Fly Fishing by JR Hartley - Downstream to Lifestream

So, it was New years eve, eve, 2008. I was running around Belfast with my mummy in tow, trying to find a Star Wars, Princess Lea outfit for my NYE's 1980's fancy dress party in London. The only Lea outfit left in the whole city seemed to be xtra-small size (and I ain't no xtra small,....especially after such festive indulgence). As we drove around, I was using my blackberry to go online and look for other fancy dress shops in the city and surrounding areas. The results coming up on Google were pretty limited....yet we knew there were others out there...

Time was running out so we popped into a small haberdashery shop, to look at some material we could maybe use, to alter the aforementioned xtra-small outfit. We asked the lady behind the counter did she know of any other fancy dress shops, in the hope we wouldn't end up having to get the sewing machine out.

After some chit-chat she suggested something that threw me a bit...

'Do you want to have a look at the Yellow Pages?' she enquired.

'Oh...er, well.. yeah sure, why not', I said. How very antiquated I thought....

Intuitively, I looked up F for fancy dress and before my very eyes, in clear, comprehensive listings were every fancy dress shop, with addresses and phone numbers I should ever want in N. Ireland...wowsers, perfect!

I slipped my blackberry back into my handbag...only to be taken out later, to make a phonecall to one of the shop numbers the helpful lady had jotted down for me....

So, there you have it, does this mean my prediction for 2009 are directories?, well no, but this experience of using my mobile for search did make me wonder about the prediction (some would say, the perennial prediction) that this year - 2009, is the year that mobile advertising goes mainstream and is key - I'm thinking yes, mobile is becoming more and more important but not sure 2009 is its critical mass advertising year..maybe 2010. But hey, who knows, things change so fast...

This Guardian article, notes a couple of key upcoming themes, - the increasing flat-rate, mobile data charges that will enable us to access the web via our phone, freeing us from onerous monetary concerns. This will be a key factor to enable critical mass - and this will be very significant and impactful. (Check out the post below this Guardian article for a different and pertinent point of view)

Secondly - the role of a social media aggregator such as Friendfeed that will pull together for us, all our networks, into a one-stop, easy, individual source (in the 'cloud').

This will be our Lifestream - all our various networks tipped into one virtual funnel, resulting in one master-stream that helps us to manage and stay connected with info and friends that appear across a multitude of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn etc.

Friendfeed is the king of aggregators, as among other things, its the first lifestream service that is viewable on mobile (all devices) and this robust service has recently signed a deal with Facebook -so expect a tab on your profile page soon.

An aggregator of this type and the possibilities it has for Career management and networking are very interesting.

So, there you have it, the first of many thoughts for the new year. Happy new year everyone, hope its the best yet.

Sinead

Comments

[Jo]

As a relative newcomer to UK I can attest that web 1.0 is pretty bad here. When you want to find ordinary things then not only do you get down to Yellow Pages, you get down to local directories and local knowledge (ask).

The font of all wisdom in my village (won't name the shop) responded to Web2.0 idea with - we've tried all that.

I think we have to split the landscape up a bit and have more finely tuned predictions for different parts of the economy.

[Alastair]

Hi Sinead,

I think this proves that the internet is NOT the be all and end all of life itself. There I said it, shoot me down.

It's still merely a channel, nothing more nothing less.

I also proves that mobile comms and technology has a LONG way to go.

[Sinead Bunting]

I agree Alastair.

We find (depending on the brief) a multi channel approach is often the best solution.

Is it just me, or does the music and the actual JR Hartley Yellow Pages ad itself, pull at the old heart strings?....I get more and more sentimental..

[Alastair]

the old hovis ad used to cut me up.

[Alex Hens]

Nice post to kick us off into the new year :) - and absolutely agree that too many people see the start of the year as a license to try and seem clever by saying this or that will be "big", knowing that they're seldom (if ever) likely to get held to account for ridiculous often naive spoutings 12months later (although there's a thought - maybe a post generated from a blog archive trawl to find some of the more silly and banal "predictions" that have been cast out there in past years - could be amusing).

A certain Mr William Henry Gates III said "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten." Maybe he knows a thing or two ☺

It's an unfortunate truth that those who shout loudest about these things tend to have a vested interest in the success of that which they're shouting about - so salt is often required by the ladle full. And whilst many new technologies or platforms benefit from rapid initial expansion when they tickle the fancy of early adopters (the kind of growth that gets the VCs all hot under the colar) so they too can tend to hit their ceiling (often blindly) with alarming speed, or indeed witness mass migration of 'their' users as the trends & fads that saw their early success evolve and switch them to the "next big thing". The Internet is, in humankind terms, like watching evolution in petri dish - blink and you'll miss something.

A case in point is how these lifestream aggregators are going to distort the social media business model (in I think probably all if not certainly most instances) before it’s even seen that business model make even a tiny percentage of the returns investors have gambled on them making. If you’re using an aggregator to maintain your profile on various social media spaces then how are they in turn supposed to sell advertising to people who are seldom actually in that space. It all becomes very interesting / challenging indeed (depending which side of the fence you’re on).

We’re in a whole world of unknown – it’s exciting for sure, but I say evangelists will lead the way whilst pragmatists will win the day. Life’s a marathon not a sprint after all, just a shame that media, politicians and the City / Bankers seem to forget that (and target & reward themselves accordingly).

:-/

[John Whitehurst]

It is also worth thinking back to the beginning of search ... the basis of collation and the early search was human.

Development of complex search tools like google only worked with a critical mass on quality websites.

The user experience ... especially integration of online search activity (i am including desk and mobile based search) with the real world can still be poor.

Google is only as good as the information it feeds on ... i can see mobile integrating with other digital formats easily over the next year ... but the holy grail is the integration with the real world.