Gavin Baker

Almost everyone has a cell phone these days.  A good number of us have smartphones and regardless if they are of the iPhone or Android variety, apps developed for them are changing how we shop.   Online2Offline (O2O) is THE nut to crack, we’ve had glimmers of hope with Google AdWords and with Facebook advertising but apps like TheFind and companies like Amazon and eBay are leading the charge to make it easy for us to do a quick price check.  Allowing shoppers to scan great buys with our phones.  Expanding our options to buy in-store or just maybe…we’ll find a better deal online.

Read the read of my thoughts about this topic on the Moxley Carmichael New Streak Blog – Holiday shopping made merrier with mobile.

January 5, 2010 is the day Google launched its first consumer physical device, the Nexus One – a phone.  In geekdom it is quite the popular topic, trending on twitter as well as the chiming of every major tech site to post review.  Here are some of the posts.  TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable, Engadget, Gizmodo, gdgt and BGR thoughts which review the physical phone itself, the software (Android 2.1), how it compares with the iPhone and how the launch of the Nexus One wasn’t the paradigm shifting event for mobile phone salvation we expected. I promise you they all cover each of those matter far better then I can, especially since I haven’t had a loaner phone for weeks preceding the launch – nor do I have one now. Instead let’s talk about how this will affect your organization. If you’re thinking, “my organization isn’t techie at all,” then this is for you.

Increased Validity of Android - for all intents and purposes Google’s launch of the Nexus One with T-Mobile (and upcoming Verizon) will place its open source operating system Android in the hands of non-Geeks.  This is a big deal as there are far more people that will like Android because they can get free turn by turn directions on the Maps then the people who will like the Nexus One because it runs the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that facilitates maps happening in glorious bliss behind the scenes.  This will also spearhead the wave of Android phones that are coming from Motorola, HTC, LG and others in 2020.

Spread of Smartphones - because there will be more of these bad boys in the hands of non-early adopters as they upgrade with their current carriers which will spark a couple key things.  First, your website will need to become mobile friendly pronto – it will no longer be seen as an option to have a mobile optimized site.   Second, the Android app market will see a signifiant increase from the 10,000 it has today as consumer programs will come out of the woodwork like they did for iPhone and organizations like yours will begin to build and launch apps for your consumers.

Rise of the Engaged consumer – we will continue to see the rise of the always on customer.  What this means for you is that their questions, comments and concerns will come to you faster and from new locations then you’ve seen before.  Perhaps more importantly their expectation of your prescese and response will reward those who are ready with open arms to customers who want to talk.  This will also open up new channels of communication and opportunity to connect with your customers, which will be scary but will make you a better organization.

For many, a phone with Android will be the very first time they’ve used open source software as part of their daily life and with Google’s support I think we’ll see it continue to grow in market share on new devices which will drive app invovation.  By far the biggest effect you’ll see is that your customers will have smartphones and while they all won’t know how to use them, they’ll do a few things well and that will disrupt your current business practices.

A few concrete examples, if you’re a

• national retailer – make it easy to order online via mobile
• brand with lots of locations – make it easy to find and contact them
• local church – show sermon notes or bible passages during services
• non-profit – use your mobile site to showcase your work and align volunteers with places to serve near them

These are just a few ideas.  You’re bound to have a few that are key for your organization, find one or two and get the strategy mapped out.

The launch of Nexus One is the ushering of mobile data into the hands of the masses and that will rock your world in 2010.  Launch with it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Happy Nexus Day (boingboing.net)
• Google Nexus One: Just the Facts, Ma’am (searchenginewatch.com)
• Google’s Nexus One: will Europe care? (thenextweb.com)
• Google takes wraps off Nexus One (macworld.com)
• Google Nexus One: The TechCrunch Review (Michael Arrington/TechCrunch) (techmeme.com)
• The News You Can Use from the Nexus One Event (lifehacker.com)

I got my Google Voice invite about a month ago. I think the service is intriguing so I was excited to see the email in my inbox.  First you have to pick a number  – this was a big deal to me since they don’t offer number portability, yet.   I decided to select an 865 (Knoxville, TN) number even though my mobile is a 513 (Cincinnati, OH) number.  After number selection I started playing around with the web app and what not but I pretty much just left it as it was.

Then I found out there was an iPhone app – not fully official but still available.  Then Google released official BlackBerry and Android apps that can take over the native dialer and sms function with the promise of an iPhone in the pipeline.  This was like a fresh roll of cotton candy to my eyes as I LOVE synergy.  If I’m going to use Google Voice, I want it be be as native as possible.  Then the whole FCC Google, AT&T, Apple fiacso got rolling and all possibility of that was shelved for a bit. Although I did download the non official Google Voice app via Cydia which the developer Sean Kovacs released amazingly for free.

Addtionaly, I did some checking and I got my Google Voice up and running on the desktop with a couple of tricks.  First from this article I installed a Firefox extension, but honestly it didn’t do what I was hoping.

So I figured Fluid would be the way to go.  For those uninitiated, Fluid is a program that creates site specific browsers, i.e. creates launchable applications out of browser based web apps.  I currently use it for CoTweet, Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Reader.  I’ve never encountered any odd systemic failures but it goes without saying that you try this at your own risk.

So here’s a bit of a tutorial of sorts to add Google Voice with Growl and Javascript icon notifications.  Props to the developer who created the script to make this Google Voice magic happen, all of this information is adapted from his original post here. If you’re already familiar with adding userscripts to Fluid apps you can get the script here – for everyone else.  Read on.

Prior to this step you’ll have needed to download and installed Fluid and then created an app for Google Voice.  Use the URL “http://google.com/voice” and the PNG for the icon here.  You’ll also need Growl running for notifications.

All photos will enlarge when clicked for details.

Step 1: Browse for userscripts from within the Fluid app you created (mine is called G Voice)

This will open a new window you’ll search in.

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There has been some public outcry against the growing trend of social media titles at companies.  Often this is a community manager or social media manager type of title.  There is pushback from those that “understand” social media because it’s not a marketing discipline that’s in a vertical it’s a tool to be used the same as a phone or email.    Or as Trey and I talked about last week it shouldn’t be in a silo, which is what larger companies tend to do.

Now of course that ruffles my feathers a bit because I don’t like people that are smarter, more successful and wiser than me say that what I do for a living is wrong.

Here’s why I don’t think it is wrong – first large companies need internal people they trust to help them navigate the channels of new technologies, particularly older large companies.  Many chose the consultant route, which is fine but there is a level of internal engagement that is missed by not being fully engaged internally.

Second, I agree on naming  Social Media XYZ isn’t always the best.  Of course there are exceptions to every rule but often the title doesn’t line up with the role (also common in large companies).  I’ve been talking with vendors and others internally who always ask about my role – what do I do exactly – and in the last two months  I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and learning.  Most of the the things that come across my desk have one singular thing in common.  They involve new technology.  It could be a facebook this or that, or twitter or yammer or iPhone, Android, etc.  At the end of the day they are new ways of communicating via technology both communicating internally, and communicating to guests and customers.   And as it is with the new frontier or the wild, wild, west (pick your metaphor poison) there are lots of possibilities and few opportunities.   So I’ve adopted the phrase “emerging media” to describe the area I work in, and the adjectives “discover and vett” to describe what I do with those few gem opportunities I find in the emerging media space.  I like where I’ve landed on the phrase and it seems to be a bit more encompassing than social media, or web 2.0, or new media.  However, if you’ve got a better one phrase – shoot it at me.