RAAK

Mobile computing

Just before the holidays we called out 2011 as the year when the importance of mobile technology will force many companies to reconsider their use of media. Well here is more evidence.

The global mobile broadband count passed 500 million last year, and the forecast is that it will double this year and shoot past the 1 billion mark. And while last year’s CES was all about 3D TVs, this year saw a plethora of tablets (think iPad-me-too’s – but cheaper) running mostly on Android, Google’s new OS.

Scan that code

Talking about mobile. The ever-inspiring PSFK have just published a report on The Future of Mobile Tagging, the technology that includes the likes of QR codes and Microsoft Tags (who sponsored the document).

It contains a number of creative case-studies that show how you can use the technology to raise awareness, provide customers with information and help make the sale. One to bookmark.

We’re particularly intrigued by Likify, a Beta service by Belgian agency Boondoggle Lifelabs that links the QR code to a Facebook Like, enabling you to Like real-life objects, shops,…

And do give the below code a scan to try it.

It’s gotta be big – the Internet 2010 in numbers

For every Tweet sent in the world in 2010 (there were 27 billion), there were over 4000 emails (there were 107 Trillion). Just proving that older forms of social media are not going away soon. For that and other incredible stats see this post.

Does Reputation equal Influence?

If you have been reading our newsletter you know that we have been putting influence systems like Klout and PeerIndex through their paces. But what about reputation? If you understand a person’s reputation, could that be a way to define influence?

Before Quora, the current network du jour, came to dominate our inboxes, there was already a very similar service for tech people called Stack Overflow. So do Q&A services like Stack Overflow and Quora hold the key to getting to the bottom of influence – in a topic-specific way – in a way that Klout does not?

Robert Scoble mused this week: “After all, you don’t get reputation on Stack Overflow unless you can actually answer technical questions and have other people verify you are right most of the time.” Stack Overflow has actually made a list of those with the highest rankings and Robert reckons this would be gold dust for recruiters. Interesting times.

Is the Google algorithm becoming weak?

SEO is an important part of any online communication. And we’ve written before about how creating good content is a powerful means to make your way up the Google search results.

But this intriguing article talks about how ‘content farms’ are spamming the Google algorithm and effectively making search less likely to be relevant.

Companies that use social media make more money

So says the global management consulting firm McKinsey, who base this statement on a 4-year study on the impact of ‘collaborative Web 2.0 technologies’. Cue lively discussion about correlation and causality.

Tech insight of the week – The Gospel according to Javascript

In the beginning, when the web was created, Javascript was a language scoffed at by ‘real’ developers. It was the domain of pop-ups, banner ads and tacky cursor effects. This is not at all the case anymore. Read More >>

Creative of the Week – Koos Kombuis

There’s no doubting that the publishing world is currently in a flux. A great example of authors doing their own thing is Twitterdawn, a Twitter novel by renowned South African author and musician Koos Kombuis. Read More >>