New Tech for a New Year

by Carl Weiss

If you thought that 2013 was a rough ride technology wise, wait until you see what's in store for 2014.  If this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was any indication,when it comes to new tech expect change to be the watchword.  Everything from heads up displays to computers that you wear on your head are on the rise (and I don't just mean from Google).  In fact wearables of all kind were prominently displayed at the show.  Below are a few examples.

The Kiwi Move is one example of a hot new internet-enabled wearable that can be used to track your daily physical activities.Unlike other devices, the Kiwi Move can be worn in a number of locations, including the arm, wrist, ankle, chest or collar.  Not only does the device help count both steps and calories, but it is also designed to interact with the wearer's smartphone.  This allows users to leave voice notes, run apps and more. (Check out today's Working the web to Win radio show to hear a live interview with Kiwi's CMO, Ashley Beattie.)

“The Kiwi Move is our vision for the future of wearable tech, as we look to make single-function devices a thing of the past” said Ali Nawab, Kiwi’s Chief Executive Officer. “We believe that wearable tech products should be multi-functional – “One Kiwi Move, Many Apps.”

What are You Wearing?


While Google Glass got most of the glory when it came to wearables in 2013, everything from smartwatches to Virtual Reality headsets such as occulus Rift and GameFace are rapidly gaining in popularity.  Speaking of game changing technology, 2013 also saw the rise of 3D printing.  2014 will not only see prices for 3D printers continue to fall, but it also introduces a new technology that would seem to be the perfect add-on: 3D Scanning.

SoftKinetic announced at this year's CES that it was partnering with Makerbot to release 3D scanning technology that will allow Makerbot printer owners to scan and print objects.  At the show SoftKinetic's CMO demonstrated the new technology by scanning someone's face, sending the data to the cloud and then using the data to print the face in 3D in a matter of minutes.


Of course, cool new gizmos are not the only sea changes we can expect to see in the coming year. 

Internet Security will become an even bigger problem than it was in 2013. Last year saw a large number of hacker attacks from organized crime, terrorist groups and nations such as the Chinese and Iranians.  The holiday season revealed two large security breaches at major retailers, which is just a taste of things to come. Since hacker tools are available to anyone and everyone and since the prosecution of these crimes is so incredibly lax, we will see a greater number of these events occur in the coming year. 

The problem has become so prevalent that many banks that offer online services are now asking their customers to accept personal responsibility for losses if the bank gets hacked and your money is stolen. That’s right, many banks are now saying you are responsible for your losses if they are hacked! 

Who's Watching the Watchers?

Speaking of security, the NSA is back in the news again, this time for collecting 194 million text messages a day in 2011. Recent leaks from Richard Snowden printed in The Guardian, revealed that project code named “Dishfire” was setup to collect “pretty much everything it can”. This has become quite a liability for the current President who ran on a platform that promised to stop to such behavior. If you think any policy by this administration will curb NSA hacking and domestic spying, you should think again.

Telepresence will continue to grow mainly because fuel costs are high and the cost of flying continues to rise. This form of meeting has made real inroads on face-to-face gatherings. (Our web TV show is a perfect example of this phenomenon.) SAAS products (aka Software As A Service, not to be confused with the NSA) save so much time and money that businesses large and small have been increasingly using them to save time and money.  (I don't know about you but anything that keeps me from spending a 4-hour layover in Atlanta is all right by me.)

Of course if you are looking for the ultimate techno time savers, personal robots are are definitely on The coming of the Robots.”  With $20,000 office automatons like Baxter available, many companies are taking advantage of the availability of robot employees. (Just don't expect it to fetch you a cup of coffee.)  This widespread fascination with robots has led many large companies like Honda, Google and Sony to produce robots that will soon be filling consumer desires to own a droid of their own. This year’s DARPA competition was like a robotic Olympics game that you can check out on their site. the rise.  They are also becoming increasingly more sophisticated. 

So if you are still trying to get a handle on how to use your tablet and smartphone, get ready for new technologies that will once more test your ability to adapt to an ever more wired world.  Now if I can only find a droid that can write these darned blogs, that would be a real time saver.

When Carl Weiss isn't writing blogs he is president of W Squared Media Group, a digital marketing agency based in Jacksonville, Florida.  He is also co-host of the radio show Working the Web to Win which airs live at 4 pm eastern every Tuesday.

Using Humor as a Weapon of Mass Distraction

by Carl Weiss


Being an Internet authority means speaking in front of groups of business people from time to time.  Whether the topic du jour is related to search engine marketing, blogging for business, social networking or the ins and outs of pay-per-click matters not.  What is a certainty is that as soon as the presentation is finished I will find myself buttonholed by someone who wants to know the secret of success online.  It’s as if my dissertation was meant to be an appetizer and the real meat and potatoes of online marketing could only be revealed to those bold enough to corner me after the fact.  “Okay, you got me.  If you really want to generate a million clicks, this is what you have to do...” As much as I wish there were three-magic-beans that could magically transform a stale web presence into a rock star, for the most part there is no such animal.  (As I like to point out to a number of people, I am a technician, not a magician.)

That being said, the closest I have come to pulling a rabbit out of my hat during my presentation revolves
around a real rags to online riches story involving a product that I would say was least likely to succeed: The Orabrush.  Invented by a tinkerer by the name of Dr. Bob Wagstaff, the Orabrush is not a toothbrush.  It’s the world’s first tongue brush.  After spending tens of thousands of dollars to invent, manufacture and promote the Orabrush, all that Doctor Bob had to show for his efforts was a $40,000 hole in his pocket and about a hundred orders.  (At $3 per unit, you do the math.)

With his business circling the drain and time running out he was desperate to find a way, any way, to turn the tide and produce some sales.  This is where Jeffrey Harmon, a local college student entered the picture.  After listening to Bob wax poetic about the virtues of the Orabrush coupled with the fact that he had little left to spend on additional marketing, Jeff came back with what we in the marketing business refer to as a Hail Mary.

“Why not create and post a funny video on YouTube,” Jeff said.

“How much will that set me back?” Dr. Bob asked.

“Five hundred bucks.”

While I wasn’t there to witness the conversation, from experience I can tell you the thought process going round and round in Dr. Bob’s head...”Let’s see, I’m down forty grand and the Indians are circling the wagon.  What to do?  What to do?”

As you guessed, any shot is better than no shot at all, so Bob gave Jeff the green light and they created the first Orabrush promo on YouTube. (Below is an excerpt from their website to tell you the rest.)

Why read when you can watch our TV Show?

Shot in a makeshift studio in the neighborhood pool hall (listen closely and you can hear the balls cracking in the background), the video went viral, rocketing to 16 million views. After the explosive reaction to their first video, Harmon took on the role as Chief Marketing Officer and began creating regular webisodes, introducing new characters like Morgan, the dirty tongue. Harmon then used YouTube video ads to reach more people and grow their fan base. The “Cure Bad Breath” videos built a loyal following, and their YouTube channel grew to nearly 40 million views.

After two years, Orabrush had sold more than a million tongue cleaners to people in 40+ countries. The Orabrush brand became so popular that local pharmacy managers began contacting Orabrush directly, citing requests from customers who had heard about the brand online. This fall, Walmart began carrying the Orabrush tongue cleaners in its 3,500+ stores across the United States. And this week, CVS/pharmacy has added the Orabrush tongue cleaner to more than 7,000 stores across the country. That’s a lot of tongue cleaners!

It is indeed, Bob.  In fact the OraBrush has done so well that it became the third most viewed channel on YouTube, after Apple Computer and Old Spice.  It appears that tongues weren’t the only things cleaning up with Orabrush.  So was the company.

Of course, Cinderella stories and one trick wonders are as rare as catching lightning in a bottle, am I right?  While using humor to sell can work for the big guys, such as Aflac and their Duck or the Geico Gecko, it is next to impossible for a small business person to use these tactics to break out of the herd.  Or, is it?  To that I have three words of advice: Dollar Shave Club.

A real David and Goliath story, it revolves around a tiny Santa Monica company with five employees that wanted to get into the razor business.  Their opponents, none other than Gilette, owned by the $13 billion behemoth Proctor and Gamble, not to mention Schick and Bic.  Between the three they control nearly 80% of the market.  Unlike Dr. Bob at Orabrush, the president of Dollar Shave Club, Michael Dubin, did not invent a revolutionary shaver.  No, his website simply offers to ship to the consumer their choice of twin blade, four blade or six blade razors every month.  In fact with the exception of their six-blade razor which they claim “Comes from the future and lives in outer space,” their product line offers no flashy bells or whistles with any of its products.  So what made them think they could compete with the Fortune 500?

Have you seen the Dollar Shave Club video?

As much a comedy routine as an advertisement, the Dollar Shave Club’s YouTube video has garnered nearly 13 million hits.  While the company won’t say how many people have signed up for the club, an authoritative source told me that within the first few weeks the site had generated more than twelve thousand members.  That’s after the video had created only a couple million hits.  So who knows how high the number is by now.

The video, which only runs about a minute and a half, shows the president of the company riding a forklift, playing tennis (badly) and dancing with a guy in a bear costume, among other antics.  Far from being afraid of going too far, the titling above their video reads, “Our Blades Are F***ing Great!”  Well, I don’t know about that, but their results were certainly great.

So now you can see that with a little imagination, even major markets can be cracked by the use of humorous video campaigns.  So why aren’t more companies taking a whack at it by creating outrageous videos in order to sell their products?  It can’t be the cost.  Remember the Orabrush got into the game for a paltry $500.  In fact, the beauty of YouTube is that if you generate enough views, not only doesn’t it cost anything to air your webisodes, but Google will actually pay you.  (For the past few years YouTube has had a Channel Partner program that pays their top producers based upon the amount of traffic generated.)

The trick is to do like Orabrush and keep banging away at it.  Throw a few dollars in the hat and sponsor your videos.  Embed them in your blogs and social posts.  If you have a pet, use them as talent.  (Have you seen how many views funny cat and dog videos generate?)  Just get into the game and tap into the world’s most powerful superstation.  (Did you know that YouTube generates 4 billion video views per day or that they stream more video content in a year than all three major networks have streamed in 60 years?)

All I can say is that if you own a business and aren’t tapping into this free marketing resource than you are F***ing Crazy.  Now let me see, where did I leave that razor?

Carl Weiss is president of W Squared Media Group, a cutting edge online marketing company in Jacksonvlle, Florida.  You can also see him on YouTube and listen to his radio show on Blog Talk Radio.

Putting Your Best Bot Forward

By Carl Weiss

You may have missed this item in the news recently, but on December 20 sixteen teams duked it out at the DARPA Robotics Challenge for a chance to win $2 million.  Sporting monikers like RoboSimian, Valkerie and Atlas, these aren’t your daddy’s droids.  These robots walked like a human and were required to perform a number of tasks such as driving a vehicle, climbing a ladder, open doors and turning valves.  While not able to replace their human counterparts as of yet, the competition was clearly designed to raise the bar in order to eventually create a rescue robot that could be sent into harm’s way in situations where humans fear to tread.  (Imagine how useful these bots could have been in Fukushima during the tsunami and reactor disaster.)

Photo Credit
http://www.theroboticschallenge.org/

Not that you’d mistake these bots for your typical rescue worker.  Looking more like a Tinkertoy than the Terminator, Schaft the winner of the competition (recently acquired by Google), resembles a boom box sprouting arms and legs.  Standing 4 feet 8 inches tall and weighing in at 209 pounds, it is unlikely to win any beauty contests.  However, what it lacks in looks it more than makes up for in utility, if its performance at the DARPA competition is any indication. 

To begin with, all the robotic competitors were required to be able to drive a rescue vehicle and navigate their way around a series of objects.  Just as with most emergency situations that could require the services of a rescue robot, you can’t always assume that the location will be pristine.  Whether induced by tornado, hurricane, tsunami, earth tremor or act of war, being able to negotiate a rubble-filled roadway is job number one for any would be rescuer.   When disaster strikes what is required is a robot that can think on its feet.

Photo Credit http://www.theroboticschallenge.org/

While many people are familiar with bomb disposal bots being used in Iran and Afghanistan, most of these are operated remotely, necessitating that a human be at the controls.  While this kind of operational environment works in ordinance disposal, in the kinds of environments that rescue robots would be sent to work, the need for autonomous operation is imperative. 

In the first place, ordinance disposal droids are typically tracked and are usually limited to one articulated limb.  Rescue robots on the other hand are fully articulated and are required to perform tasks that would be difficult to accomplish in a telepresence-only mode.  Secondly, in high radiation areas, relying on remote controlled robots could prove difficult, since radio interference would be almost a certainty.

Photo Credit http://www.theroboticschallenge.org/

To make the competition more like a real disaster area, DARPA broke the playing field into 8 Tasks: Driving a Vehicle, Handling Rough Terrain, Climbing a Ladder, Clearing Debris, Opening Doors, Cutting Through a Wall, Opening a Valve & Using a Hose.  I know several humans that would have had a tough time accomplishing all of these tasks.  For semi-autonomous robots, the task was daunting, which is what separated the bots from the boys in the recent competition in Miami. 

Of the sixteen teams entered into December’s competition, only seven scored in the double digits. Several competitors such as NASA’s Valkerie failed to score even a single point, which shows how difficult the tasks were to accomplish.  Kind of like an Olympics for robots, the winners will advance onto the finals which are going to be held in the next 12-18 months.  Even those who did not make the cut will be able to learn from their mistakes as well as from more successful competitors. 

• Team SCHAFT (SCHAFT Inc.): 27 points
• Team IHMC Robotics (Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition): 20 points
• Team Tartan Rescue (Carnegie Mellon University and National Robotics Engineering Center): 18 points
• Team MIT (MIT): 16 points
• Team RoboSimian (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory): 14 points
• Team TRACLabs (TRACLabs, Inc.): 11 points
• Team WRECS (Worcester Polytechnic Institute): 11 points

For those who couldn’t make the trip to Miami to see the competition live, fear not, because you can find the replay on YouTube. While the video shows the robots going through their paces, don’t expect to see the kind of performance that we have all come to know and love in Star Wars.  While some of the robots were able to score points by performing one or more of their assigned tasks, they did them with all the rapidity of a Galapagos tortoise.  That doesn’t mean that rescue robots are something only likely to save someone on the big screen.  What it means is that like aerial drones and autonomous vehicles, while these automatons are not yet ready for prime time, within several years these robots could be coming to a disaster area near you.  Until then it’s up to the ingenuity and persistence of robotics engineers to keep putting their best bot forward. 

Carl Weiss is co-host of the weekly radio show Working the Web to Win which is broadcast every Tuesday at 4 pm Eastern.  You can also see the show on YouTube.

Byting the Hand that Feeds Them

Who is watching you online ?  A better question is, “Who isn't watching you?”  You see it on the newsfeeds every day. NSA has been grabbing tons of consumer information without any legal authority. Every week it seems you hear about security breaches at large corporations like Target and other major department stores.  Banks are being held up at the point and click of a mouse for millions of dollars, yet most consumers are blissfully unaware.  Not only that but they line up to give up their privacy to free email services, social networks and smart phone providers.  Like it or not, software applications have used artificial intelligence algorithms since the late 90's. Word processors infer the meaning of everything you type. Many smartphones do the same. 

What does all this mean to your privacy? 

Let's start by looking at how Google tracks you. The other day I was about to send an email via Gmail 

English: Gmail logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

and I mentioned in the body of the letter that I had attached a document. I forgot to attach the document and pressed send. Imme diately Gmail paused to ask me if I meant to attach a file. Gmail was reading what I had written!! If you use Chrome to surf the web you will also notice that the ads on Gmail also correspond to items you have recently viewed online.  What it boils down to is that Gmail and Chrome are scanning everything you write and then passing this information onto to Google before you even press send.

Google tracking is not limited to your “free” Gmail account and browser. Virtually every service Google offers tracks your movements and keystrokes.  Last July, when there was a huge flap about Google privacy policy changes.  It was about this time that a small software company came out with a plug-in for Google Chrome that would sound  an alarm every time Chrome sent tracking information back to Google. This program created quite a stir because once you loaded it the alarm would go off constantly because Google was tracking almost every keystroke.

Currently Google is being sued by a number of foreign countries for invasion of privacy. However, you don't have to frequent foreign shores to hear about how Google is abusing its power.  Even Google’s competitors have jumped on the anti-privacy band wagon. Microsoft started an anti-Google campaign last Christmas touting, "Don’t Get Scroogled." They even managed to cash in on this phenomenon by selling Scroogled T-shirts and coffee cups.  Microsoft used some of these profits to purchase TV ads nationwide that publicly took potshots at Google’s privacy policies. 

This did not deter Google in the least.  Recently Google removed a user's capability to control their privacy setting on android devices running Android 4.42. I won’t bore you with the list of apps that Google uses to track you. Suffice it to say that virtually all of them track you in some way.

Bear in mind that when it comes to data mining it’s not just Google who’s doing it on a land office basis. Yahoo, Bing (owned by Microsoft) and most search engines track you as well. Also any free services you acquire from the internet come complete with spyware of one form or another. These algorithms track how often you use their apps, they can load adware on your devices, or even hound you to buy other apps and services.   They can also be programmed to record your geographic location and what other functions you may be using. This is especially true of smart phone and tablet apps. You should read the disclaimers before you install any free app. Most will blatantly inform you that they have access to your contact data base, ip address, system access and more. That means that the app can control vital functions of your smart device!

It's all a game until someone gets hurt.

Even gaming consoles have been coopted into the data mining arena.  Recently Microsoft released its

Image via CrunchBase

 new XBOX One game console.  Guess what? It requires you to login to Microsoft before you can play any games! Earlier I alluded to Microsoft's Scroogled marketing campaign against Google.  But the reality is that Microsoft has been spying on you for even longer than Google. Think about it. All Microsoft applications call home every time you boot up.  Every version of the Windows operating system calls home every day to check for updates and to make sure all your Microsoft software is bought and paid for! They also use their crash recovery monitor to send system information back that tracks the programs that are running at the time of the crash.

Let's not forget the fact that Social Media sites track your conversation, your contacts and your itinerary in realtime. What you may also be unaware of is the fact that every social network you subscribe to literally owns the information you key into their database. Every post, URL, picture, podcast and video that you upload belongs to them lock, stock and barrel. Their systems scan every keystroke and match it with ads that run on their system. They are scrutinizing every personal and private entry you make. On top of that, your employers and all your "friends" can see your posts! This can unfortunately include criminals disguised as beautiful blonds and little old ladies who just want to be friends.  

Be very careful what you post on any social network. Do not disclose your age, personal address, when

Google Chrome OS on VMWare (Photo credit: berrytokyo)

 you are on vacation, when you’re not home, where you bank, or any kind of private or financial information. Cyber criminals are monitoring social networks more than ever. So much so that the FBI has raised the threat level for social networks to their highest level.  Add to this the ongoing threats from hackers using widely available free hacking tools, deceptive email tactics and phishing strategies and you have an internet onslaught that’s wilder than the wild, wild west.

To make things even worse our own government is spying on us. The NSA has been busilygathering hundreds of terabytes of data from search engines, all social media sites, Microsoft, Apple Yahoo, Bing, cell phone companies and thousands of other online entities. This has gotten so out of hand that the congressional oversight committee that monitors the NSA recently stated that they had gone too far in gathering data and want them to stop gathering information without a specified threat.

Surveillance camera (Photo credits: www.mysecuritysign.com)

In addition, it not just the internet that is eroding your privacy, its anything connected to internet.  Smart devices are popping up like weeds. Everything from internet enabled appliances to cars are fair game.  Even personal property is not beyond reach.  Case in point: The Boston Bomber was caught because people were taking pictures of the racers coming to the finish line. Internet security camera s are all the rage with home and business owners. Often times one or more of these cameras are pointed outside covering the entrance to their properties. The next time you’re at Wal-Mart, look up before you enter and smile you’re on Wal-Mart Candid Camera.  And just to make it really interesting, people are now starting to wear smart eye wear (such as Google Glass) to record their surroundings. There are smart watches and tiny spy cameras everywhere. Some large retailers have been caught tracking their patrons store movements via the customers smart phone IP addresses and if you have an app for that store running, more than likely you will receive a text, email or popup suggesting you check out their latest special on whatever they are trying to push on you, the unaware consumer.

How to minimize your loss of privacy when using the internet. 

·         Don’t use Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari as your browser. Choose a more secure alternative such as; SRware http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php or

·         Comodo http://www.comodo.com/home/browsers-toolbars/browser.php 

·         Don’t Use Google, Yahoo or Bing, (and others) as your search engine of choice if you want to avoid being spied on. Best alternatives; Duck Duck Go https://duckduckgo.com/ Start page https://www.startpage.com/ Ixquick https://ixquick.com/  and Blekko http://blekko.com/

·         There are even plug-in apps such as Abine’s DoNotTrackMe https://www.abine.com/. It works with Chrome and Firefox and does a decent job of minimizing ad tracking software. This can block web tracking, cookies and email tracking. Another woth mentioning is Web of Trust www.mywot.com/‎. This plug-in does not stop track of any kind but it does warn you about URL’s that have bad reputations so that you will avoid them.

·         You'll also need to avoid using the top five social networks if you want to retain your privacy.  (Facebook, YouTube, Google Plus, Twitter and LinkedIn) Here is a list of social networks that provide much greater privacy. Everyme,  23Snaps, Notabli, Nextdoor, Yammer, Couple, Path, Family Wall, Edmodo, and Photocircle.

·         Tablets, Smart phones and other smart devices – Make sure you are running an antivirus/malware application on your smart device. Make sure its on all the time. Only use apps that have been around for a while. They should have lots of downloads and say they do not use adware. Also buy the apps you use unless you are just trying it out.

·         Don’t use free email – A paid email service like Hushmail can provide no-ad private email for very little money. If you must use it, try using a masking application like DoNotTrackMe or use encryption software like the kind provided by TrendMicro or Voltage.

The bottom line is that you have two choices when it comes to online privacy: Switch your browsing, networking and emailing to services that ensure your privacy, or keep working with the services that keep byting the hand that feeds them.  

If you liked this article, share it with your friends and co-workers. If you have a comment related to this article, enter it in the section below. I always enjoy researching and writing my social media predictions for the coming year. I hope this one was informative and enjoyable for you. May the coming year be enlightening and profitable for you and your family. 

Until next time, that's my opinion, I look forward to hearing yours. Happy New Year to you and yours!

Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and social media director for WSquared Media Group based in Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He is also the co-host of Blog Talk Radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl Weiss make Working the Web to Win simple for every business. Hector is a syndicated writer for Ezine Online and is an active Blogger, (including ghost writing) and he is a published author of two books, 60 Seconds to success (on sale at Amazon and B&N) and Internet Marketing for the 21st Century which you can get free by clicking on the link at WSquaredMediaGroup.com. 

The Best of the Best in 2013

By Carl Weiss

With Christmas only a day away, that means that New Year’s Eve can’t be far behind.  So as a little something extra for your Christmas stocking I thought a little retrospective on some of the topics we covered this year would be in order. 

Our Top 10 List

As far as our listeners were concerned, cybercrime was a hot topic.  In 2013 we produced a number of episodes on the many faces of cybercrime, including Bringing Down the Bitcoin Bandits and Chinese Hack Attack, both of which explored the ramifications of the dark side of the internet such as multimillion dollar black market websites and state sponsored hacking.  If you have been keeping a weather eye on the newsfeeds lately then you know that everyone from major retailers (Target) to banking institutions have been targeted by hackers recently.  Since these crimes are so hard to prosecute this only leads hackers into more brazen acts of online piracy that is only going to escalate in 2014.

Of course, our online privacy isn’t only being compromised by the bad guys it is also getting eroded

Google Appliance as shown at RSA Expo 2008 in San Francisco. It was only a computer case with no parts inside.-Daniel A (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 from every corner of the web.  Google has been the subject of a number of international lawsuits from governments who say that the world’s most powerful search engine is taking liberties with the way it collects and disseminates information gleaned from people surfing the web.  The NSA has also been accused of overstepping its rights in the way that it collects data from the web as well as cellphone providers.  If anything these accusations are not going to go away any time soon and it won’t be long before a number of other online providers are pulled into the fray. (For more details, check out Is Privacy a Thing of the Past in the Cyber Age?)

Speaking of Google, 2013 saw the unleashing of The Humdinger Called Hummingbird, the most extensive algorithm update in the past 12 years.  Unlike most of the updates commissioned in the past which were targeted toward people trying to game the system, Hummingbird represents a sea change in the way that Google ranks sites.  Gone are the “Set it and forget it days,” when website owners could commission a new site every three years and expect it to climb onto page one with little effort.  Nowadays Google demands the full multimedia treatment, where things like blogging, social networking and even video content plays a large part in who gets onto page one.  They have also made Google+ a nexus where everything from Google Maps and reviews to Google Local has been rounded up and placed under one roof. 

That doesn’t mean that Google is the only entity who has been making major changes.  Facebook has also been busy tweaking the way their social network does business by adding video ads to the mix.  They have also made running a Facebook contest not only easier but cheaper.  In fact, they are giving them away at present.  (If you want to learn how go to How to Run a Facebook Contest for Free.) 

Other social nets including LinkedIn and Twitter mad our top ten list this year with Leveraging LinkedIn and Trick or Tweet covering many of the latest features added to these networks. 

Lights, Cameras Viral Video

YouTube also was wildly popular with listeners this year.  Both our Send in the Clones and Candid Camera for Everyone episodes covered the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the world’s largest superstation.  With 4 billion videos streamed per day in 2013, YouTube broadcasts more televised content than all the other stations on the planet rolled into one. 

2013 also saw the introduction of a number of new technologies, that we covered in Next Tech, including Google Glass, smartwatches such as Pebble and Samsung, and the rise of the 3-D printer.  (Did you know that they are planning on sending a 3-D printer to the International Space Station?)  As wearable technology becomes ever more prevalent it won’t be long before we are all forced to compete with everything from enhanced humans (A Borg in Every Boardroom)  to office automatons (Birth of the Bionic Man).   In January 2014 we have already scheduled an episode called Putting Your Best Bot Forward that will introduce you to the latest in bipedal robots that recently competed for a $2 million prize sponsored by DARPA.

So if you think that 2013 complicated your life by introducing a number of “out there” technologies, all I can say is fasten your seat belts because 2014 will test your sense of the incredible in more ways than you can imagine.

Carl Weiss has helps clients deal with technology on a daily basis.  He is president of W Squared Media Group, a digital marketing agency based in Jacksonville, Florida.  He also owns and operates Jacksonville Video Production, a digital video production company. 

Internet Predictions for 2014

by Carl Weiss

If you think the Internet in 2013 was a roller coaster ride, wait until you see what shapes up in 2014. While Google will still dominate search, that doesn't mean that the also-rans aren't going to try to chip away at their market share.  One of the biggest upheavals in 2013 by Google was the unveiling of Hummingbird, the single biggest algorithm change since it's inception.  Many website owners who found their Google ranking either reduced or lost in Cyberspace after the introduction of Hummingbird may switch allegiances to Yahoo and/or Bing if they feel they are being treated better by the competition.  Several other moves by Google have also rankled many, such as their decision to bundle Local into Google+.  This not only forces anyone who wants to use Google Local or Google Maps for marketing purposes to log into G+ every time they want to access either, but it forces their customers to log in as well if they want to post a review.  Add to that the fact that has Google not only poisoned the organic ranking well, they also spiked pay-per-click by making it mandatory for new Adwords clients to keep their account on auto-pay.  This means that once your ppc funds run out, Google will hit your credit card whether you like it or not.  Not nice Google!

When it comes to the big boys playing rough, Google isn't alone.  Other online behemoths such as Facebook have also shown a propensity to do whatever they can to get their hands on your wallet.  As a number of Facebook users have discovered when they access their news feed, video ads start playing automatically when they scroll.

A recent blog on wired.com states that, "In its news release, Facebook frames the video ads as a way to help “brands tell stories on Facebook to ensure the best experience for people. In prior earnings calls with Wall Street analysts, Facebook was more forthcoming about the profit potential behind these videos.  Facebook shareholders, including staffers and executives with stock options, have their own reasons to like this product. Advertisers are expected to pay a significant premium for video ads, lifting Facebook’s financial performance and buoying its stock, which was trading below its initial offering price until this past fall. Today, the stock is trading up roughly 90 cents to around $54.70, a 44 percent premium over the initial offering price."

Not nice Facebook! 

Do Nice Guys Always Finish Last

A number of  other big players stumbled in 2013, such as Microsoft with Windows 8.  Many users of their 8.1 operating system have reported problems accessing SkyDrive cloud storage.  Says PC World, The problems for the affected users began after installing Windows 8.1, the update to Windows 8 that started shipping in mid-October. The complaints include nagging and persistent error messages, slow performance, difficulty uploading files, lost and corruptedfolders and documents, and sync troubles, including duplicate files and processes caught in a loop. 

While Microsoft said that "The company is aware of a small number of people discussing these issues on forums," this is hardly a way to bolster the acceptance of Windows 8, which has not been well loved by the masses.  Could this open the door to a competing PC operating system?  Stay tuned.

One of the biggest complaints that consumers in the US have deals with the high cost of cable TV.  Many households pay $150 or more per month to watch the Boob Tube.  With a limited number of choices for cable and satellite TV, the operators of these services have felt that they could charge whatever the market would bear.  I hate to be a bearer of bad news to the cable moguls, but their hegemony could soon be a thing of the past.  Already, several online providers of on-demand movies and TV series are alive and kicking, including Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, just to name a few.  With fees as low as $8 per month, many consumers have already cut the cable and gone online.  In 2013 alone, the number of cable subscribers in the US fell by nearly 1 million.  Over the same period Netflix saw the number of subscribers jump by nearly 4 million.  As other entrepreneurs ink deals with movie and TV production companies, how long will it be before the cable and satellite TV moguls are forced to either compete or perish?  I predict that 2014 will see a significant shift in viewer loyalty as more online options become available to the masses.  How serious is the threat?  Serious enough for Time Warner Chairman Jeff Bewkes to admit in a Forbes interview that his industry needs to, "Offer online video now or someone else will!"

We're Not in Kansas Any More, Toto!

When it comes to the King Kong of online complaints, the blue ribbon would have to go to the government's healthcare.gov website.  If it wasn't enough that the $650 million website keeps crashing the security of the site is also suspect.  I think the blog by a reporter with fiscaltimes.com sums it up best:

Although I spent several hours "talking" my application to a HealthCare.gov representative on a toll-free hotline – divulging my entire family's Social Security numbers and dates of birth – when I called three weeks ago, they said they had no record of my application and asked me to send a photocopy of my driver's license to a government processing center in London, Kentucky.

When I called back last week, I spent another half hour on the phone with HealthCare.gov. After the first representative placed me on hold and eventually hung up, I called back and asked for the supervisor.

"Is my application file in your system?" I asked.

"We don't have any answers," the supervisor replied. "It takes two weeks to do identity proofing. You'll get a reply by mail or a pre-recorded phone message."

When you realize that the federal government has stated that unless at least 7 million consumers sign up for the service that it will not be viable and that signing up for the program is been all but impossible, I predict that in 2014 the feds will be forced to either go back to the drawing board or drop the program in its entirety.

Why Gamble with Your Financial Freedom?

The feds weren't the only government entity to experience technical difficulties in launching a new online service.  The State of New Jersey has also been having problems getting its recently legalized online casino gambling service up and running.  After launching the new service, with the proviso that only New Jersey residents be allowed to play online for cash, the system immediately experienced a number of glitches that resulted in about 75 percent of people who tried to play online being rejected.

Steve Callender, the general manager at the Tropicana Atlantic City, commented, “I would say a quarter are getting on.  We don’t have a situation where people who are outside the state are getting on.”  http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/online_gambling_new_jersey_technical_issue_geolocation.html

At least part of the problem revolves around the fact that a number of major banks, including AMEX and PayPal have refused to fund gaming transactions.  While the 6 casinos that have been authorized to offer online wagering say that are trying to fix these problems, they all admitted that the fix will take months to resolve.  Personally I think this once more provides proof positive that business and bureaucracy do not mix.

Other issues to keep a weather eye on in the coming year includes the prevalence and severity of cyber attacks taking place on individuals, corporations and governments.  2013 saw a number of landmark cases by the FBI, including the shutting down of the drug superstore Silk Road, whose 29 year old webmaster was busted in Seattle after making millions online.  The bad news is that no sooner had this site gone dark when several other web entrepreneurs stepped in to fill the void.  (For more on this story, see my blog Iron Fist in a Silk Glove.)  

Last year saw the Chinese military hacking into all kinds of government and corporate entities.  At one point the hacking became prevalent that if you were a government agency that wasn't being attacked then the rumor was that "You weren't important enough."  While government cyberspying is anything but new, it was the land office scale of the Chinese hacking that rankled many in Washington.  So blatant was the attack that it wasn't long before the physical location of the attackers was learned.

In a quote from the LA Times, “Mandiant Corp., a U.S. computer security firm based in Alexandria, Va., said in a report last month that it had traced an epidemic of attacks on dozens of U.S. and Canadian companies to an office building in Shanghai occupied by an espionage unit of the People's Liberation Army.”

Before the year was out, another international player in the government hackathon emerged: Iran.  That's right, the same government that we negotiated a nuclear non-proliferation treaty with has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.  In a quote from freebeacon.com

"An Arab hacking group with ties to the Iranian government claims to have seized classified information from servers belonging to the Israeli and Saudi governments, as well as the Saudi Bin Laden Group, a construction conglomerate run by the family of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. The hackers released a statement in Arabic that took aim at both the Israelis and Saudis, two nations that have grown closer in recent weeks over their opposition to the West’s recently signed nuclear accord with Tehran."

While many Americans first reaction might be one of, "How does this tit-for-tat cyber attack by Iran on Israel affect US national security?"  You have to be aware that these same hackers may also have been actively caught trying to compromise the security of some of this country's biggest financial institutions.

In a quote from a blog on haaretz.comhttp://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.564492 - "Over the last year, the U.S. has accused Iran of cyber attacks against its banks, while Saudi Arabia has placed the blame on Iranian hackers for a serious cyber assault on computers of its national oil company, Aramco."  

So the issue is hardly put paid and I predict that international hacking in 2014 could bring this country to the brink of war should any key link in the national infrastructure become breached.    Far from discouraging other countries from committing acts of cyberwarfare, the US government's lackadaisical attitude toward cybercrime and cyberattacks in general encourages hostile and even friendly governments into jumping on the hacking bandwagon.  Sooner or later, this policy will create a crisis where either the financial institutions, power infrastructure or communications backbone of this country  will become critically compromised, resulting in the kind of public outrage that hasn't been felt since Pearl Harbor.  

Carl Weiss is president of W Squared Media Group a digital marketing agency in Jacksonville, Florida.  He is also co-host of Working the Web to Win on BlogTalkRadio.com and owner of Jacksonville Video Production.