Google just got fresher and faster with the release of their new indexing system,  Caffeine. In short, old Google indexing = built with layers that would get refreshed at varying frequencies and result in content often not updated for days or weeks. New Google indexing (Caffeine) = analyzes smaller chunks of the web and updates continuously; so content is much fresher!

Found this bit of news the other day; surprised that it’s not getting more attention considering all the noise out around Flash and Apple these days. To be clear, this app, Cloud Browse, is not actually installing the Flash runtime on the iPhone; so it’s not really Flash on the iPhone. It sounds like it works like VNC by allowing an iPhone to connect to another machine in order to see the content. Highlights from the USA Today post is below:“Here’s how it works: you download the free Cloud Browse App and install it. Then you direct the App to the website of your choice. Here’s where the interesting part comes in: the site is called up on another computer, which streams it back to your iPhone. The app, Cloud Browse, is free, has been out for a few weeks, and so far has picked up 150,000 downloads….it had already been approved by Apple by the time Apple CEO Steve Jobs penned his “Thoughts on Flash essay. Personally, I’d be concerned about the performance of this, but according to this report,  it’s apparently pretty darn good on the iPhone! I’m surprised Steve isn’t blocking it!http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/05/flash-comes-to-iphone–sort-of/1

You probably haven’t heard about this yet, but that little device they call the “iPhone” is about to get a re-haul. I wasn’t able to get tickets to the WWDC to see Steve announce it today in person, but thanks to Engadget, I can feel like I was right there in the middle of it all.  I was already hip to many of the new features after Steve announced the updates for the OS, but he was holding one of the most exciting features for today: video calling (FaceTime). I’m also impressed with the announcement of Retina Display, increasing pixel density by four times! The picture quality is unbelievable!

Hot off the presses: Introducing Google TV! I’m really excited about this. Google is creating the software (Google TV) and partnering with Logitech and Sony, who are supplying the hardware. In addition, and what is most exciting to me, is the ability for 3rd party developers to create applications for this new platform. The applications can take two forms: Native (Android) and Web (web technologies including Flash!) Just think of the potential for mashing up all of this rich, powerful content driven by the power of Google services. The inclusion of Flash is a big one and by having Shantanu  (Adobe CEO) up on stage next to Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, to announce this sends a pretty clear message about where Google stands on Flash support.

I’m hoping the performance will improve as people learn to optimize for this new device. Then again, wasn’t that the point of HTML5? It’s supposed to be open and run everywhere (HTML5 is supported).

Thanks to Mike Chambers for posting this interview with Kevin Lynch at Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Kevin talks about Adobe, Flash, innovation, HTML 5, thoughts on the direction the web is moving, competition, and Omniture and he does so in a very open and down-to-earth way that I personally appreciate. I’ve been meaning to comment on all the recent hype going on between Apple and Adobe, specifically around Flash, but I’m also a bit sick of all the silly talk; most of which is just nonsense and not even based in reality. Hopefully it will calm down in a while and I’ll have some strength left over to dedicate to some thoughts.<br />

One of the great things about the job I have, is that I am truly technology agnostic – I use everything and I’m loyal to no one! Therefore, I am able to see technologies for what they are: tools to help me create. How do I choose which tool to use? Based on what is most appropriate for the job. This evaluation could include:

(1) Pure capabilities: can it do what I want it to? And at the fidelity I require?

(2) Audience reach: it may be an amazing tool, but can anyone else actually see what I create?

(3)  Speed to deploy: how fast can I get something moving? This is perhaps the most controversial. The process of creating traditional (boxed) software was one of slow moving teams; perfecting every single line of code in order to get it in the box before the shrink wrap stuck. In the digital world today, as companies like Google and Facebook have shown us, this type of software life-cycle/philosophy is potentially a detriment to your business. Today, it’s about getting ideas in front of users fast, collecting feedback, and iterating on your masterpiece; it’s not about spending 5 years to get it perfect the first time.

Interestingly, not as important of an evaluation point, to me anyway, is whether or not my tool of choice is necessarily deemed an “open standard.” Perhaps this decision point could relate to #2, Audience reach….someday maybe….

However, certainly in the case of HTML5, THE open standard of the hour, it is also the tool with the smallest audience!

Of course, as Steve Jobs would argue, we should be thinking of the future – when one day open standards will rule everywhere (unless you want to develop a native app for a Mac product, in which case you’ll need to live in the closed world of Apple native app development). PLEASE NOTE the distiction between the two very different uses of “open”:

1). Open standards apply to WEB technologies. HTML(x) is an open standard and supported by Apple. Flash is not because it is a plug-in (ironically, it is also the most prevalent piece of software on the planet, more than any single operating system or browser, which one could argue makes it a Standard!)

2) Open (development) environment points more to how you create your work (software). Apple’s environment is CLOSED – while Flash is OPEN. You won’t hear Steve Jobs talk up this point.

I do agree with Steve about WEB open standards, and I’m excited about HTML5, and the future of our biz. I feel that over time, this will be the direction where we will see the industry moving – and it could be a relatively quick move. However, it’s important to remember that the people creating and using these experiences….don’t really give a crap if a technology is considered open or not, and certainly are not interested in waiting around for another 10 years for the next improvements on their tool spec (I believe that HTML4 was ratified in 1999??.…which means it has taken over 10/11 years to get HTML5 going…..and it’s still not even here!) This doesn’t even account for how long it takes these open standards to make their way out into the “working world.” Ask any employee of a large corporation which browser they are using right now – chances are it is IE 7 – a non-HTML5-ready browser. Many of my clients, who work for huge corporations are still using IE6 because their IT departments have not yet upgraded them yet. IT departments for huge corporations don’t just upgrade thousands and thousands of computers just because someone is excited that HTML5 is out.

I hope I don’t sound too harsh on open standards, because I truly do believe this is the way to go, and I’m excited to start focusing much of my attention in this directions. However, putting all the hype and dirty talk aside, I’m realistic to know that (a) it will take time for any “standard” to become adopted, and (b) in the meantime, certain tools (including Flash) are far more ubiquitous and continue to make significant improvements every single year – not every 10 years. This is important to me too.

I enjoyed watching Kevin’s talk because he seems to be more in-line with my thinking: It’s not about the tool (it’s not Flash vs HTML5), it’s about allowing users the freedom to choose and create what they want in the tool of their choice. Perhaps that is the ultimate Open Standard.

I attended F8, the Facebook Developer’s Conference, last week and so I wanted to jot down some of the highlights before I forget. First, I must say that the Conference was one of the better ones I have attended recently. From the solid organization, to the awesome speakers, to the great food – I really enjoyed myself and got a lot out of the event. Sometimes I’ll attend a conference and walk away telling myself “wow, that was a big waste of time;” but F8 was a valuable experience. So here are the headlines as I can recall:

• No more 24-hour limit on caching user data. Originally, Facebook told developers not to store user data within their applications for more than 24 hours; this was primarily intended to “force” all data to be the most up-to-date (if a user’s profile info changed overnight, it may not be reflected in application that simply cached the data forever.) The only way around this was to continuously poll the Facebook servers requesting updates ( = bad for Facebook). The primary reason for lifting this ban, is that now data can be pushed from Facebook to applications. So, as if/when a user’s info is updated, Facebook can broadcast this info out to the apps in a timely manner.
• New (simple) Data Permissions Dialog. Basically, a much better user experience for accessing Facebook data (and easier to develop)
• The Social Graph. This is the idea that the social graph (the way people are all connected together) should extend beyond Facebook (or any single site) and now will make the social connections anywhere we travel on the Web. For example: I use Pandora to map out how music is mapped together, and Yelp to view the world of local businesses; yet, until now, all these connections(relations) were kept separate and out of my social (Facebook) world.
• Graph API. To support Facebook’s inclusion into the Social Graph, Facebook has announced the Graph API. This API enables developers to read and write objects and connections in the Facebook social graph.
• Transitioning away from Facebook Connect. That’s right, moving away from Facebook connect in favor of the new “Login with Facebook.”
• Social Plug-ins. To support the social graph, developers can now include social plugins within their applications and websites. These plugins essentially pull a user’s Facebook friend data into an experience without actually sharing this data with the sites/apps on which they appear. For example:

1. The new Activity Feed plugin can be placed on CNN.com homepage. When I visit CNN.com, the Activity Feed can access my Facebook account and let me know which of my friends have read/commented on which sections of the CNN website.
2. The Like Button. Perhaps the most significant new feature, particularly for digital marketers, is the new Like Button.
3. Recommendations. Similar to Activity Feed, except suggestions recommendations based on input from your friends.
4. Login with Faces
5. Facepile
6. Comments
7. Live Stream

• Open Graph Protocol. This is one I’m personally interested in. This is how we actually integrate our own pages into the social graph – literally turning a web page into a recognizable object within the social graph. This is done by tagging pages so that they can be identified and catalog within the social graph. This has potential for some amazing new things. Imagine how this could impact SEARCH! At the same time, this could lead to abuse and the dilution of valuable data, perhaps to the point where it becomes meaningless; remember the KEYWORD meta tag for Search engines? Still, I’m excited and will keep an eye on this.
• Analytics. Facebook also announced a new, fairly modest Analytics tool that will allow anyone to see a breakdown of the people interacting with them (or their brand). Although the tool itself is hardly on par with Omniture, it certainly offers information that up-until-now has been totally unavailable. For example, the age/sex of your users. Powerful info for marketers. We used this tool to check the stats on a recent project we did at R/GA. Turns out, we absolutely nailed the target demographic of our client. The stats overwhelming supported this. However, had we discovered that we were off, we could have addressed this immediately. Quite powerful.

In summary, this is all pretty darn cool! The idea of opening up the social graph, creating connections, and making the Internet “more social”, is going to continue to shape our digital world. The Like Button, in particular, will be huge for marketing. As a brand, I can quickly connect with my users, create a 1-to-1 relationship with them for communication, have my user’s act as my advertisers (by sharing my brand with their friends throughout their Internet world) and I will even be able to analyze all of this detailed user information in order to make better decisions about my marketing strategies.

More resources:

Graph api - http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api

Reference - http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/

FB Docs - http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web

Plugins - http://developers.facebook.com/plugins

OAuth 2.0 protocol - http://github.com/theRazorBlade/draft-ietf-oauth/raw/master/draft-ietf-oauth.txt

PHP SDK: http://github.com/facebook/php-sdk/

R/GA was invited to attend a special event on the future of the iPhone OS; presented by none other than Mr. Steve Jobs himself! My colleague, and our resident iPhone developer guru, Bill, was the lucky man who made the trip (I’m so jealous). After the presentation, Apple posted a video of the event on their website.  As I watched the video, I felt compelled to jot down the key points about what to expect from the new OS. For the most part, it ounds very exciting indeed.

Summary: over 100 user features and over 1500 new developer APIs

The 7 New Functionality 7 “tent-poles”:

1.       Multitasking APIs:

7 New multitasking services

• Background Audio – eg. Pandora can continue to play music even as you switch apps.
• VOIP- eg. Skype can run a phone call and a user can still switch around between apps.
• Location – Continue to track location with GPS in background – eg. Loopt listens to user location, can detect when you’ve moved, update friends. OS4 adding fine-grained settings to check/set which apps are asking for your location.
• Push Notifications (i.e. server-based).
• Local Notifications (don’t need server, app-to-app).
• Task Completion – eg. Flickr can continue to upload photos in the background, even after you switch apps.
• Fast App Switching – as you switch, application(s) status is preserved.

2.       Folders

• Drag apps ontop of eachother to create folders. The folder name is set, by default, to the category name of apps as set in app store. Eg “games.”

3.       Enhanced Mail

• One inbox: all mail accounts dump into unified inbox.
• Fast inpbox switching.
• Threaded messages.
• Open attachments with iPhone apps (by clicking on attachment).

4.       iBooks

• Just like iPad. Buy once read anywhere; sync page and bookmarks between devices.

5.       Enterprise

• better data protection (better encryption).
• providing APIs to developers to control encryption.
• Mobile Device Management.
• Wireless app distribution.
• Multiple Exchange accounts.
• Exchange Server- SSL VPN support.

6.       Game Center

• More than 50,000 games on app store (more than 10x competitors: sony psp, Nintendo DS)
• Social Gaming network.
• Challenge your friends to games.
• Automatic matchmaking. If you’re playing a game, if it requires other people to play, it will find “similar players”
• Leader boards.
• Achievements (what I’ve won).

7.       iAd

• Steve: ”Mobile users do not use Search, they use Apps.”
• Steve: ”Average iPhone user spends over 30 min everyday.”
• 1 billion ad impressions per day.
• Steve: “Emotion + Interactivity”
• Keeps you within your app
• Built into the iPhone OS, developers can add ads via API
• Apple sells and hosts the ads
• Apple will give developers 60% to developers

Google announced that the Flash plug-in will now be part of the the regular install for Chrome. This is some big news, particularly when putting it up against Apple’s current policy towards Flash.  In addition to stirring up the battle between Google and Apple, Google is making statement, and it’s not just about “to Flash or not to Flash” either. By supporting the idea of making the world a positive place for a variety web technologies (plug-ins included),  Google is committed to empowering the potential of what can be done within the browser; and this is good. In the end, these are just tools; all that matters is the user’s experience and our ability, as creators to continue to innovate. It’s not about what technology happens to be used – or not used, and it’s certainly not about pointing fingers at why one technology might be less superior, simply because the person who is using it does not understand it or know how to use it correctly.

The current issue of WIRED has an interesting article about Tablets, focusing mostly on the iPad of course. It talks about the game-changing positives: revolutionizing the GUI and the impressive creative potential (advertising being one). It also points out some potential flaws in the dream: the learning of new standards, a new development environment and the closed world of Apple (contrasted with the open world of Google/Chrome).

When talking about some of these future ideas, and in viewing some the demos others have produced (2 are listed below), it’s amazing to see how these new executions are virtually identical to what we’re already doing on the web. Therefore the question becomes: is the move to a new “touchable”, more mobile GUI,  THAT much of a difference? Did we need a new device and a new way of interacting with the device in order to realize the potential of these interactive ideas? Don’t we already have magazines online? One of my personal favorites is.

How the Tablet will change the world  (WIRED Article).

The Future of Advertising on the iPad (thanks to Rick Mathieson for the link)

The future of Magazines. First, watch these ancient prophecies from 2007, 2008.

And now, on the iPad

VIV Mag Interactive Feature Spread – iPad Demo from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.