From BGR: A Facebook mobile phone?

Ooh! A Facebook-branded phone! How cool is that? Will Facebook now enter into the device race? Will they have a separate track on the Android build? Anything seems possible at this point.

I love how HTC knows who to partner with. I'm so happy with my Google Nexus One phone, it was quite disappointing how Google dropped HTC to partner with Samsung for the next gen Nexus S. Having a pure native device is cool because you get all the firmware updates early. I know it's the Apple model also, but I still don't like Apple for its snobbish stance to the open-source community. Yay to Facebook & HTC, boo to Apple.

[UPDATE] Facebook has denied that the phones will be Facebook-branded. See Mashable's report on this: http://mashable.com/2011/01/27/facebook-denies-facebook-phone/

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Facebook to launch two branded smartphones at MWC, report claims

By: Zach Epstein | Jan 26th, 2011 at 01:21PM

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Filed Under: Mobile, Rumors

Facebook will announce two Facebook-branded smartphones at next month’s Mobile World Congress according to a new report from City A.M. The report contradicts Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s earlier claim that the company was not working on branded cell phones, but was instead working to create a better, more comprehensive Facebook experience across existing mobile platforms. HTC will build the new Facebook phones according to the report, and they will feature branding and coloring in line with Facebook’s website. City A.M.goes on to state that the devices will run a modified build of Google’s Android operating system that will display information from a user’s Facebook account on the home screen. Details pertaining to pricing and availability are not yet available.

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From Mashable: Faebook Stories -- A New Social Ad Format Uses User-Generated Content

As a digital marketer, I've seen how user-generated content has become a more compelling way to tell a brand story, vis-a-vis just the plain old marketing message from advertising. This new ad format created from Facebook could very well be able to operationalize that to an advertiser's advantage.

I do think there will be an initial backlash to this due to privacy issues, but I really think Facebook's principles with the Open Graph has revolutionizes social computing and privacy options will more and more be the responsibility of the user rather than the platform. Agree that Facebook needs to inform its users of the privacy issues and that it should give easy options for users to keep their information private. But the openness of the Facebook architecture has driven this social change that has created the socially-enabled experience of the Web that we see today.

Here's Ben Parr's story on Mashable on Facebook Stories

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Facebook Turns Friend Activity Into New Ad Format

1 day ago by Ben ParrView Comments

Facebook is rolling out Sponsored Stories, a new ad format that turns your friends’ actions into promoted content.

Sponsored Stories is “a way for marketers to sponsor activities that happen throughout the News Feed,” Facebook Product Marketing Lead Jim Squires told Mashable. Companies can choose to take certain user actions — such as checkins or actions within Facebook apps — and feature them in the column on the right side of the News Feed.

For example, if you’re Whole Foods and you’re looking to increase your exposure on Facebook, you can pay to have a percentage of all checkins to Whole Foods featured in a Sponsored Stories slot in the right-side column. Your content wouldn’t be shown directly, but the actions of a user’s friends would appear. Users seeing their friends “liking” or checking in to Whole Foods will drive increased trust and increased traffic.

“The advertiser is not controlling the message; it’s about actions,” Squires said.

Here’s an example of an action that could potentially be sponsored:

And here’s what it might look like as a Sponsored Story:

Starting today, four specific types of user actions can be turned into featured stories: likes, checkins, actions within custom applications and Page posts. If a company has a custom app (e.g. Starbucks Card or evenFarmVille), it can promote the actions users take within them. The same is true of users posting on the walls of their favorite brands.

Facebook’s roster of launch partners includes Coke, Levi’s, Anheuser Busch and Playfish. Also, the social network is partnering with a slew of nonprofits for Sponsored Stories, including Donors Choose, Girl Up!, Malaria No More, Amnesty International, Women for Women, Autism Speaks, (RED), Alzheimer’s Association and UNICEF. However, anybody will be able to bid on Sponsored Story slots (by a per-impression and/or a per-click basis) starting January 25.

We haven’t seen Facebook play with new ad formats for a while — most of its revenue comes from the targeted advertising that appears on most Facebook pages. It has been timid about new ad formats after the spectacular failure of Beacon. Sponsored Stories seems like a simple and logical way to introduce new forms of advertising into Facebook’s system, though.

Sponsored Stories has a lot of similarities to Twitter Promoted Tweets. Both are trying to use content from within their networks and turn them into advertising dollars. There is one key difference between Sponsored Stories and Promoted Tweets, though: The user defines the advertised content in Facebook’s format, not the advertiser.

It’s that one little difference Facebook hopes will turn into big bucks.

Tapping Blogs for Online Campaigns [VIDEO]: An interview by Janette Toral

It's been a while since I posted on this blog. But I'm happy to say, I'm back!

Let me begin with this video of Janette Toral interviewing me for DigitalFilipino.com.

I don't like seeing myself on video, but I'd like to think I'm comfortable enough being in front of the camera... well maybe not yet as comfortable as I should look on cam.

Thanks, Janette, for the opportunity.

http://digitalfilipinocom.ning.com/video/tapping-blogs-for-online

Tapping Blogs for Online Campaigns from Janette Toral on Vimeo.

From Mashable: The Semantic Web The Semantic Web -- What It Is and Why It Matters [VIDEO]

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

If you’ve ever struggled to make sense of terms like “semantic web,” we’ve got a fascinating, entertaining and informative video for you.

The Internet currently holds about as much information as 1,700 Libraries of Congress. Some of the leading minds on the web are exploring new ways to sort this data and how to understand not just what data is about, but also how data is linked.

For example, a picture on Flickr is more than just a number of pixels and a file size. It was uploaded by a person and might contain images of other people. It might have been taken in a specific place or be about a specific moment in time. Those bits of information link that photograph to other entities: people, places, things and events. When we know how data is linked and we use that information to determine relevancy across media and sources, we’re using the semantic web.

Simply put, the semantic web gives us more than just raw data; it shows us the context and relationships behind and between those data.

Student Kate Ray interviewed a flock of researchers, entrepreneurs and other innovators for her 14-minute documentary, Web 3.0. Ray is a journalism/psych major at NYU who has done extensive research on the semantic web. Her subjects include World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, Hunch.com CEO and inventor Chris Dixon, and a host of other semantic web experts.

Ray’s film is a brief but high-level discussion of semantic technologies, the tech that’s going to affect how we use the Internet and all its information for years to come. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about the semantic web, what it is and why it matters to all kinds of Internet users, we highly recommend checking out this documentary above.

Amuro Namie | "Wild" -- Japanese Singing Sensation Reveals her Wild Heart

Asian music is taking the world by storm and Manila, for one, couldn’t be any more welcoming. What many of us once thought were unusual mixes and beats, not to mention incomprehensible lyrics, are now fast becoming the staple background music of our daily routines. No doubt, the Sandaras and Super Juniors along with all the J-pop and K-pop superstars of this side of the globe are invading the airwaves and we can’t help but sing along.

Recently, more and more heads are turning into the north eastern part of the map with eyes staring amazedly at the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan where a distinct energy is spurring and a vibe-licious sound is echoing wildly. An undisputedly great talent is surfacing within the consciousness of Pinoy music lovers and it goes by the name Amuro Namie.

Amuro is a celebrated icon in the Japanese entertainment biz. In the country at present, she is becoming more and more known as the Japanese singing sensation who’s gone “wild”; wild at the charts and wild at heart.

Through the renowned Japanese record label Avex Entertainment Inc., Amuro’s hit single “Wild” was released in the country last year. The track features the music of michico and T. Kura of Giant Swing Productions. A catchy danceable song that has a futuristic groove into it, Wild superbly showcases a good harmony between Amuro’s matchless vocals and upbeat music.

Since her musical debut, Amuro has remained one of the longest surviving popular female acts in Japan. Not only is she an accomplished singer, Namie Amuro has perfected the art of stage performance. In her live performances and videos, it’s unmistakable that her years of training in dance always pop out. As what a critic once write about her, “she captures the hearts of her audience by the graceful animation of her stage personality. Amuro Namie has been the most notable Japanese singer to emerge from the Japanese music culture”.

From Mashable / Advertising Age: Facebook adding Foursquare-like features soon

17 minutes ago Jolie O'Dell 10

Facebook Adding Location Features This Month [REPORT]

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Information has leaked that Facebook is set to roll out location-based features for users and brands as soon as this month. According to Advertising Age, users could see location options any day now.

These features will include the ability to check in at various locations, including retail spots and restaurants. We’re unclear as to whether users will be able to add or customize their own locations, but we are fairly positive that this move will put Foursquare, Brightkite, Gowalla and other location-based services in an uncomfortable position.

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Meaning for Users

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The ability to check in to different locations is, as we’ve reported previously, a game-changing feature for Facebook. Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and other startups that specialize in location-based features and services — and that often take checks from corporations for branded integrations — might have trouble competing with a Goliath like Facebook if the push toward checkins continues. Facebook has the userbase and mainstream adoption to bring location-sharing tools to a huge audience, excluding these newer competitors from the market. And if the company is rolling out features now, that likely means an acquisition is not likely, either.

If this feature does indeed roll out soon to end users, it also brings with it another round of privacy concerns. It’s clear that not all users understand the risks of public sharing or how to protect their likes, groups and updates. When they risk exposing their locations to the general populace, another layer of security precautions (along with the usual media FUD) is sure to follow.

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Meaning for Brands

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McDonald’s will be the first brand to test the new features. The McDonald’s integration will involve users checking in at McDonald’s restaurants and showing featured food items in their posts. Digital advertising and marketing shops around the country are preparing to construct campaigns around this new functionality.

It’s interesting to note that this move further puts Facebook into competition with Google for local advertising dollars. Being able to target users geographically as well as demographically gives hyperlocal advertisers an edge and might cut into Google’s most profitable revenue stream.

Would you use Facebook rather than Foursquare to check in to restaurants, night spots or other locations? Do you think Facebook can beat Foursquare and other services to making location checkins mainstream?

We welcome your comments and will continue to follow this story closely as we wait for an official response from Facebook.

San Miguel Pale Pilsen Plagiarises Pitch Presentation?

A few months ago, an agency (which prefers to remain anonymous for now) was invited to pitch for the San Miguel Pale Pilen website. They presented a concept that was well received by the client. Unfortunately, the client never came back to them for any follow ups.

Voila, now SMB-PP has a new website which appears to have the same concept as what the agency presented. Did they get paid for it? No. Did they even tell the agency? No.

Sad reality of advertising. We sell ideas, pitch for accounts, and big companies steal it for nothing. Nothing.

See for yourself and tell me if it's not a rip-off of the pitch concept. I'm not making any solid accusations here (don't get me wrong). Plagiarism is hard to prove in court. But credibility & integrity is also not easy to earn.

Here's their pitch concept:

Here's the actual website, recently launched:
Judge for yourselves.

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UPDATE (06 May 2010): San Miguel has taken notice of this blogpost and has already contacted the agency involved. They're currently investigating into the matter on what had actually transpired. Apparently, the final web design was executed by their internal creative team, and whether or not it was copied or inspired by the pitch materials is still being looked into. San Miguel as a corporation has expressed their respect for creative ownership and has denied that this is a reflection of how they do business with their agencies and vendors. I'll keep you posted on further updates.