Server Load. This is undoubtedly a big issue. You might be able to attract the traffic but can you handle it? Sure, when we design new websites we do server load testing to make sure spikes in traffic will be well handled. I’m sure flipboard.com did the same – but they didn’t expect the traffic volume they had. The problem occurred when so many people were trying to set up their new accounts at the same time.  More

There seems to be a lot going on in the way of social media integration these days; with Facebook’s recent announcement of API extensions and new i-frames which have been rapidly popping up on websites. Now today, LinkedIn has added a "Follow Company" feature to its website. It will be interesting to see how quickly the volume of Followers rises on company LinkedIn pages. LinkedIn has a “Companies You May Want to Follow Box” on the Companies homepage. More

by Scott Friedland, Chief Innovation & Strategy, Oshyn, Inc

The sales records of mobile devices like the new iPad have raised the level of urgency for many companies seeking to create mobile applications. A client recently asked me if they could downsize the scope of work on their iPhone and iPad apps to meet the CEO’s mandate to make the “deadline”. How often does cutting corners work? Like many publishers developing mobile applications, this client is faced with navigating legacy back-end technology issues before they can successfully deploy the mobile application. More

Well it’s all over the news “Next Generation iPhone Found in Bar”. Before I share the features revealed by Gizmodo. This marketer must ask, “Did an Apple employee really leave their disguised next generation in a bar? And in that bar someone found it and started playing around with it knowing for sure that it was the new Operating System and that the employee who apparently ‘lost’ it realized this and reported their phone missing to Apple HQ so Apple could remotely turn disable the new operating system? Sounds like a leak à la marketing stunt to me! More

Foursquare is one of the latest mobile driven apps to be getting a lot of attention. It brings together location awareness (according to Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley “locative”) from mobile and social media and gaming! Gaming because it can create a little friendly competition for the coveted title of “Mayor” of establishments along with the gaining of points and badges. Foursquare is intended to encourage people to explore their cities. Some people are already asking, “Will Foursquare be the next Twitter?”

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My first thought about the ipad was that it was going to be pretty funny to watch movies through scores of fingerprints. I was excited when I first got my hands on a netbook, but I found it was too small to do most of the things I need and having multiple devices just kind of defeats the purpose. It will be interesting to see how the ipad affects the sale of netbooks which are frequently sold “free” with a data services contract from mobile providers. Yet, there’s no doubt the ipad is revolutionary at 1.5 pounds and ½ an inch thick!  More

• Two out of three people on the planet visit social networks (Nielsen, 2009)
• In fact, in February the largest age group on Twitter was 35-49; with nearly 3 million unique visitors, comprising almost 42 percent of the site’s audience.  (Nielsen, 2009)
• 73% of active online world wide users have read a blog (McCann, 2008)
• 52% of consumers have blogged about a product or service (Razorfish, 2009)
• Companies are slashing print budgets by 37% and TV by 21% (eMarketer, 2009)
• Twitter.com was the fastest-growing Web brand in May 2009, increasing 1,448 percent year over- year, from 1.2 million unique visitors in May 2008 to 18.2 million in 2009 (Nielsen, 2009)
• Estimated online advertising spending on the top social network and blogging sites increased 119 percent, from approximately $49 million in August 2008 to approximately $108 million in August 2009 – all despite a recession (Nielsen, 2009)
• Mobile phones subscriptions are now 270 million, out of 307 million US adults.(For a comparison, mobile phones were in 51 million households at the start of the decade, but back then having more than one phone per household was unusual.) Back in 1999 phones were phones. Now they are iPhones, Blackberries, and Androids -- computers and internet access devices. (Forrester, 2009)
• Folks that put in the time and energy to build a foundation over the last 2 years online will be rewarded, while the latecomers will merely whine.” (Seth  Godin, 2009)
• Well over half of online Canadians connect with social networks. (Forrester, 2009)
• 73% of all US adults are “spectators,” which means they read social media, or look at it, at least once a month. Half of adults are “joiners,” which means they participate in social networks like Facebook. This is double the percentage from just two years ago. (Forrester, 2009)
• Twitter will become finally the pace maker for application interfaces. Unlike the thousands of gadgets on Facebook, the more than 2,000 applications for Twitter are actually integrated applications - more than twice as many as for Salesforce.com in just 2 years. (Econsultancy, 2009)
• Over 50% of all updates on Twitter are published using mobile and Web-based tools, other than Twitter.com’s own website. (Econsultancy, 2009)
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