Google’s blog is announcing the release of Picasa for Mac at MacWorld. Even though they’ve previously released a Picasa Web Albums uploader and iPhone plug-in, the full-featured free software offers Mac users a way to edit, upload, and share video and images, surpassing iPhoto in feature set and maybe even usability.
You’re probably thinking, “I’m already using iPhoto, so what’s the big deal?” That was certainly my first thought too, but then I downloaded the software to test it out, and I changed my tune a bit. Picasa for Mac pulls in images and videos stored anywhere on your hard drive, lets you edit and tweak, save changes, and of course upload them to Picasa.
Picasa for Mac, which is still a Google Labs application (meaning it’s not perfect), has a feature set that is pretty darn extensive — it would be almost impossible to list them all — but some cool things you might like include the ability to filter by stared images, images with faces, and movies. You can also batch edit photos, create collages and movie clips, publish to Blogger, take video snapshots, one-click upload to YouTube, and a whole lot more.
And even if you’re not ready to chuck iPhoto out the window (I know I’m certainly not), you can still use both tools side by side. In fact, Picasa for Mac lets you run both applications without overwriting changes to your iPhoto library. iPhoto library images, within the Picasa software, are treated as read-only, so any photo adjustments will create a separate copy of the original image.
For more information on Picasa for Mac, watch this short video provided by Google:
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Hitwise, a data analytics and research company, today released a report that indicated a big spike in Facebook traffic on Christmas Eve. The research firm says that Facebook hit a new high, with traffic “reaching 2.18% of all U.S. Internet visits compared with 1.42% average for November.”
That’s up 54 percent from November 2008 and 53 percent from December 24, 2007, when it set its last new record. The Santa bump put Facebook fifth among all web sites. In the UK, social networking sites and YouTube accounted for 10 percent of total Internet traffic. There could be many reasons for the bump, such as people using social networks to send personal messages instead of sending emails (I got far fewer emails this year that in the past) and sharing photographs via Facebook, for example. Of course, with fewer gifts (and toys), people might have just spent an inordinate amount of time on Facebook. However, let’s not forget — there was terrible weather around the country and people didn’t have anywhere to go, except to hit the computer.
According to Hitwise Demographics, the top cities (based on DMA or Designated Marketed Areas ) on Facebook are New York, Chicago, Washington, Boston and Philadelphia. These cities were all hard hit by the snow storms last week and the poor weather may have kept people inside with little else to do but send holiday greetings to friends.
This last bit actually could indicate a long-term trend, as we the people might go through 2009 (which is already shaping up to be on miserable year) as the great depressed.
If you remember, the last downturn (2001) helped Google establish its contextual advertising business, which is now like a Middle Eastern oil gusher that keeps spewing cash. It was able to do so because everyone wanted to focus their ad dollars online in a specific sort of a way.
From that perspective, Facebook (or any other social network) could have a lot of our attention, because, well, we don’t have that much to do offline. With far fewer dollars to fritter away on offline socializing (or shopping), there is a good chance we would spend a lot of time in front of the computer, socializing online. Is it too far-fetched to think that this downturn might actually play to Facebook’s advantage?
We’ve already seen ads for Google Chrome popping up around the Web on sites like LinkedIn. But now, the company is taking the campaign to grow its browser marketshare a step further.
In Gmail, the company is now displaying a rather innocent link that says “Get Faster Gmail” that shows up only for Internet Explorer users. But when clicked, that link takes you to a page promoting the download of Chrome or Firefox.
Digital Inspiration first spotted the ad and posted a shot of what it looks like:
Of course, Google would prefer you download Chrome, but Firefox works too since it comes with Google as the default search. Nonetheless, “faster Gmail” is a fairly compelling reason to click the ad, so it’s safe to assume Google will convert at least a few downloads from the effort.
Sneaky? You betcha. But as I wrote in my predictions for 2009, I expect Google to do just about everything possible to convert users to Chrome, and this clever ad in Gmail is likely just one of many attempts we’ll see.
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It’s that time: predictions for the year ahead and a look back at how we did in the year past.
Several of last year’s predictions proved highly accurate, as many of the topics we devote attention to – social networking, startups, and increasingly mobile apps – evolved according to plan. Looking ahead, we think next year is going to be defined largely by how companies and the entrepreneurs and developers behind them adjust to the more macro issues facing all of us, most notably the economy. Our forecast is largely based on this premise.
Below, a report card and continued outlook for last year’s predictions, as well as a fresh batch of prognostications for the New Year.
2008 Predictions: How’d We Do?
The Good
Hulu Gets Popular: The site most people initially wanted to hate has done well for itself, becoming the 6th most popular video destination in the US this year.
’09 Outlook: There’s no reason to think Hulu’s growth will slow down as NBC and News Corp are likely to continue to put more content online, as well as work to open up the gates to international viewers (their CEO says as much in an interview today with MediaPost)
Mobile Social Networking Takes Off … Sort Of: Indeed, it was a very big year for mobile, fueled by the launch of the iPhone 3G and the App Store. Facebook recently noted that their number of active mobile users has grown from 5 to 15 million this year.
’09 Outlook: As more consumers switch to iPhone, more handsets launch with Android, and Blackberry launches an app store of its own, the growth of mobile apps will continue. For entrepreneurs and developers, it’s perhaps the biggest opportunity since broadband.
Blogs Become Hot Acquisition Targets: It was a good year for a few blogs on the acquisition front. Most notably, Ars Technica got scooped up by Conde Nast, while PaidContent was sold to The Guardian. Several others major blogs, like The Huffington Post, raised big rounds of venture capital instead.
’09 Outlook: Old media still needs significant changes to its business models; blogs could be stretched by the economy and slumping ad sales. These two forces should lead to more deals this year.
Facebook Truly Goes Mainstream: Facebook grew rapidly in ’08, passing MySpace worldwide in terms of traffic and set to eclipse it in the US early next year. It’s also won the battle for mindshare, stealing the title of “it” social network in popular culture.
’09 Outlook: It’s hard to see any significant threats to Facebook’s growth on the horizon, although, that’s what most people said about MySpace just a couple years ago. Personally, I see Facebook continuing to grow big in ’09, far surpassing all competitors by year’s end.
Startup Consolidation: Last year, I wrote that “there are too many companies chasing too many of the same ideas.” That certainly proved to be the case, as numerous startups either folded or combined with others. For example: Six Apart and Pownce, Live Universe and PageFlakes + Revver, Buzznet and Qloud, Automattic and PollDaddy + IntenseDebate, and many others.
’09 Outlook: This trend will only accelerate next year as startups fail to raise more venture capital and are forced to either fold or combine forces with someone else.
Email Doesn’t Die: As ’08 draws to a close, my inbox has nearly 17,000 unread emails. Enough said.
’09 Outlook: Email will only get more relevant as Google and Yahoo push the concept of email as an application platform.
The Bad
Microsoft Finally Buys Yahoo: Too bad I didn’t phrase this one slightly differently. Microsoft certainly tried its best to acquire Yahoo, and the story dominated the headlines for the early part of this year. But Yahoo refused, saw its stock fall to historic lows, and CEO Jerry Yang resigned.
’09 Outlook: Steve Ballmer has said he’s no longer interested in Yahoo, but, given the slowdown in ad spending, Yahoo could get desperate and become too cheap for Microsoft to pass up. I’ll give it a 30/70 shot of happening next year.
News Corp Monetizes MySpace … By Selling It: This one wasn’t actually that far off – in the midst of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal falling apart, rumor had it that News Corp was putting together a bid that involved swapping MySpace for part ownership of Yahoo. But, it didn’t happen.
’09 Outlook: Like most media companies, the value of News Corp has taken a sharp hit this year, in-step with the overall economy. I’d expect them to hold tight and continue to expand MySpace internationally, on mobile handsets, and across the Web through MySpaceID.
The Ugly
Gmail Removes Beta Status: Nope.
’09 Outlook: Much like the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google’s homepage, I’m pretty sure the “Beta” tag on Gmail is here to stay, mainly for nostalgia.
LinkedIn Files to Go Public, Then Withdraws, Then Changes Business Model: LinkedIn stayed the course in ’08, raised a lot of venture capital, and by most accounts, continued to grow nicely.
’09 Outlook: There is absolutely no market for IPOs right now, so I’d expect LinkedIn to remain a private company. As users scramble to find jobs and opportunities in a bad economy, the site could actually have a great year.
2009 Predictions: What’s Next?
Facebook and MySpace Become Aggressive Acquirers: As startup consolidation continues, look for the two biggest social networks to become aggressive acquirers. The reason? Both have ambitions as not only media companies (side bet: look for Facebook to buy or take a stake in a big music app), but as identity providers. One sure-fire way to gain market share as an identity provider is to buy up popular but profitless sites and make their own identity system the standard. This is exactly what Google and Yahoo have done with properties they’ve acquired through the years (see: Flickr, Del.icio.us, Blogger, FeedBurner, etc.).
The eBay Break-Up: eBay has essentially become the Internet’s biggest holding company. As the owner of several businesses that don’t really fit together and facing a decline in popularity for its original auction service, the time has come for eBay to dismantle into several leaner, more tightly focused companies. Skype and PayPal are both still growing nicely – look for at least one of them to be sold or spun-off in 2009, with Google and/or Amazon as likely buyers.
A Big Year for Amazon: This past weekend’s Wall Street Journal noted how dire things are about to get for brick and mortar stores, with massive closings expected across the board. Who is that good for? Amazon, who already reported that its holiday sales were actually up this year. Amazon’s developing data business could also see gains as more Web companies look to trim infrastructure costs.
Google Chrome Gains Meaningful Market Share: One of the few products that launched this year that I actively evangelize with everyone that asks me about it is Google Chrome. For most people, it’s simply a faster and better browsing experience than IE or Firefox offers. Already out of beta, expect Google to market Chrome aggressively, signing distribution deals with PC manufacturers, bundling it with other software, and devoting unsold ad inventory to the browser.
At Least One Big Newspaper Goes All Digital: The Christian Science Monitor already did it, and I expect more to follow in 2009. More specifically, I expect at least one large daily newspaper in the US to announce plans to eliminate a print edition. No more trucks and no more dead trees. And, while it might not happen until 2010, I expect them to have great success with it.
Comments Become the New Blogs: People are commenting everywhere, whether it’s on Twitter, Friendfeed, or actual news sites and blogs. A new platform will emerge where users can truly take ownership of their comments in a blog-like format. We’re already starting to see this with Disqus, and Movable Type’s announced Motion product might go in this direction too. This will become a popular alternative to the traditional personal homepage or blog, because it’s so much easier to update.
Startup Incubators Flourish: Venture capital might be dead for the time being, but the biggest opportunities right now, as I see it, are concepts that require very little up-front investment. Red hot areas like mobile applications, services that leverage data portability, and micropublishing are all low-cost businesses to enter. With investors shying away from big bets and re-upping in bloated, unprofitable startups, look for many more funds of the YCombinator and TechStars ilk to emerge.
Twitter Doesn’t Go Mainstream: Twitter will keep growing, but I don’t see it going “mainstream” as us bloggers like to say. I see it evolving much more like personal blogging: it will keep growing, but eventually it will hit a plateau. Ask people outside of your work life about Twitter and the response will likely be “why would anyone care what I’m doing or thinking?” Sure, they’ll passively consume Tweets as the service continues to be integrated into media, but the number of active Twitter users will not come close to matching what you see on Facebook or MySpace. The value proposition simply isn’t as strong.
How’d We Do?
It’s nice to see so many of our stories from 2008 ended up intersecting with the various predictions we made at the end of last year. What do you think of our forecast for ’09? For that matter, what subjects would you like to see us devote more or less time to on Mashable? Let us know what you think of all of the above in the comments.
We look forward to bringing you continuous coverage of our ever-changing social media landscape in 2009.
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As the need for fast, large-scale computing to power sites like Facebook or even computing clouds has grown, manufacturers such as Rackable Systems are taking notes on server design from Google, which builds its own systems. The goal of their mimicry is to provide more computing power in a smaller form factor while using less energy.
An article in EEtimes today details the emergence of these Google-inspired servers, which include features such as heat-tolerant processors to save on cooling costs, a focus on motherboards containing 12v-only power supplies for servers, putting two servers on one board and stripping out unnecessary parts.
These are all ways Google apparently modifies its boxes to deliver information faster and more cheaply. Rackable’s new CloudRack servers will offer dual servers on one board that crams more computing power into a smaller space, as well as 12V-only motherboards. The use of only 12 volts on a motherboard is supposed to make the power supplies more efficient by reducing the energy lost when having to convert electrical current to run at various different voltage levels.
IBM’s iDataPlex servers, designed for the cloud, have stripped away unnecessary hardware — a move aimed at reducing power-consuming components and saving space. Heat-tolerant processors allow a data center operator to keep air conditioning bills down, saving as much as 4 percent of total energy costs for each degree dropped. So as computing requires more scale, Google’s innovations influence other buyers and sellers of technology even as the search giant slows its own data center construction.
Amazing! I have been watching the spat between Google’s YouTube and Warner Music Group play out in the media — both online and its offline variants. The bottom line of this corporate he said she said is that there are no more music videos that feature Warner artists such as Madonna. And a lot of it is two parties crying over spilled milk.
Warner complains it doesn’t any money from Google, even though videos are extremely popular on YouTube and are major drivers of traffic. According to The New York Times, Warner made $639 million in digital revenues for fiscal year 2008 and of which less than 1 percent (or less than $6.39 million) came from YouTube $6.39 million. Another music labels might soon follow Warner’s suit and try and renegotiate with YouTube or opt out all together.
First of all this complaining is high grade manure. All record labels got a piece of YouTube right before the company was sold to Google in October 2006 — a stake that translated to about $50 million each. That’s $25 million a year for two year contracts. If the record labels were smart they would have made much more money — Google shares topped $700-a-share versus $420 a share at the time Google snapped up YouTube.
I can totally understand why Google is asking Warner to take a walk — they feel like being held up by by local mafioso for more baksheesh and don’t want to play ball. At the same time, the record labels too have a legitimate gripe. Google has failed to monetize the professionally produced, highly popular music videos — a much easier sell than kitty videos to brand advertisers.
The bottom line is — Google’s YouTube has the traffic (and the eyeballs) and record labels have the content. The two need each other as much as baseball needs the Yankee dollars. So get on with it guys — and stop crying over spilt milk.
Washington DC’s Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) told Google that it would not be giving any transit schedule data for the Google Transit service. “We decided that forming a partnership with Google was not in our best interest from a business perspective,” Brett Tyler, WMATA’s Director of Customer Servicetold Michael Perkins who blogs at Greater Greater Washington. It is not clear if WMATA wants Google to pay them for the information. Many commuters aren’t too thrilled with WMATA’s decision, mostly because they think the transit authority’s website is not quite user friendly. At present, 13 major US transit agencies currently share data with Google Transit.
via. Photo courtesy of Sam Ruaat via Flickr.
Hot on the heels of Warner’s deal with Google going sour comes a rumor that Warner, together with Sony BMG, EMI, and Universal Music Group, are in talks to create their own video portal dedicated to music videos; something akin to a Hulu for music.
I’ve said it many times, I’ll say it again: as long as copyright laws prevent such content from being shown internationally (and not only to users in the USA), I’ll consider these types of projects crap. Especially when it comes to music videos, which are little more than promotional vehicles for the music itself.
If I can’t even see the video for a new single on some record - simply because I live somewhere other than the USA - I’ll conclude that the music labels consider me a second degree user and I’m not going to bother paying for that same record. I know that this doesn’t seem particularly relevant to users who can freely enjoy the content, but trust me, there’s a lot of us out there who are simply getting angrier every time we hear of a really cool new video site that doesn’t work for us.
Secondly, the labels have already signed so many deals for music video distribution that another such project seems superfluous. MySpace Music and Imeem come to mind; Last.FM has a deal with Universal, and it has plans to have all music videos in their library some day. If the major labels want to create the ultimate music video destination, they need to understand that today you can’t sell people the same content over and over; if you want people to buy music, you need to try harder, and give something extra for free.
Videos are perfect for that. They should be free, and free for all. Want people to buy more music? Then create a free music video portal and figure out a way (if the major labels can’t do it, no one can) to show this content to international users, too. Otherwise, don’t bother whining about those music sales plummeting.
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As 2008 draws to a close, we thought we’d take a look back at some of Mashable’s most popular stories. These aren’t necessarily the most important pieces of news we reported this year, but simply the posts drawing the most attention from our readers.
Perhaps indicative of the influence that social media is having on mainstream culture, one of the more apparent trends in our list is how many of our top posts relate to current events – the economy, celebrities and entertainment, and the Olympics are all represented.
Without further ado, here are 20 of our most-read items in 2008:
Tiger Woods’ Jesus Walk Not a Glitch – When a glitch in EA Sports’ popular video game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 made it seemingly possible to “walk on water,” Electronic Arts and the world’s greatest golfer responded by creating a hilarious real-life parody of it:
January 30th is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day – Although it probably wasn’t the main reason that MySpace fell to #2 worldwide in social networking, a well-organized protest urging users to delete their accounts because of the site’s continued spam and technical errors gained at least a few minutes of Internet fame.
George Carlin: A YouTube Obituary – When one of the world’s most well-known comedians passed away, we paid tribute with a compilation of his funniest and definitely NSFW videos.
18 Smaller Olympic Countries to Route For – Michael Phelps might have been the biggest story from this year’s Beijing Olympics, but our list of tiny countries sending only 1 athlete in some cases gave fans of the underdog someone to root for.
Ymail And Rocketmail? Sorry, Yahoo, But That’s Not Enough to Thwart Gmail – Yahoo Mail tried to add some excitement by adding a couple new domain name options. I think it’s safe to say, as Stan predicted, that this didn’t accomplish much.
19-Year-Old Lifecaster Commits Suicide on Justin.TV – In one of the more bizarre and tragic stories in the social media space this year, a teenager committed suicide live on the Internet.
Practice What You Preach: Nine Inch Nails Gives Away New Album – Free music was everywhere in 2008, and Nine Inch Nails, a long-time advocate of digital tunes, was no exception, offering up much of their album for free over the Web.
11 iPhone Apps That Will Clean Out Your Junk Drawer – With the advent of the App Store, there is a lot you can do on your phone. This list included apps for everyday tasks like your shopping list, a tape measure, and a tea timer.
When an Interview with Zuckerberg Turns into a Revolt – Sarah Lacy’s interview of Mark Zuckerberg turned into one of the most-widely discussed events of the year as audience members took issue with the BusinessWeek reporter’s style of questioning.
The Top 20 Firefox 3.0 Compatible Themes Worth Upgrading For – One of the year’s most anticipated software releases – Firefox 3 – quickly spawned tons of new add-ons and customizations. Early on, we put together a list of 20 of the best themes for the new browser.
Google Reader Gets a Major Makeover; It Rocks – Perhaps the most important tool we use internally at Mashable, Google Reader recently underwent a major re-design. I was immediately a big fan of the changes, though it took some others a bit more getting used to.
25+ Celebrity Twitter Users – Perhaps the most talked about startup of 2008, by the end of the year, real celebrities were sharing their thoughts and activities on Twitter. And now, with Christmas just days away, even Santa is using the microblogging tool.
You Really Can’t Hide From Google Street View Anymore – Google’s street-level imagery for Maps now includes much of the continental United States following a doubling of coverage earlier this month. While our international audience was quick to point it’s not nearly as prevalent around the world yet, this is one Google project that seems to be a mainstay.
Chickipedia. For Guys That Never Get Laid. – Pictures of scantily-clad women are still a proven way to get traffic on the Internet. Our article about Chickipedia was no exception. Go figure.
Like It Or Not, Here Comes the New Facebook – Facebook’s re-design was one of the more drawn out and controversial subjects this year. As the rollover of all users to the new Facebook neared, readers hit up our coverage of the impending changes in droves.
Top 5 Tech “Killers” That Weren’t – The term “killer” gets thrown around far more than it should in tech reporting to describe what new products might do to entrenched competitors. In this article, we featured five such high profile sites that ultimately didn’t kill anything – other than a few investors’ bank accounts.
Check Gas Prices Online: 11 Handy Tools – Until the economy imploded, gas prices were out of control in the US, surging to more than $4 per gallon at the peak. Here, we put together a list of 11 tools to help you find the best prices in your area.
18 iPhone Drinking Apps to Get the Party Started – Keep track of the number of drinks you’ve had, measure your projected blood alcohol level, and take a sobriety test – all from your iPhone.
MakeMeBabies Predicts What You and Your Lover’s Kid Will Look Like – We cover a lot of startups; some of which become essential products we use every day (like Summize aka Twitter search), others of which are downright bizarre. MakeMeBabies falls into the latter, but was nonetheless entertaining, providing a virtual version of Conan O’Brien’s “If They Mated” segment.
10 of the Best Social Media Tools for PR Professionals and Journalists – There are a lot of great tools to help bloggers, journalists, and PR people work better together. In this list, we review 10 of the most useful.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Rellas
Lacy / Zuckerberg images courtesy of Brian Solis
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Whether the (unofficial) Google Phone, a.k.a. the T-Mobile G-1, is going to set sales records or not, remains to be seen. But Google is doing its part. My source says that on Friday, the Mountain View, Calif.-based search and online advertising company gave away a special unlocked version of the Android-powered G-1 device (with an Android logo etched on its back) to its employees. It’s nice for more people to get familiar with a device that represents a big part of the company’s future. In related news, there has been some talk about a new G-2 version of the device. (Related Post: What I Love & Hate About T-Mobile G-1.)
