I caught this video via
Digg earlier today.  It is obviously a work in progress as Pattie Maes mentiones several times and I’m not quite certain about the validity of the reference to it being like a “6th sense”, but there is no doubt that what this team of MIT students have going on has the potential to change things in a lot of the same ways the smart phone has impacted the lives of millions in just the last 5 years or so (I say 5 years b/c that is when I got my 1st smart phone and couldn’t imagine life without one now).

The video below is about 8 minutes long, but worth the time IMHO.  Enjoy.

See
embedded video…

ShareThis

Considering there are plenty of people out there with over 500 connections in their “professional networks” on LinkedIn, this isn’t really anything to brag about and definitely isn’t the reason I chose this topic today.

The reason I selected this topic is because earlier this week in an article on TechCrunch dot com I learned that
LinkedIn was getting set to launch its own ad network.  Later that same day the same site published an article discussing the fact that
MTV was going to do the same thing.

What’s so compelling about this is the fact that the Internet has become saturated with ad networks looking to duplicate the cash cows that Google struck it rich with (
AdWords &
AdSense).  This extreme level of saturation can be seen with ad networks such as AdBrite, AdReady, Text Link Ads, Pepperjam Network, Bidvertiser, Kontera, Performancing Ads, AuctionAds, Federated Media, ScribeFire Quick Ads and a host of others.

Where the problem comes in is with the fact that consumers have now subconsciously trained themselves to block out all of the visual noise that is created by sites littered with advertisements.  Where that can’t be done, they are simply abandoning sites in search of more reader friendly Internet resources.  Couple that with higher-than-average inflation and a lethargic economy that has severely depleted consumers’ discretionary income and advertisers are left with the impression that no matter how inexpensive Internet advertising campaigns might be (based on
CPM measurements relative to print and other traditional media advertising options) they lack effectiveness and the ability track conversions.

All of which points to the fact that both LinkedIn and MTV may soon find that without an enormous nationwide sales force pushing the value of advertising on their unproven networks over alternate and more established networks like Google’s and the others mentioned above, that they are in for a rude awakening that will likely result in a large investment that will yield disappointingly small returns.

I look forward to seeing what Web 3.0 brings us.  I am especially excited about opportunities available through the broad proliferation of smart phones and mobile computing.  I honestly believe that LBS (
location based services) that allow advertisers to identify the specific locations of consumers who opt-in to receive promotions from them, then transmit promotional materials such as daily specials or coupons to their phones when they are within a specific vicinity of one of their brick and mortar store fronts, will be the next big wave in Internet advertising technology. 

The organization that is first to harness this capability and convince a broad base of advertisers to adopt it is certain to be the next big winner in this increasingly competitive marketspace.

Comments are welcome and encouraged.

ShareThis

One of the things that was driving me crazy from day 1 was that the email subscriptions field ( top – right sidebar) was generating an error indicating that email subscriptions through Feedburner was not inactive.

Turns out that the developers at
UBD made it easier to setup than I had expected. 

In the Wordpress administration field for configuring my Feedburner ID I had been entering the entire code string that was provided by Feedburner when I originally activated email subscriptions.  UBD set the configuration form up so as to only require my ID number contained within that code string…not the entire code string.

Anyhow, problem is fixed and everything else seems to be fully operable.  Feel free to test it out by entering your email address in the field provided in the upper right hand corner of this page, then just hit enter.  If you’re already am email subscriber, thanks for sticking with me.  Feel free to report any bugs that you may find via comment to this post.

ShareThis

I think that the majority of my anxiety came from the fact that my earlier theme (talian-10) was an older one. Notwithstanding the inherent flaws in that theme, it seems like I had to put a lot of customization into it to make it do things that it wasn’t necessarily designed to do. What had me so concerned with changing layouts was that I would have to put the same level of effort into customizations with the new theme as I did with the older one.

For this update, I went with something that was developed by the guys at
Unique Blog Design (UBD) that was made available for free from them a few weeks ago. I wish I had installed it sooner. Not only is it much easier to manage and customize than my original theme was, but it has a much smoother appearance with the generally accepted single right-column sidebar vs. the old left and right sidebar – 3 column layout that I had before.

I also made a conscious decision to cut down on the intrusiveness of advertisements on Jcyreus dot Com, which I am sure you can appreciate. Interestingly enough, I was able to do this without necessarily cutting down on the number of ads that I’m running. In fact, there are actually more ads with this layout, they are just presented in such a manner as to be less of a distraction and more “comfortably” integrated with the overall design of the blog.

Lessons Learned from this experience:

1. Don’t stress out over simple updates like theme changes. In the end, the little bit of extra work required to make it happen is worth it in the long run and your readers will appreciate the effort much more than the aggravation they might experience from the few days of kinks you need to work out after go-live.
2. Go with something that has been released recently or at least in the past 3-6 months by an experienced developer. Newer themes tend to better handle plugins, ad space and all of the other things that make your life easier so you can concentrate on that which really drives your blog’s success, which is CONTENT.
3. Find some friends to help you out with testing. Just as with writing a major paper or anything else you do that will ultimately serve to benefit parties other than yourself, you want to have someone else take a look at your work (objectively) and give you the feedback that your readers won’t give you before abandoning you due to their own frustration with the buggy-ness or crappy appearance of your site.

Good luck and please let me know if you find something on Jcyreus dot Com that doesn’t appear to be functioning properly. I’ll do my best to get it fixed ASAP.

Cheers!

Other Resources -

You can make use of a
business opportunity by first getting
domain registration and the going about the
dedicated server. Once done with
web host, you can figure out
how to design the website itself.

ShareThis

If a visitor to the site wants to find a particular name, they can run a simple keyword search. Results can be expanded to reveal details about the search results including soldiers’ full name, rank, grade, specialty, hometown, D.O.B. and casualty type.

ShareThis