RAAK

Google does Klout

We know that web pages with high ranking scores pass on those scores to pages they link to. But does Google take into account the authority of people who share links in determining the PageRank of those links? Danny Sullivan, search engine guru asked exactly that question:

Both Google and Bing tell me that who you are as a person on Twitter can impact how well a page does in regular web search. Authoritative people on Twitter lend their authority to pages they tweet.
 

Unrequited love – First Twitter, now Groupon

Last week we reported how Google failed to buy Twitter for a reported 5 billion dollars. This week they failed to buy Groupon, the hot social buying site, for a rumoured $6 billion. Exactly how much money Groupon is making is unclear, but a number between $800 and 2 billion has been bandied about.

Comscore released a statement this week that not only Groupon, but all social buying sites – like LivingSocial – are attracting a lot of traffic, with the majority of visitors being women.
 

One Twitter idea per week keeps Orange at a peak

Orange is a brand that gets Social Media. For a while now they've been running cute, simple, probably quite cheap campaigns based on Twitter. One new idea per week. You might remember the Singing Tweetagrams.

This week they kept people entertained with Secret Portraits. You had to tweet a description of your fine self and if you impressed the people at the other end, they got one of their talented illustrators to draw you a lovely portrait.

 

Twitter is not on the map

This week we set out to test the wonderful new DataSift Twitter filter tool. What became apparent is that although Twitter is perfectly placed to be the player the golden triangle of social, mobile and location, it is falling far short at present. Twitter is not in the location game.
 

Is Twitter keeping Wikileaks out of its trending topics?

Alan Rusbriger, editor of the Guardian, thinks no news organisation can hold a candle to Twitter. But is Twitter keeping Wikileaks from showing in its trending topics? Twitter claims no. Trends measure difference in popularity and because Wikileaks have been consistently popular it can't trend. This excellent blog post claims otherwise.

And we bet you're dying to know what we think on the Wikileaks's publishing of US diplomatic cables. We'll let Clay Shirky speak for us, because like us, he is conflicted.
 

Windows is dead, Long live the Web

It's only been a few weeks since Wired announced the web dead. Not if companies like Google can have their way. This week it announced a set of drivers that plug into the Chrome browser, turning it into a de facto operating system. Techcrunch discussed the implications:

Now, finally, even the tech purists can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Windows is hardware management plus an application platform, and we call that an OS. Chrome OS is hardware management plus an application platform (the browser), and we call that an OS, too.

Don’t worry about those desktop apps you think you need. Office? Meh. You’ve got Zoho and Google Apps. You won’t miss Office. Chrome plus Gears plus Google Wave plus HTML 5 and web platforms like Flash and Silverlight all combine into a single wonderful computing device. The Internet Is Everything. All the OS has to do is boot the damn computer, get me to a browser as fast as possible and then stay the hell out of the way.
 

Crowdfunding galore

After our mention of Ulule last week, crowdfunding is all the rage this week. The first new one is Fundry, a platform where developers can raise money for their apps, plugins,…

And Loudsauce is an interesting, slightly odd, one. They pitch themselves as a social ad buying platform for organisations that support the civic good. So rather than donate directly to a charity or a good cause, you help them increase their awareness and co-buy advertising.

 

Integration is an excuse for not making choices

Nick Emmel, a planner at Dare, wrote a thought-provoking piece on integrated marketing and how marketeers are enamoured by all the new, shiny tools around. Rather than use a tool just because it's there, the problem defines what tool should be used.

That rings true. It's not (just) about technology. Still, the benefit of digital tools is that you can monitor, test and tweak very quickly. And online failure is a whole lot cheaper than a multi-million tv campaign that bombs. As Emmel says:

Perhaps we should start to look at media integration in four dimensions. Launch a campaign with a slimmed-down media mix, observe the effect and adapt and compound the messaging as appropriate.
 

After Facebook the film, Foursquare TV

Foursquare has been getting some stick over the last weeks from early adopters, claiming they don't get enough out of it. Still, the location service this week signed up their 5th million user.

Plus, and this is another sign of them entering the mainstream, is they're getting their own tv show. According to Variety magazine they have signed a deal with top production company Endemol to develop a tv series that incorporates their location-gaming platform.
 

How to engage – the Guardian guidelines

The Guardian has released its journalist guidelines for blogging and commenting. It's simple and great advice.
 

Creative of the week – Rafaël Rozendaal

The other day, someone on Twitter called him the Andy Warhol of the web. Rafaël Rozendaal makes internet art in the strictest sense of the word. You don't buy an artpiece, you buy a URL. Read more >>

 

Tech insight of the week – Peerindex is not broken, but it’s not perfect

This week, as promised, we registered our four little twitterbot soldiers on peerindex.net, and within 24 hours the scores were in. Read more >>