Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

• Sentiment Analysis Takes the Pulse of the Internet | NYTimes.com
  An emerging field known as sentiment analysis is taking shape around one of the computer world’s unexplored frontiers: translating the vagaries of human emotion into hard data.
• Sharks vs. Cats!! on Tumblr
  The ultimate battle of the memes is going down on Tumblr right now. Users tag posts #shark or #cat to join the fight. 3 days left before the winner is decided.
• Twitter to roll out commercial accounts this year | VentureBeat
  Co-founder Biz Stone said the company is in the first phase of rolling out commercial accounts that will entice business users to pay for premium services like detailed analytics. After that, the company might move into building business-oriented application programming interfaces (APIs), creating a “commercial layer” over the social network.
• A Tall Tale: Did Twitter Really Save Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”? | AllThingsD
  Earlier this summer, Twitter was blamed for torpedoing movies like “Bruno” and “Funny Business.” Now it is being heralded for giving Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” a big boost. How much power does the micromessaging service have? Can Twitter save the economy?
• How social media became a weapon in the battle for App Store approval | Mobile Entertainment
  Facing Apple's strict approval process, developers are trying to force their hand by creating an online buzz around apps before they're submitted through blog posts and video demos in particular.
• 10 Things Your AR App Must Have to Succeed | The Future Digital Life (via everydayux)
  The iPhone OS3.1 release will connect the hype of Augmented Reality with the hype of the iPhone, and this list details what any good AR app (any app in general, for that matter) should have.
• CHART OF THE DAY: Twitter's Boom Around The World | Business Insider
  Over the last year, Twitter's traffic has exploded 15X to 44.5 million worldwide unique visitors in June, according to comScore. But Twitter's growth story isn't just limited to the U.S. and North America, where only about half its traffic comes from, according to comScore.
• Personas: Visualizing Your Online Identity | PSFK
  A component of the MIT Media Lab’s “Metropath(olgies)” installation, which looks at the non-stop flow of communication and information in the modern world, Personas delivers a data portrait of your online identity by combining natural language processing and Internet search tools.
• 50 Best Websites 2009 | TIME
  Time Magazine released their annual list of top websites. Flickr tops this year's roundup, which also includes the ubiquitous Twitter, ask-a-friend's friend engine Aardvark, music streaming site Spotify, gaming hub OMGPOP, and private file-sharing platform drop.io.
• Seventeen's Fashion Finder | Seventeen.com (via Cynopsis Digital)
  Seventeen Magazine's Fashion Finder iPhone app, which allows users to search for local availability of clothes, shoes and accessories by look or price point, has displaced Zippo's virtual lighter app as the top app in the Lifestyle category with over 75,000 downloads.
• Rhapsody iPhone App | Geeky Gadgets
  Music streaming site Rhapsody has submitted an iPhone app for approval to Apple for approval that offers on demand music streaming. In the past Apple hasn’t approved music streaming apps, as they might compete with with iTunes. In the past Apple hasn’t approved music streaming apps, as they are obviously concerned about competition with iTunes, if Rhapsody is approved it will give iPhone users access to over 8 million tracks and all of its radio stations.
• Mobile Phone Web Sites Top Online Growth In UK | Nielsen Wire
  Mobile phone websites were the fastest growing sector online in the UK with a 58% increase in unique visitors from 7.7 million in July 2008 to 12.2 million in July 2009, according to Nielsen. Drinks brands such as Ribena, Baileys and Coke were reportedly a major factor in this sector's growth.
• Microsoft OneApp Unlocks the Potential of Feature Mobile Phones in Emerging Markets
  Microsoft announced OneApp, a new software application that enables low-end feature phones to mimic the functionality of smartphones with easy access to mobile apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, and other apps and games.

The Digital Age Is Stamping Out Serendipity [NYTimes]
The "group-think" of web 2.0 filters and vets information in a way that eradicates fortuitous discovery, a key ingredient of creative  inspiration. While some software developers are trying to recreate it (see StumbleUpon and UrbanSpoon), their algorithms rely in high-tech crowdsourcing that doesn't quite solve the issue.

Tweeting, Texting Render Avid Users 'Present Yet Absent' [USAToday]
Are we paying more attention to our mobile phones than the world around us? Some say that smartphones are breeding an "absent presence" that  has us disconnected from human interaction, driving us towards a "post-human world."  Psychologists worry that all this multi-tasking doesn't allow us to relieve our "cognitive load."

MSNBC Mobile Video Views Grow 207% in Four Months [FierceMobileContent]
Four months after the launch of MSNBC's mobile video platform, usage has increased by 207% and more than half of those who watched MSNBC video claimed that their handset was their primary source of news.

Nanovor, a New Game That Will Lunch on Kids Everywhere [Technomix]
Think Pokemon meets Spore, Nanover could be the next kid craze. Combining social networking and gaming elements, the game lets kids collect virtual pet/bug things (Nanovors) that live online and on a dedicated mobile device.

JetBlue and United Give Twitter a Try to Sell Airline Seats Fast [USAToday]
JetBlue has been tweeting customer service for awhile, now the airline is using Twitter to promote deals and cheap flights (called "cheeps"), along with United (called "twares"). With one tweet, airlines can sell out top deals in real-time, much faster than an inbox-cloggign email promotion.

Web Chat Cited as Preferred Query Channel for Gen Y [Travolution]
In a YouGov national survey, 20% of 18-24 year olds claimed they would use expert chat services to get info about an online transaction. The average for all other ages is 13%, showing that online trust and integration is significant for Gen-Y.

Track Home Burglers from your Mobile Handset [Mobile Industry Review]
Services like Y-cam and Peepr are transforming phones into full fledged home security devices. Users can stream video of their houses wherever they are and even receive emails when the camera detects movement.

Smartphone Sales Up, But Mobile Startup Funding Down [GigaOM]
For the first half of 2009, smartphone sales have been booming but money for mobile start ups hasn't been following. Investment is going to more companies, but the total amount is down when compared to 2008.

HPV Vaccination Reminders via Mobile [CScout]
In order to be sure that patients follow strict vaccination routines, groups like Sanofi Pasteur are sending out vaccine reminders via text.

“Big is Easy, Small is Hard”: Print is Mobile [BBH Labs]
ScrollMotion, a New York-based iPhone app developer, is creating a suite of new tools for traditional print media companies to better engage their readers via apps on mobile phones. Their reader software allows publishers to animate content, flipbook-style, and accept third party advertising.

Teens React to Online Warnings [BBC News]
The archbishop of Westminster criticized social networking sites for teaching teens an erroneous sense of friendship. Teens' reaction? Meeting someone in the streets or through friends is the same thing as meeting them through Facebook.

Where Blyk Went Wrong With Ad-Supported Mobile [AdAge]
Hopes that an ad-supported mobile phone could one day become a big business have been dealt a blow with news that Blyk, the highest-profile experiment in that model, was being rolled into the UK's Orange network. Despite positive response rates to ads, the MVNO just didn't achieve the scale to survive.

Building A Real Mobile Web [A VC]
To make the mobile web as popular as the computer web, regulators need to think of the mobile more like a PC and less like a carrier offered service.