Life blog

Yahoo goes further with mobile

Congratulations, Yahoo.

I've played with the Series 60 Yahoo!Go app and it's pretty nifty, especially if you have a Yahoo account. It does a really fast and good job of synching calendar and contacts info, among other nice tricks.

The underlying tech comes from Marco Boerries's company VerdiSoft, which was purchased by Yahoo in 2005. That was a quick integration and I think Yahoo!Go is the right philosophy. With your data everywhere and needed on multiple devices, Yahoo!Go handles the synch (never easy) and storage of all of it.

And we thought Google was getting grabby. This just will cement Yahoo's importance in (450 million!) users' lives.

Best of luck.

BTW, Marco is head of Yahoo's Connected Living division and is bossman to my old bossman Christian Linholm. Christian has more on Yahoo!Go and a link to download the mobile app on his pages here.

Link: Yahoo goes mobile | CNET News.com.

Yahoo Go Mobile, which the Internet company launched Friday, is a set of communications and media applications, including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, Photos, calendar, address book, Web and image search, news, sports and finance.

Do-it-yourself mobile services?

Seems like Om is extending his brand into the mobile domain. He now has an applet, GigaOm Moblet*, that is as an RSS reader for all of Om's feeds.

MobHappy also has a branded RSS reader (including their favourite RSS feeds).

I think this is all so cool. Media outlets creating a compelling app for their readers. This self-service mobilization includes also the many sites mobilized via WINKsite, a personal mobile portal service I mentioned earlier (see upper left of my blog for my WINKsite or visit http://winksite.com/cschick/mobile with your phone). Om uses WINKsite as well. Check out the list of other sites that are mobilizing with WINKsite.

Link: Om Malik on Broadband : � New Tools GigaLinks and User Feedback.

We are in a new year, so its time for something new. For starters, I am introducing a new mobile RSS reader which lets you get GigaOM on your mobile phone, along with feeds from some of my recommended blogs. In other words, a tiny GigaOm branded mobile application.

* Great name. Alas, the applet runs only on a small set of phones and is only available for phones in the US (due to the poor distribution mechanism). I'd check it out if I could just download it.

Belated notes from Les Blogs - The Future

I was going through some notes and found some stuff I had written at Les Blogs.

On the morning of the last day, Loïc asked me to join the last panel to discuss the future. I decided it was best to prepare, so I wrote down a few things. For the most part, I didn't use any of it, since I was brought into a discussion on mobile phones and privacy, and gave a little rant about flat-world - spiky-world issues (very close to the heart, for me).

I intended to focus on my mobile perspective, since I was the only hard-core mobilist on the panel. Looking back at my notes, they are for the most part fears and not hopes. Here they are:

1) A hope: There will be more integration between mobile and Web (the fusion I always talk about). As part of this, voice and SMS still have more to go and contribute here.

2) Note: The next 1 billion phone subscribers will be in emerging markets. Most of these folks will not have a PC. The mobile will be their window, their experience with the Net, with blogs, with the Web. That's when I realized that wireless broadband for these folks will actually be wireless 'strawband' (as in 'through a...').

3) A fear (and this fed into my rant, responding to a question from the audience): Silicon Valley will dominate. We are missing a significant European contribution (let alone cross-over innovations from Asia, Africa, or Latin America). And, partly because of this, we will remain mostly PC and broadband based.

4) A fear (thought from David Weinberger): Will we move to the light - increasing public domain content and consumer choice; or will we go to the dark - where carriers control everything and choice goes down (Ben Hammersley brought this up in his Les Blogs talk)?

5) A fear (tip of the hat to David Weinberger, again): As mobile and voice get integrated into the Web, how will that change the tone and texture of on-line conversations. Currently, the bulk of conversations on the Web are asynchronous and disjointed. With something like a Skype presence indicator providing a real-time connection, what will the ensuing conversation be like?

6) Trends in the back of my mind when I look at the future of mobile and the Web: urbanization, affluence, flat and spiky world views.

New Year SMSs, Lifeblog archiving memories, and the relevance of phone contacts

Like everyone I know, I sent a bunch of SMSs at midnight (my time) on New Year's Eve. I scanned through my contacts and just added them to the list. I knew that Lifeblog would archive them, so I would be able to remember whom I sent them to.

I also received many before and after my message went out. Many were joking about me sending my message before their midnight. Tee hee. Thank you all for sharing with me that night.

Alas, I had just switched phones and the phone was only set to save the last 20 sent messages. Bummer (yes, I sent more than 20). I did go look at the phone log, which keeps a record of all incoming and outgoing communication. I'm not transcribing that list, but I do know how many I sent. And going over that list again, gave me a warm friendly feeling. I am glad to have Lifeblog to archive all that stuff in a nice way (even though I lost most of my half of the conversation).

Y'see, with me, those who are in my contacts have to work hard to get there. Yes, there are many who are strictly work contacts and other personal info (like the pizza parlor). But many are also there because they mean something to me, even if I have never called them. True, there are many who are not there, who I wished were there, but eventually they'll end up in my phone contacts.

What's interesting is that the combination of phone log and phone book on the mobile so powerfully maps our personal communication networks. With a bit of tagging, that info can be useful if made more explicit.

Nothing new here, but I am wondering why no one has done anything with it. Lifeblog was supposed to tie the logs and contacts with the personal media, but that never got off the ground and I have no idea where its at now. But, that would be really powerful, personally.

Oh, and don't give me this privacy thing. That's a red herring. I think something can be done here, in a relevant way, that obviates the privacy squeamishness.

Anyone know of anything in this space?

I wonder if Yahoo might be able to capitalize on this? They have the most phone-Web integrated services I know of. But, I am not sure if their services are integrated enough to bring this all together.

TheFeature :: It's All About The Mobile Internet

Good idea to revisit this.

Thanks to MobHappy for reminding me.

Link: TheFeature :: It's All About The Mobile Internet.

Only a cockeyed optimist would forecast an open, user-driven, entrepreneurial future for the mobile Internet. This should not prevent us from trying, however. Sometimes, envisioning the way things ought to be can inspire people to work at making it that way. That's what manifestos are for.

MobHappy has: Carnival of the Mobilists - Best of the Year!

I am ashamed to have not participated in this at all this year, despite being asked countless times. Due to timing, focus, and the like (which everyone also deals with), I don't think I can contribute to the extent I would like to. I feel that if I can't do a great job in contributing, then I should step aside until I can.

But, that doesn't mean I haven't read each one or mentioned it countless times. These folks are near and dear to me and we are all part of a worryingly small group of mobile believers from all corners of the globe and industry.

Way to go guys. Keep it up.

Link: MobHappy: Carnival of the Mobilists - Best of the Year!.

Welcome to the final Carnival of the Mobilists of 2005, where we feature the very best online writing about mobile. To celebrate this special issue, we asked all our writers to send in their favourite piece from 2005 – and they haven’t disappointed. I challenge anyone to come up with a finer collection.

We also have some special guests dropping in, who I hope might turn into more regular contributors in 2006.

So let’s get started on our record catch.

Hmmm, should we have an event or gathering like Les Blogs? Could be that 2006 is just right for one. (dang, what am i thinking?! ;-D)

gotomobile |on: searching for simplicity

Link: || gotomobile || The mobile usability and user experience blog - searching for simplicity.

“Regardless of the technologies used, the ultimate end users are people, who don’t evolve as rapidly as technology.” - states Karen Donoghue in her book, Built For Use. The Wacom Component study released last week reporting “85 per cent of consumers admit to being ‘too dumb’ to access or use mobile services due to increasing device complexity…” quickly spread through the mobile community, and posted at W2F as well. It should come as no surprise. The need to innovate and differentiate has quickly alienated even the most advanced users. Moving forward - successful deployment of mobile data services, applications and entertainment is contingent on meeting the needs of the end user, not the carrier or platform requirements.

gotomobile on: understanding mUXP (yes, another acronym)

Link: || gotomobile || The mobile usability and user experience blog - understanding mUXP (yes, another acronym).

Defining the mobile user experience has been a challenge. Some might say ‘duh’ when thinking about mobile and lifestyle integration - but I set out to create a diagram that describes my thinking towards creating a true user-centered approach. Applying this user-centered thinking to mobile authoring (think, mobile interface for now - we won’t get into apps versus the mobile web for now…) starts with understanding the key factors in the user experience that influence whether or not the end user will ultimately integrate the product or service into their lifestyle. For the sake of clarity, I’ve broken the experience down into three distinct stages. The stages are: perception “I’m ready to try this out”, interaction “this is easy, I like it” or “this is hard, I don’t like it” and integration “this works for me.”

Digital Lifestyle Day

At Les Blogs, Marcel Reichert from Burda had some posters up mentioning the Digital Lifestyle Day. Now I find out that the inestimable Jyri Engeström will be speaking there among other luminaries of the digital world.

Should be interesting. I wonder if I should ask to go.

Link: DLD - Digital Lifestyle Day.

Save the date / January 23-24 / DLD 06

On DLD06 - chaired by Dr Hubert Burda and Dr Joseph Vardi - a select group of 200 movers, thinkers and innovators from media, digital, brands, arts and sciences will meet to discover and discuss the connected worlds, the digital consumer and Europe's role in innovation - Jan 23/24, 2006, Munich. The gathering will feature panels exchanges and interactive presentations as well as interview discussions and key note addresses from leading technology pioneers and digeratis.

New company - IncrediblInc: Mobile Social Software

Max Niederhofer has left 20six and founded another company in the social and mobile space. The team is well suited to create something cool.

What caught my eye is that they are building a dating service where the content and mobile are central for 'lubricating' the connections.

Good luck guys. We're all watching now. :-)

Link: IncrediblInc: Mobile Social Software.

IncrediblInc is a London-based mobile social software start-up. We are developing applications that connect people over the mobile internet. Our goal: boosting ARPU happiness.