Ian Lamont

Amidst the slew of Google announcements this week, one that really made me sit up in my chair concerned a new mobile service called Google Goggles. Now, I don't have an Android phone and therefore have no easy way to try out this "visual search" technology, but I know some people who have, and they have confirmed it works -- at least some of the time. While Google Goggles promises to bring convenience and coolness to owners of Android phones, I am convinced there will be a disruptive impact on certain types of businesses and organizations, especially as Google improves the recognition algorithms and ports the technology to other mobile platforms. This futuristic technology has really arrived, and IT and business managers will need to evaluate it as their customers, employees and competitors start to use it.

First, a quick explanation of what Google Goggles does. The visual search concept (which Google also calls "computer vision" and "search by sight") is simple: Use a mobile phone with a camera to identify objects and match them to search results or online databases, such as maps or e-commerce sites.

Gartner Vice President Carol Rozwell first caught The Standard's attention in October, after her widely retweeted criticisms of those corporate IT and HR departments that follow a lockdown mantra toward social media (be sure to read her follow-up blog post, too). Rozwell's theory of enterprise social networking may not get the same amount of attention, but we think that it's just as important.

The press release for Rozwell's report is a bit jargony, but the basic premise makeArtwork: Chip Taylors sense: The network of connections that exist in any workplace -- the communications and information flows between employees, partners, and customers -- represent an "untapped information asset" that can be quantified and analyzed for patterns of influence, relative importance in the organization, and even economic value. Management can use this data to identify key influencers or the teams that create bottlenecks, and make changes in order to make operations more efficient, move forward on promising new projects, or head off potential disruptions.

When it comes to social networks, Facebook and MySpace dominate in the United States. But if your business takes you to other parts of the world, or you have to connect with colleagues and customers in other markets, it's important to remember that a multititude of smaller social networks have not only been established, they've attracted huge numbers of users.

You may have heard of Bebo (popular in the U.K. and acquired by AOL last year for $850 million) or Friendster (an early MySpace competitor in the U.S., now retrenched in Southeast Asia) but there are many more. In Latin America, Hi5 has established a strong presence. Eastern Europe has a fragmented landscape, with Poland dominated by a local player while other countries are the battleground for international networks such as Facebook and Hi5. In China, there are a patchwork of social networks, ranging from 51.com to the portal tencent.

We really want to believe that executives are heavy users of videoconferencing technologies, but we're having a tough time accepting some survey data from Global IP Solutions that crossed our desk on Tuesday. The company, which develops software for video and voice delivery over IP networks, sent the Standard the results of a simple survey that it had posed to 350 participants in one of its online seminars. Of the nearly 70 who responded, a whopping 38% claimed they used video conferencing or chat at least once per week. Another 21% said they used these technologies at least once per month.

Do these numbers reflect typical videoconferencing usage patterns at most companies? We doubt it. The technology is certainly available (for instance, new Mac laptops have video cameras and chat software built in) but there are cultural and practical reasons that limit its use, such as cubicle volume concerns and interoperability issues. In this case, we think the survey results exaggerated the number of heavy users. After all, the people who participated in GIPS' online seminar are naturally are more inclined to use video conferencing than the general population of corporate users.

If you were a betting man (or woman), who do you think would win in a social media face-off between the two most widely used desktop/laptop operating systems? In one corner you have OS X, Apple's svelte and sexy OS that is adored by practically everyone who has tried it. In the opposite corner, you have the various flavors of Windows, which have a much larger home and enterprise userbase, but haven't gotten much positive press in recent years.

If you put your money behind OS X, you're out of luck. Apple's operating system may have a fanatical group of followers and a reality distortion field when it comes to press coverage, but in the social media sphere Apple Inc. lags. Comparing the two companies' efforts, it's clear that there are very different schools of thought at work in terms of using social media for customer outreach.

Imagine, if you will, an alternate Internet reality. A strange reality, in which online sales involve mandatory visits to bricks-and-mortars stores to complete the transactions. Hankering for a new MacBook? Apple.com will display the specs for various configurations, but will then direct you to the nearest mall to pick up the laptop. Need a new power adaptor for that blade server that's been acting up in the server room? The manufacturer's website will only be too happy to provide you with a list of distributors in your zip code. Want to get a copy of a reference manual that you need to review for an upcoming certification exam? Don't go to Amazon.com (in our alternate reality, it's a website promoting ecotourism in the Amazon river basin). You can see the official price and summary on the publisher's website, or check out one of the third-party review sites, but when it comes time to pay, you'll need to go in person to a book store.

Strange, huh? But the really bizarre thing about this alternate reality is it mirrors the real-world situation for buying cars. For 15 years, the Web has presented a huge opportunity to upend the sales of new cars and trucks in the U.S., but the reality is the system remains firmly chained to bricks-and-mortar middlemen -- the local dealerships -- which have dominated retail car sales since the early 20th century.

Overhyped technology poster child of 2009, meet your counterpart from 2006. We're talking about Twitter -- which, by our reckoning, entered the mainstream at the beginning of this year -- and Second Life, the virtual world which went through its own hype phase in 2006 (BusinessWeek: "Virtual worlds abound in useful business applications!") before being brought roughly back to earth.

But not all hype is created equal. In a June 2009 blog entry for AdAge, PR executive Chris Abraham compared the two services, and concluded that Twitter's hype cycle is more sustainable than that of Second Life. Why?

Don't you hate it when perfectly good hypotheses are proven wrong? The media measurement folks at Nielsen had just such an experience when they postulated that increased social network use would decrease email use. But that's not what happened, at least according to Nielsen's quick 'n dirty review of the data. VP of Media Analytics Jon Gibs explains the methodology:

We decided to churn some quick data to test our hypothesis that "Consumption of social media decreases email use." First, we broke the online population into four groups. The first three are terciles of social media consumption in minutes. The fourth is a group that doesn't use social media at all. We then looked at each segment's time of web based email consumption over the course of a year. Finally, we subtracted the email consumption of those that do not use social media from those that do, basically to show a lift over possible external forces.

OK, guys. We get it. Second Life is not a fad. But a rival to social networking sites? We're having a little trouble with that one. The idea was floated in the latest collection of Second Life usage statistics released by Linden Lab last week. The press release stresses the claim that users have spent more thArtwork: Chip Tayloran one billion hours in-world, but it also describes a few pieces of information that seem intended to put the 3D virtual world way ahead of the social networking pack in several key areas:

"Second Life Residents spend an average of about 100 minutes inworld per visit. This average session time is significantly greater than those seen with popular social networking Web sites and reveals the uniquely high level of engagement Residents have with Second Life."

Securities and Exchange Commission staff are "actively looking" at the question of whether corporate Twitter users may be required to give additional SEC disclosures, according to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro.

Twitter has been a hit in the financial arena. Several popular services such as StockTwits have sprung up to track discussions around publicly traded securities and foreign currency exchanges. However, the SEC may be less concerned with these and more concerned with information tweeted by executives and employees that potentially conflicts with SEC regulations on corporate communications. For example, eBay's lawyers have required in-house blogger and tweeter Richard Brewer-Hay to include regulatory disclaimers with some of his posts.

An early morning blog post by Facebook's Ted Ullyot has noted the preliminary results of the site governance vote. About 3/4 chose the new Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities over the existing terms of use, he says.

While Facebook's approach to involving the community in developing its new terms is admirable, there is a glaring problem with the vote that makes me question the results: Less than 1% of Facebook members participated.

If the rumors are true, Microsoft is gearing up to release a new Zune and take another stab at the portable media player market. Engadget and Technologizer say that the new model will be released later this year, and will probably have HD capabilities. A spokesman for the Zune team declined to comment on the specific rumors, but told the Standard "we will deliver progress this calendar year on both hardware and software."

Could the new model be enough to take on Apple's iPod family? The chances don't look good, even if Microsoft adds another feature that differentiates its product from Apple's.