The Reimagination of Publishing

Last Friday I did a presentation at The Project [R]evolution conference in Auckland, New Zealand. I presented on a topic I've been writing a lot about recently: the reimagination of publishing. I haven't been this excited about innovation in Web publishing since the early, experimental days of blogging, when I started ReadWriteWeb circa 2002-03. In particular, three new products have captured my imagination: App.net, Medium and Branch. It's too early to tell if any of those three products will be successful, but I like them because they are doing something different - and as a result, shaking things up.

Although it's Web publishing that has fired up my neurons, I have also been tracking developments in digital books and magazines. I mentioned two iPad apps that have impressed me a lot over the past year: The Atavist and Citia. Neither aims to replace paper. The beauty of both The Atavist and Citia is that they complement traditional magazines and books (respectively).

The Atavist releases multimedia enhanced magazine stories for about $3 a pop. Citia creates digital versions of non-fiction books, using cards and stacks to condense each book into its essential ideas - a concept which fans of 1980s product HyperCard, for Apple Macintosh, will remember fondly.

Citia version of Kevin Kelly's book 'What Technology Wants'.

Summarizing where I think digital magazines and books are going, I listed some of the key drivers. But note the fifth point: people still love paper magazines and books (this author included). The digital publishing products that fascinate me the most are ones that complement paper magazines and books - they don't aim to replace them.

Next I talked about the transition from the first big wave of Web publishing, which I characterized as the Geocities era of the mid to late 90s - to the latest wave of 2012 (App.net, Medium, Branch, Svbtle). The Clipart-addled Geocities was the third biggest website on the Web in 1999, its peak. Nowadays, Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress and Tumblr rule.

But things may be shaken up, again, if two of Twitter's founders and a bolshy Twitter competitor have anything to do with it. I've identified five reasons why Web publishing is undergoing a sea change (see presentation embedded below for all five).

What's intriguing about these new products isn't that they have a decent chance of becoming as massive as Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress or Tumblr. Indeed, I will be surprised if any of the new era become even half as popular. What's of most interest to me is that each of these new products is challenging the "old" guard (if you can call services born in the mid-to-late 2000s as old!).

App.net is a direct challenge to Twitter's business model - especially now that Twitter is in the midst of tightening access to its API. Medium is, in a way, trying to make a categorized Tumblr (in other words, make a better Tumblr). Branch is trying to reimagine discussions, which strikes at both Facebook and Twitter. Svbtle is encroaching on the terrain of Wordpress, with its elite blog network and minimalist design.

These are exciting times for Web publishers! Here is the whole of my presentation, via Slideshare:

 

How Remove Instagram Filters

Editor's note: This post was originally published by our partners at GeekSugar.com. Have you ever been hit by filtered photo regret? You took a memorable photo, but a hasty filter decision left you with an image too vintage and dreamlike.

The Normalize app for iOS ($1) lets you revert your once-oversaturated photos back to their original levels.

Take back the natural look of vacation photos with a quick run through the app. Even handier is that Normalize also doubles as a run-of-the-mill photo enhancer, so when a picture comes out too dark or the white balance is off, the app works double duty to transform the image.

Are there any Instagrammed or filtered photos you'd like to revisit in their original state?

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Weekly Wrap-Up: Obama Shuts Down Reddit, 3D Printing And The Gun Debate, Next Month's Mobile Announcement Madness

President Obama takes to Reddit in a social media first, the strange world of 3D printing and the gun debate, and next month's mobile announcement madness. All of this and more in the ReadWriteWeb Weekly Wrap-up.

After the jump you'll find more of this week's top news stories on some of the key topics that are shaping the Web - Location, App Stores and Real-Time Web - plus highlights from some of our six channels. Read on for more.

 

I Am A President--Obamamania Shuts Down Reddit

In another social-media first, President Barack Obama took to Reddit today to become the first sitting head of state to moderate the site's "AMA," or, ask me anything, series, I Am A President--Obamamania Shuts Down Reddit.

 

More Top Posts:

How 3D Printing Is Inflaming The Gun Control Debate

If you think the gun debate in the United States is heated now, technological advances are about to make it a whole lot more intense. Last week, Forbes highlighted a project called Wiki Weapon that wants to prototype the world's first fully printable gun, How 3D Printing Is Inflaming The Gun Control Debate.

 

Get Ready For The Madness: Next Month's Schedule of New Mobile Device Announcements

During any given year, new mobile devices are announced and released like clockwork. The Consumer Electronics Show, Mobile World Congress and other large conference herald the first round. The second round comes as the holiday shopping season approaches. Spurred by Apple's expected announcement of the new iPhone on Sept. 12, announcement of new devices is about to hit fever pitch, Get Ready For The Madness: Next Month's Schedule of New Mobile Device Announcements.

 

Why Job-Hopping Is Essential For Startups

A lot of people in Silicon Valley are down on job-hoppers these days. They're flaky, they're bad employees, they steal all the Sharpies when they leave, blah, blah, blah. But it turns out that all that job-hopping is an important part of what makes the Valley so special, Why Job-Hopping Is Essential For Startups.

 

Why You Should Be Terrified Of A Free Trade Agreement You've Never Heard Of [Infographic]

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the most influential piece of recent legal work you've probably never heard of. Can a Free Trade Agreement really threaten Internet freedom, redefine copyright and alter the course of global healthcare? You bet, Why You Should Be Terrified Of A Free Trade Agreement You've Never Heard Of [Infographic].

 

'Screensucking' Is Sapping American Productivity And Innovation

You can thank Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Williams and others for turning America's legendary productivity into wasteful social media 'screensucking.' While social media may be engaging, it does not always help us accomplish what really needs to get done. It's time to refocus America's software ingenuity on making productivity software as delightful to use as social networking, 'Screensucking' Is Sapping American Productivity And Innovation.

 

Dell & Samsung Join Parade of Windows 8 Convertible Laptop/Tablets

The launch of Windows 8 may still be two months away, but the tide of new hardware releases is beginning to swell - including hybrid notebook/tablet devices from Dell and Samsung, Dell & Samsung Join Parade of Windows 8 Convertible Laptop/Tablets.

 

HP Envy x2 Tablet/Laptop Combo Cuts Across Categories

Is it a tablet? Is it a laptop? The HP Envy x2 is actually both, but it remains to be seen how well this Windows 8 device actually performs in either one of its dual roles, HP Envy x2 Tablet/Laptop Combo Cuts Across Categories.

 

Futurist's Cheat Sheet: Quantum Computing

Moore's Law describes the phenomenon that makes this year's computer more capable and less expensive than last year's. But it won't go on forever. While engineers have come up with various schemes to keep it rolling, quantum computing is the best hope for extending it indefinitely. The concept has been proven in the lab, but working quantum computers are not a foregone conclusion. Here is a quick-and-dirty primer on a very complicated technology, Futurist's Cheat Sheet: Quantum Computing.

 

New Tech Incubator Focuses on Car-Based Apps

Tech entrepreneur Jim Disanto sees the automobile as the next great platform for connectivity. 'There are a more than a billion cars in the world,' he said. 'Every automotive OEM and Tier 1 supplier will tell you that within three years, every car will need connected systems, or you're not going to be able to sell it.' That, Disanto believes, will spawn a new generation of app developers offering Internet-enabled enhancements to the driving experience, New Tech Incubator Focuses on Car-Based Apps.

 

ReadWriteWeb Channels

Enterprise

• Take My Facebook Password? Over My Dead Body
• Is Microsoft Challenging Google on HTTP 2.0 with WebSocket?
• [Infographic] Social Media Security Basics

Mobile

• For Google, to Play Is to Fight the Commoditization of Android
• Fuzebox, the iPad and the Reality of Simple Unified Communications
• Squashing Bugs: The Many Layered Approach to Mobile App Testing

Cloud

Follow ReadWriteCloud on Twitter and join the ReadWriteCloud LinkedIn Group.

• Red Hat Sets a Date for OpenShift Source Release
• Box Launches Its Own Enterprise Cloud Operating Ecosystem
• Google's Go Programming Language Grows Up: Now What?

Hack

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• Google Adds New Toys to OAuth Playground
• Trello: Online Collaboration Software at Its Finest
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Walmart.com's Semantic Search Promises Edge Against Amazon

How much of a difference can better search tools make for an e-commerce site? Wal-Mart is betting on a 10% -15% improvement in sales following the launch of its new Polaris search engine on Walmart.com, developed by its @WalmartLabs division.

Location, Location, Location

In the business of retail, it's all about location, That's true for which aisle in the grocery store you display the milk, and its even true for ecommerce sites, which rely on product placement on pages and better search tools to make the difference between a sale and no sale.

The new semantic search engine is based on technology from a number of @WalmartLabs acquisitions, including social media startup Kosmix, which was acquired by Wal-Mart in April 2011. Kosmix' Semantic Web platform, called the Social Genome, organized social media data with algorithms that score social media content and help deliver results for shoppers that are more in line with what the customer wants.

This varies from the usual method of determining a customer's potential likes and dislikes: mining transaction data. For example, if you buy a pink flamingo from the home and garden division, then you might be tagged as someone who likes kitschy lawn decorations.

That's all well and good, unless you were buying that lawn ornament as a gag gift for your neighbor down the street. Retailers that are mining your transaction data will send you the coupons for garden gnomes, not your neighbor.

The idea behind semantic search is that by expanding a search engine's knowledge to include social media content, the search engine can better determine the context of what you're looking for. This form of social discovery, coupled with better query parsing and synonym mining, should deliver a more tightly focused set of results to a customer.

Are Semantics Enough?

Looking at Walmart.com in isolation, it's a no-brainer that a more efficient search engine that can deliver a wider range of choices around a simple search term will up the odds of completing a sale.

The key here is how Polaris works with global Internet search. If consumers are running their searches for goods from search engines like Google or Bing, or using comparison sites like BizRate or PriceGrabber to get started, it is not yet clear how well the new Polaris technology will interact with Internet-based queries. If the semantic search advantage is lost, then Wal-Mart's Polaris advantage will be moot, and the company will have to compete not on search results but on price, availability and delivery - just like everyone else.

Availability and delivery are advantages that Wal-Mart has been able to hold against Amazon, even through the odd price wars that occastionally break out over certain hot items. Some shoppers seem to be willing to pay a little more if they know they can go down to the store today and pick up an item they've ordered online.

But Amazon is starting to explore same-day delivery, a move that should challenge Wal-Mart's edge in local availability.

Price as the Ultimate Decider

Wal-Mart's focus on improving its edge in ecommerce could be seen as sandbagging before the coming Amazon flood. Because once Wal-Mart and Amazon share a more level playing field on availability (at least in the U.S.), price becomes a bigger comparison point for shoppers again.

This could be a problem for Wal-Mart, which has 2.2 million employees to keep paid versus Amazon's 69,100, not to mention the upkeep of Wal-Mart's store locations. With less overhead, Amazon could be more nimble than Wal-Mart in selling goods for lower prices over the long-term.

That's likely one reason why Wal-Mart is taking a strong position in semantic searches and getting more integrated with social media content - to get more customers to land on Walmart.com and finish their business there.

Location is still one of the best drivers for sales, and as Amazon moves into the neighborhood (literally), Wal-Mart has continue jockeying for a better location on search results.

Coming To A Restaurant Near You: Online Food Delivery

This week's eyebrow-raising $49 million round of funding for German food-ordering site Delivery Hero as well as a flurry of similar recent deals, indicate that consumers and restaurant owners want digital delivery. 

The U.S. restaurant industry is enormous -- $632 billion in annual sales, according to the National Restaurant Association -- but also cruelly efficent. The rate of business failure is legendary. 

But, online food delivery is growing again after furtive entrepreneurial efforts during the Internet boom. And one of the safer bets in the food business has to be on the automation of putting food in American stomachs.

According to a study by the National Restaurant Association, 39% of consumers say they would use electronic ordering to buy meals if it were available. That, perhaps prompted 55% of restaurant owners in the same study to say electronic payment systems, essential to online ordering, will become more important to the industry. 

While some restauranteurs choose to build their own systems, third-party systems vendors, like U.S. market leaders Living Social, Seamless and GrubHub, are a more popular choice as most businesses don't have the time or ability to create their own options for customers. 

A host of similar, smaller services are gaining restaurant clients, too, and the reason is clear: They're easy to use, and that functionality keeps customers engaged. 

Chris Webb, chief executive at Venice, Calif.-based delivery site ChowNow says his company is succeeding because online customers order "again and again and again." ChowNow allows customers to order from restaurants via its site and mobile app, and also creates custom menus as well as websites to host restaurant's content and promote them. In addition to custom client menus and sites, ChowNow provides restaurants with the spending and eating trends of their customers. 

"If they (restaurant managers) know what a customer is worth to them, a restaurant then knows how much they should spend to acquire more customers," said Webb.

The National Restaurant Association's recent study reported that 36% of Americans have placed an order online, with 46% saying they would order via a smartphone app if that option was offered. 

Webb's service seems to be confirming this trend. "The average customer orders $46 worth of food every month at restaurants using ChowNow." 

Webb said he is confident about his industry's future. 

"GrubHub, the so-called market leader, will do about $500 million in gross billings (orders taken through its system) this year," he said. "That is a fraction of one percent of the overall market. When the market leader holds less than 1% of the market, it makes me obviously very bullish."

 

Photo by Marktee

Twitter Ads Are About to Get More Relevant

If all goes according to plan, ads on Twitter are about to get a lot more relevant to the people that see them. That's the idea behind the interest-targeted ad system the company has been testing. Having presumably ironed out the kinks, Twitter has just rolled the feature out to all of its advertisers. 

Previously, when Twitter displayed a promoted tweet or trending topic, it didn't take into account whether or not that ad is relevant or useful to a given user.

How Facebook Targets Ads

For years, advertisers on Facebook have had the ability to target ads very granularly based not only on demographic data and life events, but on specific interests held by users. The result, is many cases, is advertising that's sometimes eerily accurate and relevant to users' lives. Twitter is now adopting similar functionality as part of its quest to monetize its growing microblogging service. 

But Twitter isn't Facebook. On the world's biggest social network, users explicitly declare their interests on their profiles and through clicking "like" buttons woven throughout the Web and apps everywhere. Twitter doesn't have the luxury of such detailed user data, so it must employ other means to target its ads. 

The concept of interest-based advertising isn't new, but it is evolving thanks to the social Web. From the outset, Google has monetized its search engine based on people's interests. Early on, users declared those interests on a case-by-case basis by typing in a search query, which Google used to display targeted text link ads. Over time, search advertising has evolved to become more targeted and personalized, as have the competing social advertising models that have cropped up since the early days of Google. 

How Twitter Targets Ads

Twitter offers 350 categories of interests from Bollywood movies to gardening. Since users don't specify their interests on their profile, those interests must be gleaned from such things as what they say, who they follow and other user activity. Twitter doesn't elaborate on how it all works, but we wouldn't be surprised if things like favorited tweets weren't factored into the algorithm it's using.

To get more granular, advertisers can specify @usernames of users. Rather than target these people specifically, Twitter will attempt to show ads to users who share interests with those who follow them. The example the company uses is an indie rock band that wants to promote its upcoming tour on Twitter. To do so, the band can use this feature to list similar acts on Twitter and target people with like-minded taste in music. Again, Twitter isn't forthcoming about how that will work, but hopefully it has a way of filtering out pornbots and ghost followers.

New Google+ Features Target Businesses

In an effort to boost adoption of its Google+ social network, Google this week announced a slew of new features aimed at enticing business customers to use the service and "go Google."

Citing the success other Web-based Google Apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Drive have found amongst employers and their workers, Google Apps Product Management Director Clay Bavor detailed a slew of new Google+ features for businesses in an official Google Enterprise blog post.

"Like Google Apps, we think Google+ can help colleagues collaborate more easily and get things done ' and get to know each other along the way," wrote Bavor.  

These new features include Gmail-integrated videoconferencing involving Google Docs and Google Calendar (turning Google "hangouts" into business meetings) as well as enabling private, intra-office Google+ posts. (Think Google's version of Yammer, aka the Facebook for the workplace.) The clever thing here is that these "restricted posts" can't be reshared outside the organization. There are also new administrative controls to ensure that only the right people have access to.  

Google has already been testing these new features with a couple of businesses, including Kaplan Test Prep and Banshee Wines. The new features are available for free until 2014, but the company has not announced what the eventual pricing will be. Businesses already have to be signed up for the Google Apps business suite in order to use the new features.

Google says it plans to roll out more business features for Google+, "including a mobile version of Google+ for enterprise users and more administrative controls." The idea, apparently, is to encourage companies to "Go Google" and run their businesses in the cloud. Google+ hasn't been able to significantly challenge Facebook in the consumer social networking space, but the enterprise market is much more wide open.