Adobe Flash 10 vs. Microsoft Silverlight 2

Big week for Rich Internet Applications with two big releases: Microsoft Silverlight 2 and Adobe Flash 10. Both bring in new sets of capabilities that make the Internet a better place. So anything changes with this new release? should you look into using them, adopting, which one is better? Many questions, but the answer as always is ‘it depends’. I will list all features introduced by the new versions, but an important factor as it has always been, is adoption rate or market penetration. Adobe Flash Player 9 is installed on 97.7% of all computers, and Microsoft has not yet released their percentage…. They claim that Silverlight gets 1.5MM downloads per day (def inflated), but my guess is that they don’t have over 25% penetration with Silverlight 1.0. Adobe has demonstrated their growth rate and can guaranty that Flash 10 will be at 90% penetration within a year, my best guess is that Silverlight 2 won’t even have 15%…. so choose your product wisely, Adobe may have some better features, Microsoft may have others… but if you need anyone to actually see your site, use Flash. If you ever doubt this, remember what happened with the Olympics .

iPhone vs G1

The iPhone obviously had a huge impact on the smartphone market selling over 1MM phones on its opening weekend,  but on top of that it also created buzz on the smartphone market and all those people who also wanted a smartphone but not necessarily an iPhone or switching to AT&T are looking around for alternatives… Blackberry stock doubled, Verizon came out with the Voyager, and now T-Mobile with the G1. So would the G1 compete with the iPhone? Experts say that the G1 will sell 400,000 phones before the end of the year … not an impressive number, but then again, t mobile is tiny compared to AT&T. The main difference with Android and the iPhone, and that Android has all its numbers combined – all carriers, all brands, all models – and the iPhone is just one.

G1: Google gPhone and Android hit the market

The Android platform is a software stack for mobile devices including an operating system, middleware and key applications. Developers can create applications for the platform using the Android SDK.

Android is Google’s attempt to dominate the mobile advertising market, just as it has dominated the online PC advertising market, said Craig Wigginton, industry leader for Deloitte’s telecommunications practice. “Their number-one driver for pushing this is the advertising model,” he said.

The G1, the first Android phone introduced by T-Mobile, Google, and HTC on Tuesday, comes loaded with Google applications, including Gmail, Gtalk, Maps, and YouTube. The home screen includes just one item: a Google search bar. Each of those applications is an opportunity for Google to deliver advertisements to users.

There are 3.5 billion mobile-phone users worldwide; many more than computers users. Google, with their success at delivering advertising to desktop computers are looking to monetize this enormous opportunity.

Behavioral Advertising Invades Privacy

Introduction
Imagine a device that scan all internet activity and throttle p2p traffic, reduce spam, protect against hacking attacks, scan against viruses, all done in real time for millions of users. Now imagine the same device can also read all your email, know what sites you visit, see every form post you submit, read every instant message you send, know about every comment you make on social networks, know about your buying habits, know about your searches, know about the videos  you watch, know about the music you listen to, and imagine that this device stores all this information about build a really detailed behavioral profile on you, and partners with advertisers to target the perfect adverb specifically for you.

The Sun UK bets on Air & Sex

Sex in advertising is the use of sexual attraction as a tool of persuasion to draw interest to a particular product, for purpose of sale. Gallup & Robinson, an advertising and marketing research firm reports that in more than 50 years of testing advertising effectiveness, it has found the use of the erotic to be a significantly above-average technique in communicating with the marketplace. 

The Sun, a UK newspaper decided to develop a desktop RSS reader to push their news and highlights; now that’s a boring idea. Why would you download yet another RSS reader? Maybe because this one has Keeley Hazell, a Sun page 3 model that usually involves her appearing topless or on a nice tasteful lingerie.

Google Chrome Screenshots (tons)

[caption id=“attachment_253” align=“alignnone” width=“150” caption=“Google Chrome Logo”] [/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_254” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Google Chrome Autocomplete (1/2)”] [/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_255” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Google Chrome Autocomplete (2/2)”] [/caption]