Google Analytics Adds New Features
Google Analytics has added some new features that enable tracking of mobile websites and mobile apps, the ability to set engagement goals, the ability to filter based on different metric conditions and use multiple custom variables. Another new feature is called Analytics Intelligence. It will provide automatic alerts of significant changes in the data patterns of your site metrics and dimensions over daily, weekly and monthly periods. Very cool stuff! Check out the video: 
Read the entire article here.
Fixing SNMP in Mac OS X Server 10.5.7
I monitor our network with PRTG Network Monitor. After recently upgrading one of our Xserves from 10.5.4 to 10.5.7 (server), its status changed in PRTG to “in alarm” and was unable to connect via SNMP to collect any data. It turns out that the default configuration of the SNMP agent changed with the 10.5.7 upgrade, tightening access restrictions for the community string “public”. The fix is fairly simple. Edit line 97 of /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf and restart the SNMP daemon to reload the config file. More »
In-Depth Review of Snow Leopard
John Siracusa has posted an exhaustive review of Apple’s latest OS release, Snow Leopard. Great read if you really want to learn why you need to upgrade.
Augmented Reality Game
I posted recently about an augmented reality shopping application. Pretty cool. But then I ran across this video for an augmented reality game. Very cool. Now we’re starting to see this technology reach it’s potential.
The Future of Shopping
Check out this video of Zugara’s online augmented reality and motion capture shopping app. It’s relatively crude but the potential is incredible. Imagine this app when the technology matures a little. Then end of brick and mortar stores? Well, maybe not. But very cool nonetheless.
Best Social Media Presentation Ever!
Wow! This is, by far, the best presentation I have seen that shows the conversational and viral nature of social media. DISCLOSURE: Video contains profanity.
IAB posts Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions
The IAB has posted a document specifiying standard definitions for Social Media Metrics. From their page:
This document specifies standard definitions for Social Media Metrics. With the rapid growth seen in the Social Media space in recent years, many publishers and vendors are offering supplemental performance metrics to their clients as additional ways of gauging ad effectiveness. This document defines these supplemental metrics in more detail in an effort to stimulate growth by making the reporting of metrics for agencies and advertisers across multiple media partners more consistent. The IAB hopes that all players in the Social Media space will coalesce around these metrics to encourage growth through consistency.
Social media speaks to a new way of understanding how individual users are interacting with branded content via online publishers, social networks, blogs, and applications. Before the proliferation of social media, the primary way for users to receive advertiser information was one-way. Social Media has changed the paradigm of how people consume online media.
The most profound difference is that Social Media has added a participatory element where an individual not only receives information but has the ability to take part in the creation and distribution of content. Furthermore, social media tools have enabled a dialogue and discovery around this content. It is the combination of these unique and appealing aspects that defines the true value of social media.
Value is derived not only from the primary distribution of branded content but also the additional interactions that result as users share, participate with, and propagate advertising content. In the end, social media adds another layer of value through its ability to engage users and create additional reach.
The current Social Media landscape can be broken into three distinct categories:
* Social Media Sites
* Blogs
* Widgets & Social Media ApplicationsThis document first defines each of the categories, and then defines the supplemental metrics specific to each.
Detroit Lions New Logo
I’m not sure about the type treatment, but I do like the Detroit Lions new logo. It seems a little more aggressive than their old logo. Will it help the team? Probably not. UPDATE: Added the old logo for reference.
Snowballing
For those last few individuals out there who doubt the validity of social media / marketing, here are the latest numbers from Facebook and Twitter. First, a few stats from Facebook:
- More than 200 million active users
- More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day
- More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
- The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older
To see their full stats page, go here.
Not nearly to the scale as Facebook, but showing staggering growth nonetheless, is Twitter with 76.8 percent growth in March and an annual growth rate of 1,202 percent! Twitter is rapidly closing in on the leading newspaper website, The New York Times, which sees more than 16,000,000 visitors monthly. See the full article here.
New Web Trend Map Out!
This is the almost final version. Download your copy here.
