The Star Group Blog

What The Facebook IPO Means For Brand Marketers

mikemidure — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:38:54 +0000

Now that Facebook is public, will priority shift from pure innovation to a focus on investors? What impact will enhancements to their current revenue streams have on brands?

Now that Facebook is public, there is a big question of whether its top priority will shift from pure innovation to being a focus on keeping investors pleased. Bearing in mind that money is every investor’s core motive, Facebook will have to work on ways to further enhance its current revenue streams as well as design new/innovative approaches to enhance its business model.

Facebook’s first target for generating more revenue will naturally be advertising, but what will that mean for brands and their Facebook presence and strategy?

More ad categories and better targeting - We have already seen Facebook expand its categories of ads, such as the premium ads that are displayed on the logout page.

Below is an example of a recent ad for Titanic 3D.

Facebook will likely continue to develop new advertising formats as well as increase integration via other channels, such as mobile. Complementing better ads will be enhanced targeting capabilities, which is a plus and will allow marketers to focus their campaigns more effectively and ultimately improve conversion rates.

Engagement will become much more difficult in time - Although generating more revenue is a huge goal, the issue at hand is whether Facebook’s strategies/tactics will have negative or positive results. This will ultimately depend on the magnitude of added functionality/features as well as the rate in which they are released publicly. Plain and simply, if Facebook implements more ad formats, more features and so on in a short amount of time, there will certainly be undesirable effects such as creating clutter and hindering engagement. More clutter will overwhelm users, which in turn will affect the visibility of content that brands publish, as well as their level of engagement with followers.

Considering that the true value of having a Facebook/social media presence is tied directly to engagement, if it is hindered and becomes more difficult, where is the value?

Additional Fees - It is rumored that Facebook is considering charging brands for the use of certain features such as highlighting posts. Also, there is buzz about the testing of a new feature in New Zealand that makes comments more prominent on a user's newsfeed.

Although this still remains to be seen for sure, the probabilities are definitely high due to the recent IPO. In time, it’s entirely possible that brands may even be faced with premium subscriptions to have access to fully functional pages.

How do you think brands will react? What are the implications for small businesses?

Oversaturation - In many ways, Facebook’s IPO legitimized social media as a sustainable business model. But as more Facebook pages are created and more money is allocated toward social media marketing, a potential result is oversaturation. Combined with the likelihood of Facebook implementing various new features in the near future, the ability to engage and stand out from the crowd will become more challenging.

Though Facebook will surely not complain…are marketers going to have to rely on advertising much more in the future to gain the attention of followers? As we discussed recently about Twitter, variations on brand payment requirements are still evolving.

We understand that any social platform is an entity in a state of flux, which makes keeping on top of changes and developments more important than ever for brands. If you don’t know how to make strategic moves you can’t play the game. If you have questions, comments or concerns or would like to discuss this in further detail, because rest assured this is only scratching the surface, please feel free to post them here, on our Facebook page or via Twitter.

Nike Runs In A Different Messaging Direction - What Other Brands Can Learn

Mike Hagan — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:43:04 +0000

Sometimes even the most well known brands change their messaging. This is usually done during a rebranding process, implementing a makeover to redefine key messages to consumers, but sometimes a brand makes changes when they are missing a portion of their target market.

Every week, I go to my parents' house to watch American Idol. One night a few weeks ago they were tuned in with my sister, and being the outcast of the family who doesn’t watch Idol, I sat on my laptop in the kitchen playing music through my headphones in an attempt to drown out the nauseating voices of the judges (it’s appalling to me that a certain female judge can be considered a reputable gauge of musical talent). Commercial breaks were used for their own judging sessions, while playing on their phones or in my mom’s case, reading a book. During one break, a catchy tune from the TV prompted a lengthy, uncommon silence from the peanut gallery.

The spot was a Nike ad unlike any I had seen before.

Instead of an intense pump up song, the tune sounded like it was straight out of an Apple ad. The short musical strays from Nike’s typical messaging, telling a non-sports related story that evokes love and humor, certainly not the emotions we are used to feeling from a Nike TV spot. The “RUN STRONGER” slogan is new. Even the action of closing the curtain is scandalous for a Nike ad, as its implications could ruffle some conservative feathers. Despite these differences, the ad has been well received. It’s received over 1.6 million views on YouTube in 4 weeks, and can also be found on the bottom of On-Demand for certain cable users.

For the most part, Nike devotes different campaigns and budgets to their various product lines, which they seem to have for every sport imaginable. Most of the TV spots for these various product lines are consistently creative and inspiring – yet all monotonous. Someone must have realized that the serious tonality in each of these campaigns was missing the target audience for Nike Running. The new, lighter campaign is an example of how a brand can stray from the norm and alter their messaging depending on what product line they are selling. A brand like Nike has the ability to do this because of their extensive product differentiation. A smaller brand that offers only a few products would likely encounter great difficulty if they tried sending various messages without confusing the consumer.

When we perform thorough brand evaluations with our clients, we recognize it’s important to pore through the brand’s equities, their target consumer, the environment in which they operate, and their vision for the future. Not every company can come close to the breadth of a Nike, but they can take a strategic look at their own messaging, and decide if a new angle is needed.

Google Analytics (Not Provided) and Firefox (Not Set) - Online Search Marketers May Find These Updates Are (Not Cool)

josh — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:58:21 +0000

Google and Firefox have made changes to search encryption that are affecting how marketers collect and analyze data, are you ready with alternate solutions?

For those of you that track analytics or keyword reports, either on your own or through your agency, (not provided) should be old news. The not-so-recent search encryption update from Google has had a larger impact on analytics than expected, as (not provided) is polluting top keyword reports regardless of your industry. The update allows users that are logged into Google to encrypt their searches so that the keyword they used to find your site is not revealed in analytics and is instead (not provided). While this is a step forward for privacy – in theory (see below) – it has made the job of the Data Analysts and SEOs a bit harder. After all, if you don’t know which words your consumers are using to find your site, how can you properly target them online?

Now Firefox is getting in on the search encryption fun, if something like search encryption can really be considered fun. Their most recent browser update defaults to a private search, regardless of the search engine you’re using. In other words, if you’ve recently updated Firefox and have not changed your default settings, your search keyword is (not set) for Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Search marketers are not seeing which keyword search led you to their site when they check their Google Analytics.

Alone, these two updates may not have amounted to much, but together they are hiding a fairly large portion of data, enough to force consideration of what analytics does for you and how you can replace the lost information. While some articles are providing specific examples of the damage (not provided) can do, even anecdotally it is clear that marketers needed to take notice of this update. However, having less than 10% of your data affected is not usually enough to cause real damage or a change in approach. But what if over 20%, or up to 40% of your data is hidden? With (not set) being triggered by Firefox in addition to Google’s (not provided), that is just what is happening to some site owners.Needless to say, if you have full data for 1,000 keyword searches you’re going to be more effective targeting users than if you have the data for just 600 such searches.

Why isn’t (not provided) Showing Up in AdWords Data?

I have no quarrel with Firefox offering an update that could appeal to users and help to differentiate itself from other browsers (read: Explorer), but here is where I pick a bone with the change. Those paying for ad placement within the Google search network can see which keywords led to a user clicking on their ad. So if you’re paying Google, they are providing you with the keyword search of their logged in users; it is just for organic search, the type for which marketers can’t pay for top placement, that the privacy implementation is coming into play.

It is worth repeating that if you click on an ad, and Google gets money for that ad, they will “unblock” your private search. That is because it has already been sold to marketers at an arranged cost – the cost of the ad placement. But if you click on a natural result, and Google gets no money, you can keep your privacy. So that begs the question: Why update privacy now? While I can’t get inside Google’s head (if I could, I’d be rich) and say for sure “why now”, I can say that marketers should be looking at other ways to collect data if they want the complete picture.

What this all means is that SEOs and other online search marketers for small business, the types that can’t afford an Omniture or a Webtrends analytics platform, must ponder a day when Google’s free analytics goes away or is diluted. While Google Analytics is currently the most cost-effective option for site performance measurement for most businesses, the day when Google makes you pay for the best, most actionable data seems a bit closer now than it had been a few months ago.

Given that, it might be time to consider your options for replacing the lost information, though there is no impetus act on those ideas immediately (or as long as GA remains free). While solutions will vary with site data needs, some options include more in up-front data collection such as User Experience studies, or perhaps generating an e-mail database and CRM campaign to collect user information. There are a lot of ways to collect data, and if Google has any additional plans to shift the access to data, you need to be ready with other solutions.

Twitter Verification Implications for Brand Marketers

Adam Leiter — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:33:01 +0000

With recent news that Twitter's verification process has become linked to monthly advertising, there has been conversation and debate about blurry lines in the sand. What does this change mean for your brand or company on Twitter? Is verification critical to your Twitter strategy?

Twitter verified accounts are used to denote the authenticity of certain pages on Twitter. The verified badge helps users identify that a legitimate source is authoring the account’s Tweets (or at least officially ghost-tweeting on behalf of a legitimate source).

Beginning primarily with the rise of celebrities’/politician’s use of Twitter, verified accounts then spread to other categories such as news outlets, companies and more. Confirmation that the account is being run by who it says it is.

Digital Trends recently reported (highlighted? exposed? uncovered?) that the verification process is tied to a monthly advertising fee. While this policy and the manner of its implementation are stirring up some debate, what does this mean for your brand?

I doubt that Twitter is going to make The White House account, or a celebrity like Kim Kardashian, pay $5,000/month…they create a draw for others to use Twitter. But for companies and brands on Twitter? That now seems to be another story.

A verified account may not be necessary for every business, but if your company feels it’s important to have verification, yet doesn’t have the budget for that monthly charge, the best things we recommend you can do is:

Update your posts often
Stay consistent with messaging
Interact with your followers regularly
Monitor your name and keywords, both in account names and in post messages (You should be doing this anyway, whether you run a Twitter page or not)

By making sure that your social media efforts are forging connections and conversations with your audience, the verification will be inherent with or without a checkmark badge. Otherwise your brand is at risk of having someone literally take over how others perceive your Twitter presence.

Online Streaming Radio Presents Opportunity for Brands

Denise K. Myers — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:55:31 +0000

Co-authored with Jacqueline Johnson, Assistant Media Planner/Buyer

When internet radio exploded onto the scene around 2005, it completely transformed radio from both a consumer and marketer perspective. Paired with the hundreds of new internet-enabled devices, radio has become on-demand consumer experience.

With apps such as Pandora, Slacker, TuneIn, Spotify, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio available at your finger tips, internet radio has become a popular way to access audio stream. Through the eyes of the advertiser, this phenomenon provides the opportunity to get what they really want: active consumers willing to engage in their brand.

Unlike traditional radio, many of these on-demand apps offer customized playlists, allowing the consumer to design the type of content they want. With registration data often including zip codes, this allows the advertiser to place relevant and compelling ads based on the consumers personalized music selection and their location. Internet radio can provide national reach or local market targeting and allows consumers to interact and engage with the advertisers website or Facebook page.

So what do these Internet stations offer and how do they differ in both a consumer and advertising perspective? Here is a brief summary of just a few of the popular stations being used today:

One of the main stations, and arguably the most well-known one is Pandora. According to a study released from Nielsen in June 2010, Pandora is one of the top three most downloaded apps from the Apple app store and consistently ranks in the top five most used apps in the BlackBerry and Android stores.

Like Pandora, iHeartRadio allows users to listen to stations based on artist, song or album. The difference with iHeartRadio is its vast majority of song selections. iHeartRadio listeners can choose from a massive catalog of more than 11 million songs and 400,000 artists- more than 10 times the number of songs offered by Pandora.

Another popular consumer choice is Slacker Radio. What sets Slacker apart from its competitors is that it has professional DJ’s that customize the song selections and stations. This offers more personalized content than the other technology run sites.

Stitcher is the leader in internet radio for the “world beyond music.” This online site “stitches” together news, sports or talk shows from stations like Fox News, CNN and ABC.

TuneIn allows you to listen to live local and global radio from wherever you are. Whether you want to listen to sports, news, music or current events, TuneIn offers over 50,000 stations and 120,000 shows. It gives you the effect that you “right there with the people and places that are important to you.”

Spotify allows branded apps and channels that allows an advertiser to provide an added value to their target audience. Louisiana Tourism recently used this to their advantage. When the campaign is no longer live…the channel lives on as a wonderful reminder. Spotify utilizes the king of social networks; Facebook. You can share your playlist with your friends. They have taken this one step further with the “life sound tracker.” Using the tracker, consumers can select friends on Facebook and Spotify will generate a playlist containing music from upcoming concerts in your area based on a mash-up of your friends’ music. Users can then have the option to generate a Facebook invite and send it to their friends.

Although Internet radio offers advertising opportunities across both online and mobile platforms, users can also pay a fee in order have an ad-free experience, which could be dismaying to a media partner.

But in an article written about Pandora, media and marketing specialist Kathryn Koegel, states:

“Typical radio stations play nine minutes of ads per hour according to a 2006 study and in a study of clutter on radio, it was reported to be as high as 20 minutes per hour on some stations*. A service like Pandora currently runs a maximum of three audio ads or less per hour and banner ads only appear on a device when a phone is not locked or dimmed thus only when the consumer is interacting with the device.”

The research shows that only 9% of Pandora subscribers pay to use the product. It is also shows extreme growth in the amount of users listening to Pandora on their mobile device versus the web. It allows optimization as we saw with a recent client. By paying attention to ongoing measurement, we saw that mobile’s click-thru rate was much higher than the web; therefore we switched impressions to only mobile.

As marketers, we can conclude that the majority of consumers do not mind advertising, especially if it is targeted to the listener. However, we must stay ahead of the curve in terms of unique and targeted advertising. With mobile technology rapidly advancing, the way consumers listen to radio will continue down this ever-changing path.

Seven Marketing Lessons From Pulp Fiction

Adam Leiter — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:50:49 +0000

Oh I’m sorry…did I break your concentration? Along with being one of the best movies in the last 20 years, Pulp Fiction is chock-full of marketing insights if you look at it in the right light. Here, we pull out just a handful to discuss what brand marketers can learn from the film.

As a child of the 90s, one of the most lauded and influential films of that era for me was undoubtedly Pulp Fiction, thanks to its mix of dark humor, action, irony, and a unique tempo of scenes. It wasn’t a conventional movie when it came out, and even then I remember it sparking a lot of debate and discussion on topics like “is it too violent” or “what’s in the briefcase” or “should you ever take out your boss’ wife under any circumstances”.

Rather than trying to peel through the layers of the movie itself though, let’s take a look at what brand marketers can learn from Pulp Fiction. Here are seven of the best marketing lessons that Vincent Vega, Jules Winnfield and friends have for us. NOTE: Spoiler warning for those who have yet to watch the movie.

Be smart about working relationships – Choose your business partners and your colleagues carefully. Vince Vega and Jules…great team. They know how to work together to tackle a project and seem to have a good time doing it. Vince and Mia Wallace? Not the best match-up. Each has a different goal for the night and they are not aligned on strategy. Even the rollercoaster relationship between Butch Coolidge and Marsellus Wallace shows how two opposing agendas can sometimes work together with the right intervening scenario (Zed and the Gimp’s agendas aside).

It’s all about content – Everyone in the movie who comes in contact with the briefcase is transfixed by what’s inside. Is it gold? Marsellus’ soul? Diamonds? Tarantino claims it was simply a MacGuffin to keep the plot moving. What it actually was doesn’t matter…it grabbed people’s attention and motivated them. That’s exactly what good content does for marketers and the audience we are trying to reach. Keep in mind what you’re going to put in your proverbial briefcase before you focus on how you’re going to deliver it…

Choose the right tools – Hammer, baseball bat, chainsaw, katana! Butch knows the result he’s looking for, and chooses the most efficient way to reach it.

Don't lose focus – Vincent Vega was on his game for most of the movie…he handles the situations with Jules, he handles Mia Wallace…but he drops the ball while staking out Butch’s apartment. By leaving his weapon on the kitchen counter while he uses the facilities, Vince shows us the importance of always being on the ball. Sure, maybe that’s why marketing is such a high-stress career, but we’re a group of motivated professionals and juggling updates, knowledge and responsibility is what we do.

Word of mouth – Big Kahuna Burger…that’s that Hawaiian burger joint…This IS a TASTY burger! There’s no substitute for word of mouth and a recommendation from our friends. That’s why social media carries such weight, because ultimately we trust the opinion of people we know. If you are setting up tactics for a social campaign, first go back to see lesson #2 above, and then be sure that there is a conversational connection in order to get your audience talking, recommending and supporting.

Have a plan, but be flexible – “Pumpkin” and “Honey Bunny” work out their strategy of how they’re going to rob the restaurant by citing third party research, industry trends, their own past experience, and divvying of responsibility. If it weren’t for Vince and Jules, it likely would have been a flawless robbery. The lesson to take from this scene is that when Pumpkin and Honey Bunny do encounter that unexpected roadblock, they re-assess and adapt to the situation. As much as we can plan and prepare…PR interviews, events, media buys, etc., there is always the likelihood that something will need to change and we will need to roll with it.

Drink good coffee – Jimmie buys the gourmet expensive stuff because when he drinks it he wants to taste it. This is more of a personal takeaway that I adhere to. Life’s too short to waste on crap coffee.

Did Mad Men Measure ROI? What Don Draper’s Been Missing for Brand Marketers

Megan Hegarty — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:04:56 +0000

When the Don Drapers of the world launched a client campaign, there was only one performance indicator – sales figures. If sales went up, the campaign was a success. So now that we are able to measure each aspect of a campaign, why do some folks still look at the components in a silo?

Back in the good old days of advertising, when the Don Drapers of the world launched a campaign for a client, there was only one performance indicator – sales figures. If sales went up, the campaign was considered a success, even though no one really had any idea what truly caused the lift. Then, along came online advertising, which brought with it a whole new, more granular, way of looking at campaign performance.

When you run an online campaign you have the ability to track your campaign from day one, in almost real-time. This accessibility and abundance of data is both a blessing and a curse. While it gives us the power to finely tune campaigns to maximize ROI and minimize spend, the online portion of the buy becomes highly scrutinized, while the inherent value of “traditional” tactics such as billboards often go unquestioned.

The danger of simply looking at web analytics in a silo is that you truly miss the bigger picture. Yes, the Google search campaign was likely responsible for the most conversions, but that doesn’t even begin to answer the question of why people were even searching to begin with. Did they see an offline ad? Read an email? See an article in a publication or maybe a banner ad? The marketing analytics give you the opportunity to look at the campaign as a whole, and get a better understanding of how all the pieces work together to eventually culminate in a conversion.

At Star, measurement is a critical component of our approach to client challenges. Be it awareness, perception, lead generation or sales, we are rigorous in determining the impact of our efforts on the consumer’s mind (awareness and perception) as well as their actions (leads and sales).

This article written by a member of the Hubspot team further explains the benefits of examining marketing analytics, and how they could help you learn more about your customer base and their conversion process. While the author makes some very good points about the questions you need to ask in order to fully examine the effectiveness of a campaign, it seems as though offline advertising is still not taken into account. To truly gauge the campaign as a whole, you have to examine all of the parts, (online and offline) and determine how they best work together.

Even outside of the web, Star’s approach in all media channels strives to be ROI-based against marketing/media spend, especially when prospect and customer acquisition is the goal. We understand that “moving the needle” – in all its forms - is critical, and that’s why we employ a variety of measurement tools in order to gauge the achievements of our efforts.

We all love Mad Men, but today we need to measure beyond the Don Draper effect. Do you have a measurement system in place that is delivering the right feedback and analysis?

As Facebook Edges Closer to 1 Billion – Is Your Brand Engaged?

Adam Leiter — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:10:56 +0000

The magic number for Facebook is very close…most likely before the end of 2012 there will be over 1 billion active monthly users on the social network, but is your brand engaging with them in a beneficial way?

Months ago, we brought up the discussion around the disconnect between brands and consumers when it comes to social media, and as the socially-connected population grows it is increasingly important to make sure your social strategy matches with what your audience is looking for. On Facebook, your fans ultimately own your brand, and the content you put out there needs to be a conversation rather than a shouting match.

Our own Facebook page is focused on highlighting Star Group’s agency culture and our involvement with clients and community outside of the work itself. Even though our content is an ever-changing process, we want to connect with our friends, colleagues and clients in a more personable way than simply touting our work on their behalf.

For your brand’s page, the goal is likely to be completely different and unique. Just because there is a potential audience of a billion, we all recognize that there are smaller numbers of targeted communities that will be receptive to specific messages.

The grand total may be large…as Todd Wasserman notes in his Mashable article, already 526 million of current users are on Facebook daily (that’s almost 4 times the amount of total active Twitter users)…but in order to forge a connection with them, the content you create needs to be personalized and targeted.

Are you seeing the growth in Facebook users as a new challenge or a new opportunity? Do you have guidelines in place that help you stick to your brand strategy?

Let's Get Visual With Social Media

josh — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:20:20 +0000

There are plenty of examples of unique ways to use imagery all over the internet, but all businesses are different, so which is right for you?

With Facebook making their timeline feature permanent for business pages, and Pinterest and Instagram gaining traction in popularity and social influence, now is a good time to explore the ways in which social media is shifting toward a more visual experience and what businesses can – and should – do to take advantage of these new platforms and emerging trends. In fact, the news of Facebook buying Instagram for $1 billion only puts an exclamation point on that statement. So what kind of strategy should businesses take to target and engage with consumers in this environment?

First of all, don’t waste time lamenting that your business isn’t image-friendly. Just because you can’t display dishes made with fresh ingredients like Trader Joe’s on Pinterest, or easily post large portions of a catalog like Macy’s, does not mean you can’t join social visual sites or take advantage of Facebook’s timeline. What your business must think about is how images can help enhance your brand or tell your brand’s story in an engaging way.

When we work with clients that are expanding their social presence, we don’t simply transition their existing visual assets into a new format. It’s important to strategize about the ways that consumers will interpret and interact with content, and how it will benefit the brand or enhance the consumer relationship.

There are plenty of examples of unique ways to use imagery all over the internet, but all businesses are different, so which is right for you? As a couple of high-profile examples, it is worth checking out GE on Pinterest and Instagram, and Coca-Cola on Facebook, because each provides a pretty decent blueprint for telling a story with imagery and not just sharing pretty pictures.

Visual Social Media Examples

Coca-Cola is blessed with a strong brand association with consumers and a well-documented history, so it is no wonder they were able to compile a rich and compelling visual timeline on the official Coca-Cola facebook page. Coca-Cola puts pre-Facebook content on their page so that they can take you all the way from their founding to present day. By following the timeline, users see the branding and commercials with which they’re familiar supplemented by images they may not have seen before, such as an 1893 letter to Coca-Cola from a soda fountain manager lauding the drink’s popularity and ability to generate profits for his business. The user now knows that even before the 1900s consumers had a thirst for Coca-Cola, and they’re just a small part of that history.

General Electric has a similar approach on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GE) but with calls to action hidden throughout; one such call to action cropped a small portion of a jet engine image and teased users with the question “What do these parts make?” They then revealed the answer – and the full jet engine image – at 300 likes. On their Pinterest and Instagram pages, GE takes consumers through a visual journey of their business from historic photos and videos to current images of factory workers and the “Badass Machines” each generation of GE workers has produced.

Remember, you don’t need to attract users with your images; consumers have already chosen to come and visit. You need to connect with consumers through the visual medium to inform them about your brand in a fun, unique, and interesting way. By posting images that are relevant to your business and that engage the consumer, you can provide a glimpse into the everyday life of your company.Inviting consumers into the company’s life creates a greater sense of community among all consumers that interact with your site.

Will Google Goggles Take Over the Smartphone World?

Ryan Burchinow — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:37:48 +0000

Instead of just competing in the touchscreen wars Google is experimenting with SciFi tech and bringing the screen to our face to help “keep us in the moment”.

Remember when it was considered "uncool to have Coke bottle glasses and Rec Specs instantly defined you as the sports nerd? Well, Google is inadvertently trying to change that with their prototype augmented reality Google Goggles. I think it’s the right time and the right idea to innovate and try to leap ahead of Apple and Microsoft. Instead of just competing in the touchscreen wars Google is experimenting with SciFi tech and bringing the screen to our face to help “keep us in the moment”.

Keeping us in the moment is the main advantage I see to this technology. The video mock up Google posted on their Google+ page called “One day…”

shows what a day in the life of a NYC Google Goggle’s user could be like. We’ve all been there, tech-zombies walking around town with our eyes glued to our cell phone screens pulling them out at the beckoned sound of a text message or during any awkward silence at the dinner table. I think this will be a hit because just like the current touchscreen revolution it will help us humanize the technology (either that or have us walking into walls depending on how Google implements their advertising http://i.imgur.com/HNGO4.jpg ). Either way I say, “here’s to the future”! Oh and Google, if you’re reading this, I’m open for some beta testing.

In the future these will be Google Goggle's Bieber Edition