Web 2.0 meets Social Fashion Networking

As the web becomes more social, new trends come with it. Recently both Google and Fashism.com embarked on their newest social trend, regarding shopping and Fashion.

Google recently launched "Boutiques.com" Celebreties, designers, bloggers, and other can have their own virtual "boutique" where they can show off their fashion choices to the world. The site hopes and encourages users to find someone whose fashion sense fits you. They help facilitate this process through what experts call, "visual search technology". The site has been praised for its specific automatic personalization criteria that fits your style.

Contender Fashism.com is similar contender that just received a second wind(a.k.a. Investor Ashton Kutcher). The site basically allows anyone to upload an image of an outfit, and ask for responses from others in the form Like/Dislike options. The site brings about 1 million views per month, probably due to the fact that viewers are not required to have a login.

Is it fair to call these two sites competitors? Boutiques vs Fashism, Google vs. Ashton, who wins?

Since Boutiques just came out, it's hard to say, but the level of personalization and offered by them beats what Fashism has to offer.

Goodbye GPS device market and others...Yours Truly, The Smartphone.

It is very clear how technology innovation can affect businesses and markets. Most evident today are how physical cds are becoming more and more obsolete. Now, we are noticing how smartphones are affecting the once booming GPS device market.

More and more, smartphones are coming stock with GPS capabilities that require a data plan. With the rise of smartphones and the ability they have, it is more logical to get a data plan for your phone to allow it to perform to its highest ability. GPS companies such as Garmin are working together with phone companies and car companies to keep the profits coming.

The article also discusses many other markets that are being cannibalized by the smartphone industry. Cameras and media players are also in danger because of the increase in quality of smartphone cameras and music quantity capabilities.

Is the GPS device market going to end tomorrow? Not likely. They are still many who own and prefer to use them. As our generation gets older and innovation increases, more of these devices will be condensed into what we call our smartphone, but it will not happen overnight.

Feeling sick? Consult your phone immedietely.

For $5, you can have a "Family Doctor", on your iPhone or iTouch that is. Apparently, the interface is very intuitive, but there is a bigger question at hand. Do you trust a phone app or leave the medical stuff to the doctors? I am torn on the subject for a few reasons.

The first complication is brought up by the author of this article. Regardless of what conditions you type in, the app will not say "Don't worry, you'll be fine." For legal reasons, they would have to say the worst thing that could happen for each condition.

Another is because of a personal experience. A few months ago I went to the dermatologist because I had a minor outbreak in my face that was worried about. When I saw the doctor, he looked at me for about 10 seconds then walked out of the room. He came back and gave me some medical term and said to "just look it up online" if I wanted to know more about it. I decided to not even use the prescription and I got better over time. Given the circumstance, I was under the impression that he looked it up online as well.

In conclusion, I believe that for any problems, save your money and try listening to sites like WebMD. If anything is chronic, consult your doctor.

The NEW Myspace, any chance at competing?

This week and continuing through the end of November, Myspace will make strides to revamp its original interface and setup into a new place for "social entertainment." Myspace president Mike Jones stated that most of its current users focused on using the site for social entertainment commentary, such as opinions on music, television, and movies. Myspace's new objective is to cater to this niche audience. He also made a point that he was not trying to compete with Facebook, but complement it.

His view on having Myspace complement Facebook is a decent theory, but unrealistic. Facebook already offers similar places for social entertainment commentary and also has the customer base to back it up. The chances that Facebook consumers will switch to Myspace for those reasons are not likely.

Another one of Myspace's problems lie with marketers. The advertising revenue for Myspace has plummeted from $470 million to about $300 million. On the contrary, Facebook has risen from about $700 million to $1.7 billion.

Will you use Myspace again/for the first time? Or is Facebook all you need?

Google Fiber: Super Internet coming to Stanford

In a few years, Stanford University will be home to "Google Fiber", an extremely fast broadband network. According to the Official Google Blog, the high-speed internet will reach download speeds up to "1 gigabit per second--more than 100 times fast than what most people have access to today." The catch for those affiliated with Stanford is that it will only be available to Stanford's Residential Subdivision, which is where the university staff and faculty live.

Google Fiber has been offering their services to towns that are interested in it and some towns went out of their way to make it known that they wanted the service. For example, a few years ago the Mayor of Topeka, Kansas, decided to change its name to Google for a month as a publicity stunt to get Google's attention regarding Google Fiber.

There is no question that this service will be superior to many other internet providers, the question is, will they supply to more regions when it comes out or keep it more localized?

Facebook, meet Bing

Bing, the "decision engine", has been struggling compared to its giant sized competitor Google. In order to increase its usage, they have decided to team up with Facebook. What all of this will mean for those of us on Facebook is increased search ability in terms of Bing and less privacy.

In my opinion, Facebook needs to take a step back in regards to partnering up with different companies. The fact that it has a connection with Bing now does not help the fact that I am not a fan of having all of my information accessible by the general public. Obviously there will be options to not have your information be out there, but the problems with this are those people that have not done the research to figure out that there information will be there in the first place! For the first few years that I had a Facebook, I had no idea that anyone could type in my name and I was the first person in the Google search.

Facebook is slowly becoming more and more intermingled with other companies, such as foursquare. If the company continues to let others buy into Facebook, then the people using Facebook are at risk privacy wise. I believe similar events occurred with Myspace. It became less safe and so the consumers went to Facebook. Facebook had a safe and secure customer base with a clean interface. It is slowly coming before cluttered, and the end of Facebook does not seem as far away as it once did.

WEBCAM T.V!: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Yesterday, Cisco revealed its "super high-quality chat" that streams through your television. The device is called Umi, and it is a video chat system that uses your T.V. as a medium for video chat rather than the typical computer.
According to Ashlee Vance of the New York Times, the technology offers very crisp picture and more realistic eye contact, probably due to the spatial differences from a computer to a television.

The bottom line... is it worth it?

In my opinion, NOT AT ALL!

The hardware for this technology alone costs $599, along with paying $25 per month. The benefits Umi has are high quality pictures and space for multiple video chatters. Other than that, this technology is way overpriced. For how much it will cost for a year of service, you could buy...

A computer (w/ video chat and have money to spare)
Xbox Live Kinect (has video chat and gaming capabilities)
VGA Cable (Allows your to hook up your computer to your T.V. meaning video chat on it for free)

The list can go on but the point is that the technology Cisco is offering is overpriced and there is a lot more you can do with your money. I think that idea is innovative especially for families that have loved ones that live far away. In my opinion, the price does not match the product yet and it would be better to wait it out for the price drop rather than investing in it while it is a new product.