For young people nothing is hotter than video these days so this site makes so much sense for Disney. It’s a great example of a large brand using elements of the social net to great effect. The only thing I see missing are links to purchase the source content. The Disney Video site is a place I can see kids spending a lot of time on which keeps them connected and engaged with the brand.

• One-third of the world’s population is on-line
• Global IP traffic increased eightfold in the past five years and will quadruple by 2015.
• Video is the primary driver of the data glut. Video is now the largest type of Internet traffic surpassing peer-to-peer file sharing.
• Videoconferencing is the fastest growing business application.
• Mobile Internet devices will soon outnumber the people of earth, reaching 10 billion by 2016.

Lots of work is being done to meet the demand from more undersea cables to the Internet 2 project. None of this surprises me as I have been working and monitoring the Internet space for years. I get especially frustrated with wireless companies who complain of the data use on their networks and now have put data caps on all their services. Clearly, they have not been able to keep up and the advent of the Smartphone took them by surprise. For technology based companies, they have not been very forward looking. Especially ironic is the fact that it is here in America where we invent most of the technology that drives the Internet and yet we are the country far behind in our own Internet infrastructure. We hardly have the fastest and most advanced Internet speeds in the world. The bandwidth explosion is coming; I hope we’re ready.

I’m an old school internet guy. I remember the days well before Google when Yahoo was king. Yahoo was the first major big time Internet success story. Now, so many years later another Yahoo CEO is gone and the company appears as though it will be lead by a wall street hedge fund.

Yahoo is like a once great race horse, now out of its prime and injured. Someone needs to put it down. It’s time. There are a few valuable assets left like flickr which should be responsibly sold off to live another life.

But Yahoo needs to be done. I don’t want to stand by and watch it continually get brutalized. Say goodnight Gracie.

This week Google launched Hangouts On Air for all of it’s Google+ users. Hangouts are online video chats for the Google+ social network. Until now, Hangouts were limited to 10 participants and video chats were not recorded for later viewing. Hangouts On Air provides a true live broadcasting capability with virtually unlimited viewers and in addition, Hangouts are recorded and posted to YouTube for viewing later. This puts Hangouts on par with other broadcasting systems like Ustream and Justin.tv. Of course Ustream.tv has more features, a more mature platform and user base, but whenever a giant fish jumps into a small pond, it’s going to create big splash. Another big advantage for Google, Hangouts On Air are already connected to your growing social network on Google, whereas Ustream.tv does not have nearly the social network features.

What all this means for your business is video continues to grow in new and different ways. It’s a force you will not be able to avoid soon. What kind of video content could your business provide on these platforms?

Finally Apple is looking at support for multiple users on iOS and it cannot come fast enough as far as I am concerned.

The only thing i’m surprised about is that it took this long. Unfortunately, they’re going to have to bend reality pretty hard on this one as anyone who has lived in the valley knows. It’s no Jersey Shore. People take their dogs to work, stare at computer screens all day and talk geek. The show would have been much better if done during the Internet boom days when people got millions of dollars for an idea scribbled on a napkin, literally. Paper millionaires were being minted daily, and then, just as quickly, poof, it was all gone. Now that was drama.

The party is about to end, however, as Google will be changing their algorithm to compensate for “over optimized sites”. This penalty for overly SEO’ed sites will level the playing field, giving sites with great content a better shot at ranking above sites with not as good content but great SEO.

It’s a constant fight between Google and those that seek to artificially manipulate results. Google’s job is to help customers find what the are looking for in the most pure sense possible. It’s always been about the content and this new change is going to make that even more true than ever. Rather than paying thousands of dollars a month for SEO wizardry, companies will be forced to focus on the content. Real, honest, authentic content. It’s about time.

I have always been more interested in content and the strategy that surrounds that content than SEO tricks. Give me a call at 503-427-8860 if you would like help getting your content strategy in order. In the meantime I would recommend reading Content Rules by C.C. Chapman and Ann Handley. This is one of the few new marketing books that focus on content and content strategy exclusively.

The more substantial change, however, will be in the content and focus of the site. This has always been a more personal site and I have treated it much like a laboratory for my experimentation in blogging and social media. I have enjoyed this creative space and I still believe it’s valuable for everyone to have a sandbox to play in. Excuse me while I mix my metaphors. The problem is the lab doesn’t pay the bills and the bills need to start getting paid.

The site will now focus on my professional passions and generating freelance work. There will also be some affiliate advertising too. Rest assured, any product that I recommend or link to is something I fully believe in and think you will gain great value from. You can see from the sub-menu the kind of areas I will be writing about.

Does Connected World Media still exist? Yes, but this site is focused on more transitory and smaller freelance work rather than the larger projects and longer term relationships Connected World Media seeks.

If you are ever interested in working with me, please see the Hire Me page or give me a call at 503-427-8860. The email is david@davidajacobs.com

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the new direction.

Thank goodness many of these bugs don’t reside in the United States where I live. If He is supposed to be a loving God, why on earth would God create such crazy animals? I’m sure there is some larger purpose in nature, but damn.

My personal favorite is the Japanese Giant Hornet. Nothing like flesh-melting poison in your eyes.

Excuse me why I go watch a show about happy, furry bunnies or something.

It was the supermarkets who largely started the modern rewards program. Let us track what you are buying and we will kick you a nice discount. Supermarkets deliver on their promise every time you shop, and they show it on your receipt. I save anywhere from 10%-14% at Safeway for example. It’s easy and simple, I shop and I save, every time, everyday.

Toys R Us rewards program is not so simple, however, and it has never actually paid off for me. When you shop at Toys R Us you build up rewards points and eventually you get some kind of discount, usually a $5 off coupon to spend. But here’s the trick, the coupon is only good for a certain period of time after which is expires. This period of time has never been when I am shopping coincidentally. Funny how they work that out. Once, I did hit the coupon period and excitedly I went to buy diapers and formula. At the checkout the checker tried to run the discount but it didn’t work. After some checking she informed me the coupon was not valid for diapers or formula. I stared at her completely dumbfounded. What are the two most shopped for things at Toys/Babys R Us? Fracking diapers and formula! Look, I did my part, I shopped at your store and bought a bunch of things. Now I earned a measly $5 and you’re not going to let me use it! What kind of a reward is that!

There are other stores that also make getting your reward less than easy. I am so sick of companies jerking me around for $5. Can’t you just let me have the reward? Let me feel some sense of satisfaction from shopping with you? Give me a morsel of happiness? I have traded my shopping habits, hugely valuable for the company, willingly and in good faith and you make it nearly impossible to exchange your part of the bargin.

I no longer shop with Toys R Us or Babys R Us, as much as I can keep my wife away. There is plenty of business that will go to someone else, probably Target. You know why? Target gives me a 5% discount when I use my Target card, every day, every time! No screwing around.