Google has just published a patent application for Network Node Ad Targeting, in which Google hatches plans for identifying the most influential of a circle of friends and providing this ‘influencer’ with ‘financial incentives from advertisers in exchange for permission to display advertisements on the member’s [social network] profile’.

Doing so will ‘provide advertisers with the option of targeting either all members in the community or advertising only on the profile of the influencer, thereby targeting the entire community,’ explains Google. Who says you can’t buy friendship!

What is Android?

It’s the new operating system for mobile phones, funded by Google and set to revolutionise the phone industry.

Heard the same thing about the iPhone a few months ago? Well, let it be known that this operating system is a serious contender for best phone OS available.

What is Android?

- This exciting new mobile-phone software wasn’t created by Google and isn’t owned by it, though its development was largely funded by Google via a body known as the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). This loose confederation of tech firms includes handset makers, mobile-phone networks and Google.

- The OHA allows phone makers to run Android on a suitable handset, without charge. Several have signed up, including Samsung, LG and Motorola. T-Mobile is the first UK-based mobile network to join. Others may soon follow.

- Android is less demanding of a phone’s hardware than traditional smartphone software such as Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and runs quickly, making its rivals seem sluggish by comparison.

- As Android is open source, anyone can create programs for it. These are available to download to the phone from the online Android Market. Many are free; others must be paid for via Google’s payment. system. Innovative new programs include ShopSavvy, whereby you scan a product’s barcode with the phone’s camera and it checks for the best online price, then shows you the nearest store on a map.

- Android’s open-source approach also means that a handset maker or mobile network could hobble its version of the software by removing features such as a phone’s ability to make free calls over the internet.

- As the software is self-policed by an online community of fans, Android raises security concerns. That said, this already works well for Linux, the computer-based operating system upon which it is based, and the Firefox web browser.

- Despite Android’s multimedia pretensions, it cannot yet play videos in either Apple’s QuickTime or Adobe’s Flash format – both popular on websites. Google has at least fixed this problem for fans of YouTube, which uses Flash.

Ok, so this post is not strictly about Web 2.0. In fact, it’s more likely about Web 3.0 …. it’s about when the web truly upgrades to a new version - portable internet

After using and testing the iPhone in its’ factory release format, we decided that the iPhone will redefine the Internet and Web 2.0 Apps as we currently know them. So we decided to Jailbreak an iPhone to see what else might be instore for the future. And rest assured there’s plenty in store!

Here’s how you can Jailbreak your iPhone for some added functionality.

SHIFT Interactive is a Web design agency in Sydney Australia. We can engage your users through our services. These are:

• Web Design Sydney
• Content Management Systems CMS Sydney Australia
• eCommerce Web Design
• Web 2.0 Sydney Australia
• Animated Flash Banners
• Internet Marketing Sydney Australia
• Viral Marketing Sydney Australia
• Search Engine Optimisation SEO Sydney Australia

Contact us for more details

SHIFT Interactive is a Web 2.0 design agency in Sydney Australia. We specialise in harnessing what the Version 2 web technology provides including:

• Viral marketing Sydney Australia
• Flash Games Sydney Australia
• Corporate Blogging Sydney Australia
• Viral Video Campaigns Sydney Australia
• Web 2.0 Sydney Australia
• Social Media Sydney Australia
• Social Networking Sydney Australia

Sydney Australia Google Top Ten results will make a big difference to your traffic and your bottom line. Engage in a Search Engine Optimisation SEO campaign to achieve this.

What is involved in reaching the top ten in Google in Australia?

The process is an intricate one, and involves various steps. Here at SHIFT Interactive, we are specialists in the Australian market, and have been actively engaged in SEO in Australia for ten years. We have developed sophisticated software which allows us to analyse your website and your competitors’ websites, to determine the best and most effective strategy for Search Engine success. Read more

Viral Video is bursting onto the Australian Web 2.0 scene in Sydney with the same pace that enthusiasm for the concept of ‘multimedia’ bloomed onto the scene back in the 90’s. The difference now is that so-called multimedia is actually happening…

Use a viral video to launch a product, or a marketing campaign, and reach a massive potential target market which would remain untapped using conventional, offline marketing mechanisms. The beauty of the web is that the is no broadcast cost - if you’ve produced a viral video, you can launch that across the net with a variety of tools, and using a variety of social media and social networking sites, at no cost. Once the video is completed, load it into a number of sites using Web 2.0 tools, and it will snowball.

Web 2.0 has lots of potential. Here’s a good example of the video web 2.0 convergence which is increasing in use on a daily basis.

Kinda like youTube, but you can cue up a list of videos, which will then loop eternally, until you set up another playlist. You can also integrate the camera on your computer to host your own show, or upload your own videos…we like this tool, for sure!!

And then you can embed it back on your website. Here’s our channel using ‘Web 2.0′ as a our theme:

SHIFT Interactive, an online Web 2.0 company based in Sydney Australia have just engaged a super new product for injecting some viral marketing flavour into your online campaign. Check out VideoLove, a viral video marketing tool which allows you to easily load your video onto 20 video sites with the touch of a button.

Look at it as a way of video blogging - a way to easily spread a video across 20 networks. Think of all of those social media networks hungrily waiting for your videos…!

Web 2.0 logo designs make use of bright colours, user-friendly fonts and reflections. They’re nice to look at, and user-friendly. Social networking, social media sites all use nice candy-coloured graphics .

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use social media and social networks to produce increases in brand awareness and product sales through digital viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses.

It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, corporate blogging, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.

Using Viral Marketing can be an incredibly powerful technique to increase exposure for your company. The term was coined by a Harvard Business School professor, Jeffrey Rayport, in an article for Fast Company called “The Virus of Marketing” in December 1996.

The very nature of the internet actually encourages viral marketing techniques - eyegrabbing graphics and animations, and animations will engage a user with your Viral.

And the fact that everything is connected on the web, one corporate blog post, one photo, video or article can spread like a virus. SO, if you create a campaign targeted to this specific end, your virus can become a very positive thing for your company!

Create something like a Flash Game to engage your user and encourage them to play again and again, then forward that game to their friends, and you’ve created your viral campaign, something that spreads through the veins of the communication paths of the internet.

Some Typical examples of Viral Marketing avenues and techniques:

+ Social Media channels, such as DIGG, Mixx, and Reddit
+ Social Network sites, such as mySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn
+ Viral Flash Games
+ Email Campaigns
+ Advertising Campaigns and games
+ Interactive Multimedia campaigns, using SMS, Telephony and Internet

These are all classic Web 2.0 techniques - every effective campaign will harness all the potential of the Web 2.0 world.

With last weeks’ rollout of Firefox 3, Mozilla has once again delivered a smooth, and integrated browsing experience.
New interface design is more user-friendly, the browser is more stable, and also appear to hog less memory, a common complaint of users of Firefox 2, particularly on Macs.

Interestingly, many of Firefox’s famous add-ons are still compatible with the new release. And many of those plugins are Web 2.0 plugins, harnessing social networking and social media tools.

Available immediately as a free download, the browser comes in approximately 50 languages and culminates a three-year effort on the part of thousands of developers, security experts, and testers from around the world. Reports from Mozilla highlight how popular the browser has become - the network at its peak served 17,000 downloads per minute, or 283 per second, and had sustained download rates in excess of 4,000 a minute, he said.

“We’re really proud of Firefox 3 and it just shows what a committed, energized global community can do when they work together,” said Mozilla chief executive John Lilly. (Apple Insider)

Flock started the Web 2.0 browser craze with many social networking tools built directly into the core of the browser.

A new release of Firefox 3 on tuesday, has spurred another download frenzy across the Web, with downloads at nearly a million already.

Now, 3rd party developers are leading the way on Firefox, with a rise in handy Web 2.0 style-addons being up uploaded onto the Firefox site

Some of my favourites:

Shareaholic

offers an easy way to submit the sites you’re browsing straight to Facebook, del.icio.us, Digg, Friendfeed, Google Reader, pownce, Stumbleupon and Twitter, as well as using the cool Bzzster ‘Email to a friend’ Web 2.0 App.

Clipmarks

gives you the tools to create your own online scrapbook from the websites that you browse.

PicLens

is one of my new favourites. Not strictly Web 2.0 (although it uses Web 2.0 APIs), this tool is very handy none-the-less!

Scribefire

is a great way to manage your blog.

SEO is a black art to many. There are many factors which influence your position in Google, Yahoo, and other Search Engines. Mastering these seven will ensure your website is successfully optimised.

The Seven Habits are:

1. Optimise landing pages and keywords

2. Increase Google PR

3. Find link partners

4. Submit articles

5. Find traffic sources

6. Use social media

7. Develop backlinks and get listed in directories

tbc…

Being an Australian, and with the majority of our media channels owned by American corporations, we’ve had our share of US Democratic Candidacy news here in Sydney, Australia. Politics aside, the online strategies of both democratic candidates has been an interesting thing to watch. Aggressively harnessing the power of online advertising, and Web 2.0 techniques such as social networking and social media channels, this US election has displayed a massive shift in media spend away from traditional media into the online arena.

According to Clickz, one of the web’s authority internet marketing sites, Obama’s online strategy has paid off. Taking corporate blogging into the political realm, Obama has regularly posted videos online throughout his campaign.

Indicating a significant difference in strategy (and deeper pockets), the Obama camp has spent considerably more on their online strategies. To say that online Viral Marketing is a force to be reckoned with is an understatement in 2008.

With Clinton spending 58% of her online spend - that’s $292,200 in 2007 and 2008 - on Google ads alone, and Obama spending $2.08 million just this year indicates a major difference in online strategies.

Has the online campaign paid off?

Well, some might say yes. Obama is now, after all, the Democratic Presidential candidate.

Obama’s online strategy towards generating donations has also been different to Clinton’s.

Eric Frenchman, chief Internet strategist at political consulting agency Connell Donatelli, agrees with the notion that savvy search efforts contributed to the success of both Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s primary season wins by helping them build lists of potential donors. Frenchman handles much of the McCain camp’s online advertising. Commenting on his Pardon My French blog last week, he wrote, “We get $3 - $4 in donations for every $1 we spend online.”

Viral marketing is perhaps the most powerful global marketing tool today - a veritable Web 2.0 weapon…

A bold statement, and seemingly over-simplistic, yet in this day and age is it unrealistic?

Take this example.

One post on a blog in Sydney, Australia can spark a reaction which spreads to hundreds of websites all over Asia within hours. That’s all of China and India already - almost 2.5 billion people.

That blog post can in turn, be replicated, with no more than a swift CTRL-C CTRL-V flip of the keys, to thousands more. And within 24 hours, something - be it a photo, or a statement, or a quote - can be in front of the eyes of hundreds of millions of users.

Several hours later, as Europe awakes, and comes online, that post has spread to a handful of European sites. Hours later, bloggers in Germany, France, and Italy have harvested and acknowledged that information, and on, and on, across the Atlantic, to another billion or so people…

Sometime in 2005, we quietly passed a major milestone - the billionth web user went online. Statistically, that person would likely be a 24-year old woman in Shanghai. It took 35 years for the first 1,000,000,000 users to come online. The second billion will likely be somewhere between now and 2015, all rational arguments considered.

Morgan Stanley estimates that 36% of web users are in Asia (surprisingly China has nearly five times as many users as India). 24% of users are in Europe and 23% are in North America (in 1995, North America had 66% of users).

So, put simply, when a blog post is picked up in the Viral Marketing maelstrom of the web, the ripples move outwards, and spread their influence. This is the new internet. This is Web 2.0: user-generated and user-moderated content.

The proverbial butterfly flaps its wings, as James Gleick might say…

As one of the first Fortune 500 companies to set up a home in the blogosphere over two years ago, Southwest Airlines is making some major upgrades to its blog, Nuts About Southwest.

Nuts About Southwest was originally launched as a means of giving Customers a look inside the culture and operations of Southwest Airlines and allowing them to interact and build personal relationships with the airline’s employees. Over the last two years, the blog’s function has evolved to also serve as a virtual focus group, assisting the Company through crisis and new product launches.

Southwest Vice President of Public Relations and Community Affairs, Linda Rutherford, said “From the debate over assigned seating to the timeframe in which we release our flight schedules, the passionate comments and opinions shared on our blog have unquestionably influenced several business decisions.”

Nuts About Southwest features more than 30 Employee bloggers that represent a mix of Frontline and behind-the-scenes Employees including Mechanics, Customer Service Agents, Schedule Planners, Executives, Marketing Representatives, Flight Attendants, Pilots, and more.

The blog’s readership continues to grow steadily month-over-month, and has more than doubled year-over-year since its launch in Apr-06. The airline estimates that it has reached more than 500,000 customers through Nuts About Southwest alone, and they expect that number to exceed one million in 2008.

Web 2.0 is becoming more and more evident in websites designed in Sydney Australia. Though not as fast to harness the Web 2.0 phenomenon as their American Silicon Valley counterparts, Australian agencies are warming to the idea.

Web 2.0 is a wave that has washed across the Pacific onto Australia’s shores.

From corporate blogging to social networking and social media techniques, Web 2.0 means that users are more empowered, and have more control over their web experiences. The end result of this is that more and more users are contributing to the the future of the web.

Where those web sers come from - be it Sydney Australia, Silicon Valley, London, Tokyo, Barcelona, New York or Bangalore - begins to define more and more what users are actually reading.