Twitter and censorship

By Alan Webber, Principal Analyst Almost 49 years ago, President John F. Kennedy stood at a podium in the divided city of Berlin where he proudly proclaimed that the wall that divided the city was an affront to basic human freedoms, that it was a symbol of the failure of communism and its ability to effective govern nations. Twenty-four years later, President Ronald Reagan stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate to encourage Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down the wall" that divided … [Read more...]

Can Apple Lose The Mobile Innovation Game?

The big story this week is the record number of iPhones, iPads, iPods that Apple sold in Q4, 2011. Great news for Apple and it's shareholders - their stock got a 7% bump on the news - but, with stellar growth in the number of users of the iPhone, what's the achilles heel that slows their march on the market? I think it's innovation. It's something I've been doing a bit of thinking about on my own blog, and here's my case, I'm interested in your reasons for agreement or disagreement. "Apple … [Read more...]

Facebook’s IPO: What Does It Mean For…?

Jaimy Szymanski, Zak Kirchner

Over 800 million active users - more than half of whom log in on any given day and interact with over 900 million "objects" (pages, groups, communities, etc.). Over 250 million photos uploaded every day, over 70 languages on the site. The stats go on and on, and anyway you look at them, the numbers are huge. How can Facebook grow bigger still? That's what we're waiting so see as the tech world - heck, the world at large - holds it breath for the biggest IPO since Google went public in … [Read more...]

Finding Value In SOPA

Jefferson Monument. Photo by MikeSheridan99

There is a lot of discussions, arguing, lobbying, and political wrangling going on around the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its sister legislation Protect IP Act (PIPA) right now. It has been portrayed as the battle between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, old media verses new media, Washington verses California, and on and on and on. But what is SOPA really and what is the potential value in the discussion around SOPA? What is SOPA? SOPA is essentially and anti-digital piracy bill that … [Read more...]

Content Marketing: What’s the Impact on the Advertising Ecosytem?

Content Marketing by Rebecca Lieb

It's always a strangely climactic and at the same time anticlimactic moment when a book you write finally publishes. After months of writing, editing and corrections, you wait. And wait. One night, you return home to find a box on the doorstep. Suddenly, you're savoring that long-anticipated moment of holding the book in your hands. That how it transpired with my first book, and the moment was repeated yesterday when Content Marketing appeared at the door. It felt  a bit like an ending, but … [Read more...]

Pilot Series at Altimeter: Social Analytics and Strategy

By Jon Cifuentes, Researcher On Wednesday, July 27, Altimeter Group hosted a ‘Pilot Series’ event featuring moderating analysts, Lora Cecere and Susan Etlinger.  The topic at hand was Social Analytics - and more specifically, what businesses must do to prepare for this evolution in social contextual data’s increased volume and sophistication. Here are some key takeaways from the discussion and Q&A - further clarifying the need for businesses to prepare a strategy for the onslaught … [Read more...]

Has f-commerce arrived?

by Christine Tran A version of this post is cross-posted at http://christineptran.com. With over 500 million users, Facebook is poised to become one big shopping mall. Or is it? The first thing to keep in mind is that Facebook users go to Facebook to socialize, not shop. Last month, Josh Himwich, VP of e-commerce solutions for sites Diapers.com and Soap.com, spoke at the Shop.org Summit (he also spoke at our Rise of Social Commerce conference) and shared the following: "Consumers go to … [Read more...]

Facebook Places completes the picture

By Susan Etlinger and Charlene Li Today, Facebook confirmed that it is adding location awareness to the Facebook experience. Facebook Places enables members to share where they are and who they are with, find people near them and discover new places of interest.  So if you travel to Chicago and are craving deep-dish pizza, you can see where your friends have “checked in” and what they thought about the experience. Facebook Places launches with an iPhone app, the addition of a location … [Read more...]

International examples of “open” organizations and leaders needed

I'm wrapping up work on my next book "Open" and am in need of a few examples of organizations and leaders outside of North America. In particular, I'm looking for examples of organizations that have put in place more open information sharing or decisions making processes or technologies, and as a result, have seen substantial business impact. In particular, I'm interested in learning how they went through the journey of letting go of control, and in the process, transformed the relationship … [Read more...]

Social Search: Customers Influence Search Results Over Brands

This post was collaboratively written (in real time) on a wiki by Charlene Li, who maintains a focus on Leadership Strategy and Jeremiah Owyang, who maintains a focus on Customer Strategy. Together, we’re covering the convergence of emerging technologies at the Altimeter Group. Twitter brokers a deal that offers search engines Microsoft Bing and Google Search access to their real time data streams.  Also, Facebook, offers up public status updates to be searched and served up to Microsoft's … [Read more...]