Ou Est La Twitter? La Twitter Et Voici!
Quick, you’re lost somewhere in France, it’s cold, dark, and all you have is your smartphone, a signal flair, CB radio, map, flashlight, French/English dictionary, and some french fries.
What do you do?
OK, first, eat the french fries–you look hungry.
Then throw all that other stuff in a trash can, because all you need is your phone and Twitter!
Two new Twitter services are rolling out, both will help you–should you ever find yourself in this scenario.
First, Twitter has added a French version of the web site. The fact that the Twitter team will be in Paris for Le Web is purely coincidental! 
Second, Twitter is rolling out a new API that will bring location awareness to the popular microblogging service:
We’re going to release geolocation to platform developers before we add the feature to Twitter.com. Most of the mobile applications people use and love are built by Twitter platform developers. Developers will have access to this new geolocation feature early which means it will most likely be available on your app of choice before it’s available on Twitter’s web site…It’s easy to imagine how this might be interesting at an event like a concert or even something more dramatic like an earthquake.
Now, before some of you rush off to WordPress and crank out that scathing post about privacy invasion–you know, the one that will get retweeted like crazy and a ton of comments (you know who you are)–Twitter is one step ahead of you. Geolocation in your tweets will be an opt-in setting:
Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won’t be stored for an extended period of time.
It will be interesting to see what new apps and features will come from this. Dear developers, please create something a little more practical than FourSquare. How about an app that can translate my panic-stricken tweets into French, then tell the local authorities which bush exactly I’m cowering under.
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Microsoft to Google in Less Than Two Weeks
In an admittedly slow news day it is noteworthy to tell you that earlier in the week Google made a strategic hire if for no other reason than the hire was just at Microsoft less than two weeks ago.
Don Dodge was Microsoft’s “Ambassador to Start Ups” according to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch. We say ‘was’ because Dodge was laid off by Microsoft earlier this month. Check out Arrington’s interview with Dodge here. I honestly didn’t think that people at this level or with this title got ‘laid off’. I thought that was reserved for the rank and file folks and the sales team. Guess you learn something new every day, right?
Back to the story. Dodge didn’t need to spend much time figuring out what to do next because Google saw the opportunity and swooped in. You gotta figure that there was no real ‘job opening’ available but when you sit on a pile of cash and you see a ‘name brand’ available why not make a spot for them?
TechCrunch continues
He’ll be working for another ex-Microsofter, Vic Gundotra. Gundotra worked 15 years at Microsoft as General Manager of Microsoft’s developer outreach efforts. He joined Google in 2007 as VP Engineering, responsible for mobile applications and developer evangelism.
Well, for you young folks out there here’s a lesson in making sure you are building a strong reputation and personal brand. In this world, those who can do that won’t be unemployed for long. At least, it’s a nice theory.
Anyway, hope you don’t have to figure out what’s next today!
New Data Suggests We’ve Grown Bored of Twitter
If we can believe Hitwise, we’ve all hit a Twitter slump:
Of course, this could just mean that we’re all switching from the web interface to desktop and mobile applications, but surely if Twitter were adding new users, they’d start with the web site, right?
Hmm. Maybe there’s a slump in those seeking out Twitter too!
What are your thoughts?
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NBC Goes Mobile With Investment
NBC understands that the future of television may have less to do with TV’s. As a result, the company has made a move into the mobile ad space by investing in the mobile ad network Greystripe. The funding is said to have been made to assist the sales team headquartered in New York in selling more ads across the 1,000 mobile apps and games on over 1,400 devices that Greystripe can provide.
Greystripe, a mobile advertising network that distributes ad-supported games and applications, said it secured $2 million in funding from the Peacock Equity Fund, a joint venture fund co-founded by GE and its NBC Universal unit, ending a Series C funding round. The funding and a new strategic partnership with NBC Universal give Greystripe an edge in the hyper-competitive mobile ad world.
This ‘hyper-competitive’ market is projected by some to reach $2 billion per year in 2014 so there is certainly a lot at stake and getting in now rather than after the ship has sailed shows that at least NBC is paying attention. That can’t be said for all traditional media that has traditionally been slow on the uptake of the most current ways to reach consumers
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As more evidence of just how the advertising world has changed one needs to look no further than other investors in Greystripe up to this point
Today’s funding news marks the second time a major media corporation-backed fund has invested in Greystripe. Steamboat Ventures, Walt Disney’s venture capital arm, led Greystripe’s Series B funding round in 2007, injecting $8.9 million into the ad network. In addition to receiving capital from NBC Universal, Greystripe will partner with the media corporation’s big-name properties, such as the Sci-Fi (sic) Channel, Bravo and MSNBC, to provide ads on its mobile applications. At the same time, NBC Universal can now sell ad space within its mobile apps to advertisers through Greystripe’s mobile ad network.
Yup, that’s Walt Disney Co., owner of ABC and ESPN among others. While this type of ‘partnership’ is less and less unusual it still shows just how much the advertising world has changed over the past several years as a result of the Internet and mobile computing / browsing.
One major competitive differentiator for Greystripe, notes their CEO Michael Chang, is that the network can serve ‘flash-like’ ads on the iPhone. The iPhone does not support flash yet but Greystripe apparently has some kind of workaround / variation on the flash theme that was attractive to a broadcast company like NBC.
Maybe mobile is finally here. If the networks are on board that means there can’t be too many adopters left out there.
Finally! Developers Can Make Money from Free iPhone Apps
How does an iPhone application developer make money when giving away a free app? Well, before today, they mostly relied on users upgrading to a version of the app with more features–and a price tag. Now they have a new beta program from Google to test.
Google AdSense for Mobile Applications just launched and application developers–for either iPhone or Android–can apply to join. Already onboard are Backgrounds, Sega, Shazam, and Urbanspoon. The latter shares its story on using AdSense in its iPhone app in the video below.
I know more of our readers are going to be on the marketing side of his equation, so what are you thoughts? Are you excited about seeing your ads on popular iPhone apps?
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Google AdSense for Mobile Applications Goes Into Public Beta
Google had been testing AdSense on mobile apps for the iPhone and Android in a kind of private beta with roughly 10 partners, including Pandora, Shazam and Urbanspoon. Now the program is opening up to apps developers and publishers who meet some criteria (among them, a 3 month commitment, 100K+ page views). Google said that [...]
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