2012 the year of mobile?

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Joe Friedlein

If you are anything like me, you will have greeted the subject of this post with a huge yawn and an overiding sense of here we go again

I am passionate about online marketing and will often evangelise about emerging technology, but I have been hearing the fuss about mobile for a number of years and have become bored of hearing every year being touted as THE year of mobile.

We discussed this at the end of 2011 when Google was making noises about how mobile was really taking off, but I have been reading quite a bit in recent weeks about how 2012 is (surprise, surprise) going to be the year that mobile finally delivers.

There is no doubt that mobile devices have developed to the point where (half decent) browsing is a reality and the availability of cheap data plans has certainly helped fuel the growth in mobile media consumption, but the stats (if you look beyond activities such as checking email, using apps, texting, etc.) have rarely lived up to the hype in my humble opion.

Mobile search is naturally bundled in with mobile and it is true that more and more people are using search engines on their mobiles, but this is another area where I feel that things have often been over hyped.

Browsing through some Google Analytics data this afternoon may have just changed my mind and perhaps 2012 will actually be the year that mobile finally starts to justify the hype.

The graph below shows mobile traffic to one client site, but the pattern is repeated across a large number of the profiles that I have been looking at:

The numbers are still not enormous, but there is a marked increase in activity towards the end of 2011 and it has continued into 2012.

The rise in mobile traffic is interesting, but it is the fact that search remains such a big driver for traffic that really stands out to me and hammers home the fact that you really must make sure that your site is mobile friendly. As devices improve, you could argue that the need for dedicated mobile sites is reduced, but you cannot ignore the fact that people WILL browse your website using a mobile device.

Due to commercial sensitivity, I cannot show you revenue data, but the site in question is an e-commerce site and I can assure you that this traffic is converting to revenue. Organic search traffic accounted for 67% of the mobile related revenue, so it does affect the bottom line and needs thinking about.

Convincing evidence? Is 2012 the year of mobile after all?

Digging a little deeper revealed that tablets (mainly the iPad) account for the lions share of revenue traffic volumes for the iPhone and iPad are very similar (and, as an aside, account for almost 60% of all mobile traffic) but the iPad generated almost 4 times as much revenue as the iPhone.

I have read other reports showing how tablet users typically spend more than any other mobile device, but is it really that much of a surprise when you consider how much better the browsing experience is?

More importantly, is the iPad really a mobile device? Yes, if you define it by the fact that you can carry it around and can be connected on the go.Hang on, I can do that with a laptop, so why isnt that deemed to be a mobile device?

Therein lies the true essence of my cynicism about mobile hype devices are converging and it is becoming very hard to know what mobile really means. I am not convinced that tablets should be included in the mobile category, with their desktopesque browsing capabilities.

New devices are emerging that really challenge what a mobile is. Take Samsungs Galaxy Note it is hardly pocket friendly and is more powerful than desktop PCs of not that long ago. Certainly a very different device to my trusty old Nokia 6310i (which was arguably the best phone that I have ever had).

If you include all the new devices, especially tablets, there is no doubt that 2012 is going to be big in mobile. If you are a bit stricter about how to define mobile, I still have some doubts.

What do you think? Hype or fact?

About a week ago, he checked Safari again and emailed a Wall Street Journal reporter about his problem. “This is still occurring,” he wrote. “Which I know because I just turned on Safari and a google.com PREF cookie was installed even though I didnt even go to ANY site at all.”

So what is this mysterious cookie, and what in the heck is it doing on the computer of someone who isn’t even browsing the Web?

Well, the cookie is being used as part of a service Google provides to protect people from malware and other computer attacks. Safari, Firefox and Chrome all use this service.

But it’s also the same cookie Google uses for several of its other services – such as some searches and views of the +1 social networking button – raising questions about whether data from this cookie could be used to track users.

Google says Web browsers that use the service have the option of segregating the cookie, which the company says is essential to maintaining the security of the Safe Browsing anti-malware system. This system protects hundreds of millions of web users from malware and phishing attacks, so it seems counterintuitive to suggest that we rearchitect the system and weaken protection for users just to eliminate the use of a non-tracking, non-advertising cookie, a spokesman said.

After being contacted by the Wall Street Journal, Mozilla, which makes the Firefox Web browser, said it was working on a way to isolate the cookie from other Web traffic. Apple declined to comment.

Ashkan Soltani, a technologist and adviser to the Journal, first noticed the cookie in mid-February, when he was doing research for a Journal story on Google advertising cookies that were appearing on Safari browsers.

The cookie, which is named PREF and contains a unique ID number, is not an advertising cookie. But it “cannot be disabled by consumers without disabling core browser security features such as anti-phishing protection” or blocking cookies, Mr. Soltani writes in a technical explanation of his findings.

Here’s what is happening: As part of Safe Browsing, Web browsers ping Google periodically for updated lists of potentially dangerous sites. When they do, Google puts a cookie on the user’s machine. Google says the cookie helps it keep its system stable and monitor for attacks.

On Safari, most cookies are blocked by default, but Safe Browsing is a pretty important feature, so this cookie isn’t blocked unless a user stops all cookies. On Firefox, the cookie shows up automatically as part of Safe Browsing, unless a user disables “third party” cookies.

The cookie doesn’t currently appear as part of Safe Browsing in Chrome, but discussion on a Google developer board indicates that this may be a recent bug. On the board, Google engineers said they are working to get the cookie back, saying that not having the cookie is causing “large problems” for the people in charge of the Safe Browsing system.

In addition to Safe Browsing, Google says that the cookie is used to record things like language preferences on Google sites. The company also told the Journal the cookie may be used to keep information about users’ visits to pages with +1 social networking buttons but that this information is used “solely to maintain and debug systems.”

The PREF cookie expires in two years, but Google says it retains logs related to the cookie for about two weeks. Google told the Journal that the policies related to Safe Browsing and the use of this PREF cookie in the +1 system are not changing when the company’s other privacy policies change in March.

The fact that the PREF cookie is delivered automatically as part of this Safe Browsing service has raised questions in the past. In 2007, engineers working on the Firefox browser debated the privacy implications of using the same cookie for Safe Browsing that Google used for its other services.

“I dont think the problem here is that safebrowsing sends _a_ cookie, but instead that it sends the main google.com cookie,” wrote one engineer.

Another engineer who identified himself as being from Google responded: “Is it possible to use a different cookie? Probably, but really what would this accomplish? First of all, the privacy policies in place explicitly state what we can and can not do with the logging data,” and misuse is prohibited.

“I think everyone, both at Google and on the Mozilla team, want to take every feasible step to ensure that users privacy is maintained and respected,” he wrote. But removing the cookie “just doesnt seem to be that feasible in terms of the trade-off of lost data quality utility vs. practically zero privacy gain.” He said Mozilla could take it upon itself to isolate the cookie if it wanted to.

After the Journal contacted Mozilla, Sid Stamm, Mozilla’s Web security and privacy strategist, said his team was working on “separate cookie jars” to isolate the file.

Online discussions by Google engineers on the Chrome developer forum indicate that they have implemented this approach and it is available in test versions of the browser. So users would get a PREF cookie for Safe Browsing only, and then another, separate, one if they went to Google.com.

What does all of this mean for users?

On one hand, they shouldnt panic: This is showing up because of a known anti-malware system that several Web browsers have. And it isn’t Google’s DoubleClick advertising tracking cookie, which caused the kerfuffle earlier this month.

On the other hand, it hasnt always been clear to users what this cookie is used for and whether its a tracking cookie showing yet again difficult it is for users to decipher what information is being collected about their browsing habits and what it’s being used for.

When it comes to using the Internet, your web browser is like a toolbox. Every browser has basic features such as bookmarks, search utilities, and tabbed browsing. But if you want to take your browsing to the next level, you need to equip yourself with better, more advanced tools and familiarize yourself with them.

For those unfamiliar, Trippy is a social travel web and mobile app that operates on the assumption that travel recommendations are best served on a silver, friendsourced platter. That is to say, Trippys platform, which ties your favorite social networks into its platform to allow friends to comment on your itinerary, feedback, and so on, advances the notion that travel recommendations and destination discovery is most effective when emanating from people who you implicitly trust.

Trippy debuted in private beta at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC in September, launched open beta in October, and raised $1.75 million in November from VCs like Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, True Ventures, and angel investors including Rob Solomon, Tim Ferriss, Brian Lee, Gil Ebaz, Randi Zuckerberg, Jasom Mraz, and Rachel Zoe.

Building on its first round of funding from celebrity and well-known angel investors, Trippy is today officially announcing its advisory board members, which include some familiar names (investors), with a few more travel and tech experts to boot. The slate of advisors includes investors Jason Mraz, Rachel Zoe, Tim Ferriss, Randi Zuckerberg, as well as names like Anthony Bourdain, Kevin Rose, Andrew Zimmern, Gary Vaynerchuk, Chase Jarvis, Soleil Moon Frye, Soraya Darabi, Johnny Jet, Veronica Belmont, Kim Mance, Brett Snyder and more.

Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose, for example will be advising the company in day to day operations, but the real goal of bringing this cast of characters and influencers on board is that they are all globetrotters, so, in their role as advisors, they will use Trippy to share their travel experiences to inspire and offer recommendations to other travelers.

Trippy is also announcing the initial roll out of what its calling Project Delightful, the next big iteration of the app, which offers a new visual-browsing experience that aims to bring serendipitous discovery of travel ideas through photos. This new phase will clearly bring the startup into even more direct competition with fellow social, photo-focused travel site, Gogobot.

The new project is live today with its first phase, and will continue to develop over the next few weeks, but as it stands, Trippy users can now view pages of travel photos, click on the places they want to go and have been to, and add travel ideas to visual inspiration boards.

Custom boards can be created for any category, says Trippy Founder and CEO JR Johnson (who previously launched VirtualTourist, which was acquired by Expedia in 2008), from Weekend Getaways to Top Places To Eat In San Francisco, Where To Travel To Get Cultured, and so on. Each travel photo is geo-tagged to help users remember the locations of the places theyve visited, and the collection of photos is plotted on an interactive map for easy viewing.

Then, when users are ready to move from planning into action, Trippy taps into their social networks to show them which of their friends have already visited the locations theyve chosen. Johnson says that the idea is to take travelers from dreaming to doing and create a personally-relevant, full-circle planning experience.

For more, check out Trippy at home here.

The shutdown, which came around 10:00am local time, meant that no one in the Pentagon had internet access. Many military downrange, including combatant commands, do not have internet either.

DISA, according to its website, is a Defense Department agency that provides command and control support to national-level leaders and joint-war fighters across the full spectrum of operations.

The agency sent out a network-wide notification on Thursdaymorning via email explaining that users are experiencing problems browsing the internet due to a DISA-wide outage. As a result, the memo said, ALL Blackberry, email web-browsing, and VPN services are affected.

The Obama administration has unveiled what it calls a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights – new guidelines for Internet security.

The goal is to give people more control over the way personal information is gathered online by companies such as Facebook, Google and Apple and shared with other companies. It would also enable individuals to access and change data gathered about them.

Can the guidelines, which would be voluntary at first, work?

Assistant Professor Jeffrey Hancock, PhD., who heads Cornells Information Science Department and studies how the Internet affects the way we communicate, spoke to the CBS This Morning co-hosts about what the guidelines could mean for Web users.

He said, Were gonna have more options to be able to control the kind of information that we leave behind. Every time we click on a computer, were leaving some information around.

He added that, The idea is to create a one-click button that would allow us to not be tracked for that session of browsing or whatever were doing.

But is anything ever really totally private on the Internet? Hancock says in most cases, no.

I like to think of everything we do online as digital tattoos, he said. Everything we do, say, on Facebook is going to stay there. Its actually very, very difficult to delete things. Theyre on a number of servers, Facebook servers. If some of my friends have downloaded that, theres a copy everywhere. If you think of any politician whod been in a (recent) scandal, its because of a digital tattoo, typically.

What I like to say to people is to be really careful when thinking about what theyre doing online. Not that its a scary thing. But to just think a little bit. We wouldnt tell a stranger on the street a bunch of stuff about, say, my religion or whether Im married or not. But we do that sort of thing online all the time.

Thats what the Bill of Rights is about – making people think, OK, people have my back. I can go shopping (online) and feel comfortable about that.

To see the entire discussion with Hancock, click on the video in the player above.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 29, 2012/PRNewswire-Asia/ –#xA0;Maxthon (www.maxthon.com), a global software and web services company, announces the debut of the newly optimized version of Maxthon Mobile for the Kindle Fire from Amazon. Based on customer reviews, which give Maxthon a near perfect rating of 5 stars, Maxthon Mobile is a more popular choice for the Fire than the stock browser that comes with the device. Users can download the Maxthon Mobile for Kindle Fire browser, which is currently the Number 1 browser in the Amazon App Store, at http://www.amazon.com/Maxthon-Mobile-for-Android/dp/B004VMTI42/ref=zg_bs_2478875011_1.

The Kindle Fire is reshaping the Android tablet market, says Jeff Chen, CEO of Maxthon. The design and architecture of Maxthon Mobile for Kindle Fire makes for a much faster and easier to navigate web experience for Kindle Fire users.

Other benefits Maxthon Mobile for the Kindle Fire brings to Fire users include:

• Customized, touch screen gestures that allow users to surf the web using finger gestures.
• A design that optimizes the Kindle Fires 7-inch screen with larger buttons and tabs.
• Optimization of full-screen mode for uncluttered browsing.
• A selection of skins for users to further customize their Kindle Fires.
• A host of popular add-ons.
• Cloud synchronization to share and exchange favorites, notes and history worldwide.
• Multiple mode switching, such as: night mode, low-bandwidth mode, incognito browsing mode, and image-free mode.

Users continue to praise Maxthon Mobile as their preferred browser for the Kindle Fire with reviews such as:

Great Browser for the Fire: Go ahead and nab this for your Fire, its better than SILK, lets you see full screen which the native browser for the Fire doesnt and has worked with pretty much everything Ive thrown at it with great results, says an Amazon customer, who gives Maxthon Mobile 5 stars.

Great Browser: I normally dont review apps, but had to say this is a great browser, and is far better than the standard browser on my Kindle Fire. Fast, easy and flexible, states another Amazon customer, who also gives Maxthon Mobile 5 stars.

Fantastic Browser: This browser performs great on my kindle fire! It actually delivers an overall better browsing experience than the stock silk browser, says yet another Amazon customer, who gives Maxthon Mobile 5 stars.

Kindle Fire users recognized the power of Maxthon Mobile early on, says Karl Mattson, GM of Maxthon International/Chief of Product Development. This release offers an even better experience on the Fire and is the first of many to come.

About Maxthon

Headquartered in Beijing, Maxthon Ltd. is an innovative software company and developer of superior web browsers which continue to set new standards for simplicity, speed and security.#xA0; Each month more than 130,000,000 people use Maxthons web browser in 120 countries across the world. Maxthon also brings its best-of-breed browsing to the Android platform for mobile devices and tablet computers. For more information about Maxthon please visit www.maxthon.com.

Download Maxthon Mobile for Android phones here:https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mx.browser

Want to supercharge that desktop? Try Maxthon 3 for Windows PCs today.http://www.maxthon.com/mx3/

Download Maxthon Mobile for 10 Android tablets here:https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mx.browser.tablet

SOURCE Maxthon

We know that when we go online we are being shot with tracking darts and having our every movement followed. For the most part, our names are not associated with that data, thus giving us some privacy protection. But is it still an invasion of our privacy even if our names arent explicitly attached? And what if the little shred of fabric separating our identities from our online browsing was torn away like Janet Jacksons top during the Superbowl halftime show? Alexis Madrigal ponders online privacy, creepiness, and the mechanics of the hustling, bustling online ad industry in an interesting and lengthy piece:

[W]e increasingly live two lives: a physical one in which your name, social security number, passport number, and drivers license are your main identity markers, and one digital, in which you have dozens of identity markers, which are known to you and me as cookies. These markers allow data gatherers to keep tabs on you without your name. Those cookie numbers, which are known only to the entities that assigned them to you, are persistent markers of who you are, but they remain unattached to your physical identity through your name. There is a (thin) wall between the self that buys health insurance and the self that searches for health-related information online.

via Im Being Followed: How Google–and 104 Other Companies–Are Tracking Me on the Web Alexis Madrigal Technology The Atlantic.

Using Mozillas Collusion tool, Madrigal cataloged the 105 companies that had tagged him as he wandered the wilds of the Web, collecting and selling information about his habits. When he tried to opt out of that tracking using the tools offered by the ad/marketing companies, they didnt work.

There is no way, through the companies own self-regulatory apparatus, to stop being tracked online. None, writes Madrigal (annoyed). This doesnt bode well for a Do Not Track option that relies on industry to self-enforce, since tracking companies seems to think its suffices to offer consumers the right to opt out of being targeted with ads based on your online behavior, not opting out of having that behavior tracked.

In the end, though, Madrigal comes to that dilemma of our times: We want a free Internet.

[T]hese are the tools that allow websites to eke out a tiny bit more money than they otherwise would. I am all too aware of how difficult it is for media businesses to survive in this new environment. Sure, we could all throw up paywalls and try to make a lot more money from a lot fewer readers. But that would destroy what makes the web the unique resource in human history that it is. I want to keep the Internet healthy, which really does mean keeping money flowing from advertising.

via Im Being Followed: How Google–and 104 Other Companies–Are Tracking Me on the Web Alexis Madrigal Technology The Atlantic.

In other words: Dont hate the tracka, hate the game?

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Googles new privacy policy goes into effect on March 1st.

The new policy will scrap sixty or so different privacy policies in favor of just one – a combined strategy that puts the information Googles platforms collect about you in a single place. This will include Gmail, Google Plus, YouTube, Google search, and more.

The new approach will give Google more flexibility to sync more of their products and better customize your search results. Youll also see more ads targeted to your preferences. Google insists they will not be selling your information to advertisers.

The new policy has raised some eyebrows because there is no opt-out option. The only way to get around the policy is to close your Google account altogether.

Starting Thursday, Google will lock in data its already collected about you including search queries, sites visited, your age, gender and location. Before the policy takes effect, you have the option of deleting your web history.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for online privacy, says erasing your search history is a good idea. Here are step-by-step instructions to do so:

1. Go to the Google homepage and sign into your account.
2. Click accounts settings in the dropdown menu next to your name in the upper right-hand corner.
3. Find the Services section and click Go to Web History.
4. Click on Remove all Web History

Once you do that, Google will continue gathering and storing your information but will make all data anonymous. This means that Google will not associate your searches, Gmail, and YouTube accounts with your profile and will not be able to give you customized search results or advertisements.

The OnLive Desktop App is now available for free in the Android Market. OnLive is known for its cloud-based gaming service, which delivers console-quality games that are synchronized, rendered, and stored on remote servers and then streamed over the Internet to compatible devices. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the company announced the OnLive Desktop App for the iPad, and now an Android version is available as well. The app uses virtualization technology to create a remotely hosted, fully functional version of Windows 7 desktop on your tablet. The basic OnLive Desktop service is free with a Plus version available for $4.99 per month, which features gigabit-speed accelerated web browsing and access to other cloud storage services such as Dropbox. The OnLive Desktop app requires at least Android 2.3 and is compatible with the Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, Motorola XOOM, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, and HTC Jetstream. Read on for OnLives press release.

At OnLive, we don’t like to rest on our laurels. So we didn’t stop at bringing instant-action cloud gaming to your Android tablet. Now we’re delivering OnLive Desktop as well–an instant-response Windows desktop loaded with full Microsoft Office apps, Adobe Reader and, with the OnLive Desktop Plus service, gigabit-speed* accelerated browsing.

The OnLive Desktop App is now available free in the Android Market, empowering you to get your work done anywhere with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Enjoy a no-compromise, media-rich, multi-touch Windows desktop on your tablet, with fully functional applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Reader, along with 2GB of cloud storage. The OnLive Desktop Plus service, available for $4.99/month at desktop.onlive.com, provides all OnLive Desktop Standard features plus our gigabit-speed accelerated browsing–the world’s fastest browsing experience, whether you’re connecting over Wi-Fi- or 4G LTE. Together, we think they’ll change the way you look at your tablet forever.

Let me give you an example. Say you’re in transit to a meeting and you need to put some finishing touches on your PowerPoint presentation. You can just upload it from your PC or Mac into your free OnLive storage at files.onlive.com (or, if you have OnLive Desktop Plus, save it into third-party cloud storage like Dropbox) and open it instantly on your tablet on the go. Create new graphics, add in videos … with full app functionality and instant-response multi-touch gestures, you’ll feel like you’re working locally. And, with a Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse you may forget you are not using a local PC.

With OnLive Desktop Plus, you can even email your presentation to co-workers for input or approval and make changes on the fly. Webmail attachments, even 50 MB ones, transfer in less than a second. By the time you arrive at your meeting, your presentation is polished, up-to-the-minute accurate and ready to present, either directly from your tablet or by simply signing in to OnLive Desktop from a different device. (OnLive Desktop is also available on iPad. Smartphones, PCs, Macs and monitors/TVs are coming soon.)

Simple, right? You look professional and your work does, too. No time lost. No compromises. Even better, OnLive Desktop Plus can actually reduce Web browsing data usage by a factor of 10 or more, since only the top layer of the current view of a website is sent over your local Internet connection**.

The OnLive Desktop app requires at least Android 2.3 and is compatible with the following tablets: Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee TF101, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, and HTC Jetstream. For more details–and to sign up for your free OnLive account–check out desktop.onlive.com.

Tags: Android, Android Market, iPad, OnLive, OnLive Desktop, Windows 7

Dan Graziano