Hotels.com and Columbus Internet launch first in-Facebook affiliate programme through ‘Hotels WithMe’ in the UK, Italy, France, Sweden and Germany. The ‘Hotels WithMe’ app enables friends, families and colleagues to get together to collect…
Hotels.com and Columbus Internet launch first in-Facebook affiliate programme through ‘Hotels WithMe’ in the UK, Italy, France, Sweden and Germany. The ‘Hotels WithMe’ app enables friends, families and colleagues to get together to collectively browse, choose and book a hotel from Hotels.com’s portfolio of almost 140,000 properties worldwide. The app launched on the UK Hotels.com [...]
The company said it has temporarily disabled the use of prepaid cards on its retail platform as it looks to remedy a security flaw which could allow an attacker to steal the PIN number on Google Wallet systems. Google says a fix is coming soon.
The company said it has temporarily disabled the use of prepaid cards on its retail platform as it looks to remedy a security flaw which could allow an attacker to steal the PIN number on Google Wallet systems. Google says a fix is coming soon.
Post Summary: We just launched a new web experience for Fantuition. Check it out and play some of our prediction games for topics you love. For the back story on Fantuition, keep reading… A Change of Course About a year after starting up a company to take on the problem of local recommendations called GuideMe, [...]
Post Summary:
We just launched a new web experience for Fantuition. Check it out and play some of our prediction games for topics you love. For the back story on Fantuition, keep reading…
A Change of Course
About a year after starting up a company to take on the problem of local recommendations called GuideMe, it became clear that we hadn’t generated the amount of user traction we had hoped and we didn’t have the path to get there. We made the decision to end our development on GuideMe in September.
Even though GuideMe as a product had failed, the team and our great investors still had a desire to work together and take another crack at a different problem. We took a step back and opened our eyes to look at numerous problems and opportunities that could have been interesting to pursue. However, I couldn’t get past one idea that had been in my mind for a few years.
The Problem
Everyone who knows me is aware that I’m a big sports fan, and more specifically an Oregon Ducks fan.
Over the years I’d played fantasy football/basketball/baseball/golf, various pick’em games, March Madness pools, and other assorted games. Like many sports fans, these fantasy games provided me an additional way to engage with the sports I was already watching.
All was not perfect though, as I found that there were two major problems for me with the fantasy sports experience.
The Solution
These two frustrations led me to question why there wasn’t a simpler game to play that could also be focused on specific teams. Why can’t I play a game based on just the Oregon Ducks or the Portland Trailblazers? And why can’t I play with more than just nine other people in my league?
Obviously a simpler game focused on one team wouldn’t work in the traditional “manage a roster” fantasy format, and I wanted something that required less time, so the game itself needed to be totally different.
In thinking deeper about this, it became clear that fans of a specific team talk about and predict a pretty consistent set of questions. Who’s going to win this weekend? What’s the final score going to be? Which player is going to have a great game? Player X had a great game last week, will he keep it up?
Turning these questions into a game seemed to make total sense to me. We’re already talking about these questions with each other, so let’s actually compete around who can predict the upcoming game the best!
This basic idea to create a simple prediction game for specific teams had been rolling around in my head for a few years. I wanted to make it quick, fun, social, and let people feel like they are engaging with their team and fanbase. However, it had never gotten past the concept phase.
When the opportunity to revisit this idea came up after shutting GuideMe down, the changed internet landscape had seen casual game success and monetization, the rise of mobile time killing, and “2nd screen” mobile usage for TV watching. The time seemed ripe to strike, and with the additional ideas from our investors and Joe (the rest of the team) we quickly built a mobile web prototype called Fantuition in late October.
It was clear right away that playing Fantuition in a very basic form for Oregon Ducks Football was a lot of fun for us and our close friends. We cared more about the games we were watching, we could discuss our predictions socially, and we were learning more about our favorite team. It wasn’t long before people we didn’t know were signing up, and users were suggesting that the format would work for other sports and their favorite reality TV shows.
Fast forward a couple of months and we’ve got a lot more users, a third employee, a number of different games going, a full website, and a ton of ideas about where to take the product and games that we need to go execute.
The ability to play casual social games about all the teams we care about, the reality TV shows we watch, and the award shows or other non-scripted special events we attend needs to exist. So we’re building it.
Give the new Fantuition site a try and send us some feedback.
LetsLunch.com was founded by Syed Shuttari over a year ago. The idea for this site came about while in a corporate job for four years and observing that around noon time San Francisco downtown came alive with men and women in smart business attire, ru…
LetsLunch.com was founded by Syed Shuttari over a year ago. The idea for this site came about while in a corporate job for four years and observing that around noon time San Francisco downtown came alive with men and women in smart business attire, running out to have lunch, either alone or with the same [...]
Providing great content to authoritative people who are searching for it is a great way to build relationships with important people. This process outlines the basic tactics for power guest posting: finding websites, coming up with content, and making …
Providing great content to authoritative people who are searching for it is a great way to build relationships with important people. This process outlines the basic tactics for power guest posting: finding websites, coming up with content, and making the
Make no mistake. Pinterest may be a pretty interface full of recipes, do-it-yourself tips, and pictures of cuddly animals (what social site doesn’t have cute animals anymore?), but the end game is all business. Unlike most who try to get into social media, Pinterest has a real chance of making it happen even with their [...]
Make no mistake. Pinterest may be a pretty interface full of recipes, do-it-yourself tips, and pictures of cuddly animals (what social site doesn’t have cute animals anymore?), but the end game is all business.
Unlike most who try to get into social media, Pinterest has a real chance of making it happen even with their late entry into the social race.
Take a look at the infographic below. A few things are clear.
It’s a great recipe for success. The only 3 questions that need to be answered are:
Cooking analogies on an article about Pinterest – completely unintentional. Really.
Click to enlarge.
(Via: Monetate. H/T: Seattle Nissan)
Should Google’s search results be personalized based on past searches and information from social networking sites? Forty-five percent of respondents to a recent Google search survey said no, compared to 15.5 percent who said yes.
Should Google’s search results be personalized based on past searches and information from social networking sites? Forty-five percent of respondents to a recent Google search survey said no, compared to 15.5 percent who said yes.
The vibe at Social Media Week is changing. In just a few short years of its existence, Social Media Week has evolved from startups, bloggers and social media gurus to enterprise class content and participation. I am lucky enough to be involved in a few events and sharing the same stage with a few mentors and some very good friends. Here’s a sneak peak of what’s going on.
On Monday, February 13th, I will be moderating a Social Analytics panel at Adobe with some smart folks from Ebay, SAP, Intel, Adobe and Cisco. Jeremiah Owyang and the wonderful Susan Etlinger from Altimeter will also be presenting earlier in the day. A big thank you to my clients at Adobe, specifically Maria Poveromo and Jennifer Atkinson for inviting me to speak and be a part of this event.
On Tuesday, I will be making my way across town to Cisco where I will be moderating a panel on The Path To Becoming A Social Business with more smart folks from Intel, Adobe, SAP and Wells Fargo. They will be sharing their insights and experiences on how they have transformed their organizations, shifted culture, and operationalizing social media internally. The very awesome social media team at Cisco, specifically Petra Neiger, also arranged for a book signing for Smart Business, Social Business. I am very humbled for such a kind gesture.
Later in the day, Jeremiah will also be presenting a keynote lecture on social business; and Todd Shimizu from Ant’s Eye View will be leading a panel on the future of social business with folks from Twitter, Slideshare, Jive and LinkedIn. Also on Tuesday, up at the Razorfish headquarters in SF, Rod Smith from IBM will be presenting a keynote on Social Technology and Analytics. These are some amazing events that you can’t miss.
.. and the fun doesn’t stop here.
If you are around on Wednesday, the good brethren at SAP are hosting a day with dynamic speakers on social business. Maggie Fox, Ray Wang, Mark Yolton from SAP and others will be hosting 4 great sessions on the topics of listening, culture and technology. I am hoping to show up and soak up some of their wisdom.
If you happen to be in the N-Y-C and are finished celebrating “that” team’s Super Bowl win, there are some really good sessions about social business that you should try and catch. For starters, John Bell from Ogilvy will be discussing the social enterprise; and Howard Greenstein will be moderating a panel, “Social Business Gets Real” with Ethan McCarty from IBM, Dan Woods from CITO Research and Matt Dickman from Weber Shandwick. Also, Dave Gray from Dachis Group will be presenting a keynote on The Connected Company, which is also the title of his soon to be released book. Jeff Dachis, the man behind Dachis Group, will be delivering a keynote followed by a panel on big data.
All good people. All good sessions. And a ton of really good insights. Be there.
Facebook celebrated its 8th birthday this month. How much has it changed? How much has it changed us? Are we all a little more batty now that Facebook has become a prominent part of so many of our lives, giving us insights into friends and family that we never had before and offering a venue [...]
Facebook celebrated its 8th birthday this month. How much has it changed? How much has it changed us? Are we all a little more batty now that Facebook has become a prominent part of so many of our lives, giving us insights into friends and family that we never had before and offering a venue through which we can exclaim the nuances of our lives for the world (or simply our world) to see?
This fun and somewhat creepy video by Daniel Koren, a NY based musician, touches a little too close to the truth for most to bear. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.
Wondering if hiring an SEO agency is the best move for your business? SEOmoz surveyed over 600 agencies from around the world to discover just how much the average agency charges for their services. AYTM market research distilled the information provi…
Wondering if hiring an SEO agency is the best move for your business? SEOmoz surveyed over 600 agencies from around the world to discover just how much the average agency charges for their services. AYTM market research distilled the information provided by SEOmoz’s survey to create the following infographic. Click Image to Enlarge/Full View – [...]
