    It only makes sense to send Groupon offers where there is a higher likelihood the person will use them. For instance, where I live (Columbus, OH), my January 3 Gruopon offer was this:

    WOW!

    An 86% discount on spider vein removal treatments. That’s a great deal.

    However: I don’t have spider veins (at least I don’t think I do, but that seems like one of those medical conditions where: if you think there is a possibility you might have it, then, you have it).

    Smarter advertising will add even more street cred to the already popular site. And it will help to..

    4. Get more men signed up. Over three quarters of Groupon users are women. It will be important as the site utilizes more targeted coupon offers to start having “manlier” things.

    I love Groupon but I feel like some of their offers are things that men would have absolutely no interest in such as: spa treatments and cheap Justin Bieber t-shirts.

    5. Grocery stores and other retailers are starting to catch on to the idea of people using their phones as the actual coupon instead of physically printing or cutting something out. This will work well with Groupon.

    6. For any social site to work, it needs to have a cool factor. Groupon has it. As U.S. News and World Report mentioned this fall, a lot of people who use Groupon are not necessarily the common “coupon clipping” percentage of the population. A lot of Groupon users are younger and the site is going to continue getting more and more popular with older users as they hear about it from their younger children, coworkers, and great grandchildren.

    In many ways, the growth potential of this site reminds me of Facebook. In its first year, it went from 0 to around 1.5 million users. Now – a year after that – the site is over 35 million users. I think it is very much within the realm of possibility that the site could be over 150 million users by the end of this year.

    1.5 million to 35 million

    In March, the site was available in 40 cities and the goal of founder Andrew Mason was to be in 100 cities by the end of last year (they ended up being in over 150).

    In case you are unfamiliar: Groupon is a site that offers a daily deal, a coupon to a local business. The deal is always at least 1/2 off on a good or service. There are a minimum number of people who must signup for that day’s offer in order to activate the Groupon. In short: the consumer is saving money and learning about new stores/places/things, and the small business is making money.

    jrb

  • Amber Alerts now available on Facebook

    I’ve said before that I feel that people increasingly love online social networking, but don’t necessarily love Facebook. But Facebook is the best place to go to connect with friends and relatives and so we go there. With Facebook itself, people are largely growing more and more annoyed.

    Well, with at least one new feature on Facebook, I would like to applaud the site today. AMBER alert notifications are now available on Faceboo. Each state has it’s own AMBER Alert Facebook page. You can simply search “Amber Alert” and the name of your state, it will bring that page up, click “like” and you’re set.

    It’s that simple.

    In case you are unfamiliar: an AMBER Alert is a notification that a child has been abducted locally. It is a collaborative effort with various law enforcement, transportation, broadcasting institutions, and the wireless industry, according to amberalert.gov

    Part of the point is to utilize so many different types of technologies in an effort to locate the missing person as quickly as possible.

    jrb

    questions/comments, feel free to Tweet @bennernotes (just as soon as you login to Facebook and “like” your state’s Amber alert notification page)

  • Why your Android doesn’t have that trojan everyone is talking about

    No. You did not download the Trojan that is running on Android. Have you downloaded any third party apps from China lately? No, you haven’t, and so you don’t have the Trojan.

    I’m seeing a lot of posts on Twitter talking about the Trojan. I think the fact that people like to use social networking sties to spread the word when there are risks is wonderful.

    However, a negative is that it can sometimes make something a bigger story than it really needs to be and cause more confusion about whether or not an individual’s phone might have the malware.

    Mobile Lookout posted on their blog yesterday that an application which has been named “Geinimi” has been running on recreated versions of legitimate applications (mostly games) on third party Chinese Android app markets.

    But it has only been detected on Chinese apps, so you really don’t need to worry about it.

    For what it’s worth, in order to even download a third party app on an Android, you would need to go to “Settings -> Applications -> Unknown Sources” and check the unknown sources box to have the capability.

    Also, this application asked for downloaders to give it permissions which far exceed the normal permissions you grant any ordinary application you would ever download in Android Market. Checking the box also brings up a warning that you must ok.

    So for the vast majority of Android owners, it would not even be possible for you to get the Trojan.

    For people who have checked to receive applications from unknown services, they need to know the risk they’re taking and pay special attention to what they’re downloading.

    Also, if you haven’t downloaded Mobile Lookout or some other safety application that scans what you download, you really should. It’s free.

    jrb

    questions or comments? email benner.joshua@gmail.com or twitter @bennernotes

    Link to the Mobile Lookout blog post on Trojan http://bit.ly/f8hTtB