we are: London

In January I made a few predictions about what the year had in store for the digital world. One that I did not put in but have talked about for ages is the end of free online services.

Basically as ad spend decreases and take up of online services increases, something has to give. A recent story on the BBC website shows BT’s new aggressive stance on asking iPlayer to pay for bandwidth.

More of the same will come as people watch more video, save more photos and re-post more content via social networks. Add to this the cut throat pricing of broadband, reduced advertising revenues and suddenly you are looking at an unsustainable business model.

So, a quick review of my predictions from January:

1. Video on Demand finally gets in to peoples homes for real (iPlayer) √
   
2. Video on Demand gets a new name (iPlayer) √
3. Interactive TV advertising (Sky green button) √
4. BT Vision moves from Microsoft to open platforms (Or Sky goes onto xbox 360) √
5. DRM free VOD (can’t win them all!) x
6. Mobile web (go go iPhone, Nokia and Andriod) √
7. Nokia Tube turns out not to be an iPhone beater (yep I own one, it’s pants) √
8. iPhone Nano (By Autumn, I promise) x
   
9. Mac tablet (See above) x
   
10. No one buys Twitter (still) √

So 7 out of ten is not bad considering we are only at the start of June. And whilst you may or may not agree with all of these it’s pretty interesting to see how fast things change.

Another foot note from January was my prediction that Apple would start to slip form wonder kid to main stream business and given the recent launch of new iPhone, this seems to be happening.

Although I would hate to see Apple done anything than succeed as I love how Steve has turned a business round by giving customers what they want! And that’s where we are, helping you give your customers what they want, although I am no Steve Jobs, I know we can help you make a big difference.

Let’s see where we are in another 6 months:

1. Windows 7 is just as rubbish as Vista?

customer insight Design, future, Interactive TV, Microsoft, Mobile, Predictive, Twitter

Can Microsoft challenge Google?

Crosby

Having just watched the video for Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, I am rather impressed. Bing seems to cover off many of the actions that a normal punter would make after clicking on a number of links.

For example, search for a flight to London from Hamburg and not only will it find you the cheapest flights but also show when the best time to buy them is, guaranteeing the lowest fare.

Left navigation, back with a vengeance

The next trick in bings box of magic is a left navigation that makes moving around different content quick and easy. So searching for a digital camera, say a Nikon D90, Bing brings back popular searches along with links to reviews, shops, pictures and even manuals, all arranged in a neat left nav.

It’s got a real time suggestion engine so a nice list of drop down choices appear as you type, similar to Google. Maps, images, video and other non-text content seem to fit within the search window nicely too, so searching becomes a lot more visual.

Snake oil or Google beater?

Our vote is still our here are we are:london, mainly due to the fact that until it’s launched for real, it would be foolhardy to judge. But Google’s killer USP was it’s speed and size, as a tech colleague of mine pointed out seven or eight years ago, “it’s (Google) got millions of web pages saved already that you can search through”.

What’s important about this statement is that Google were solving a problem that most had never realised was actually a problem. So will Microsoft’s attempt at improving the search experience be enough to topple Google and will they have a simple and effective paid search service that can be used by massive firms or individuals to the same ends?

Time will tell, but in a lot of ways I hope it is as good as the hype, mainly due to the fact that we have been working on a travel search system that is very similar and will therefore hopefully see the average web customer happy to search in a whole new way.

Uncategorized future, Microsoft, Search, usability