One of Google+’s most attractive features is the free group video chat service called Google Hangouts. Soon Facebook users will be able to enjoy a similar experience, although no thanks to the social networking site itself.
Video chat service ooVoo Tuesday introduced an upgrade to its service that bumps the number of participants in free video conference calls from six to 12, and debuts a Facebook application that allows for 12-way video conferencing in high definition.
ooVoo has grown somewhat quietly, reaching 46 million users worldwide as of April 2012. The Facebook application is in response to the demands of users, the company says, who are looking for other ways outside of their mobile devices (where the app got its start) to connect to users.
A nice feature of ooVoo’s Facebook offering is that all users in the chat do not need to be ooVoo members. If the person you’re calling isn’t a member, the application gives the option to e-mail, post, or text a “call link†to allow your friend to join in on the call.
ooVoo also uses Facebook as a new method for logging into its service with its iOS and Android apps, which it says simplifies the registration process and allows users to record and upload video chats to the web. That was previously a premium feature.
Video chat on Facebook launched last July through a partnership with Skype, but only allowed for one-on-one video calling. This made Google Hangouts a more attractive option with multi-user calling, and Google has repeatedly targeted the feature for improvement as it continues to better Google+.
However, ooVoo’s announcement evens the playing field and brings similar video functionality for Facebook. With “hangouts†now on Facebook, does Google+ really have anything left to differentiate it from its much larger rival?
Back in November, Peter Hanschke blogged about the need for . In that spirit, I have an anecdote to share which illustrates that the mere prospect of such a windfall can also do significant damage.
At a time when early-stage ventures, particularly those in Canada, are thirsting for capital, be it traditional VC or an angel round, it may seem counterintuitive to suggest that a startup should be wary of a nice fat cheque.
But as Peter explained, for a startup that has taken a lean and frugal approach to market that relies , a sudden windfall of cash can have all sorts of negative consequences.
The most obvious of these is that the product, which has until now been developed with only those features and functions that have the strongest market pull, gets bloated with all sorts of additional bells and whistles that dilute its focus and send the sales and marketing teams running in too many directions.
My story isn’t a clear-cut example of this, but the same lessons apply. This venture, let’s call it BigContent, was developing a unique library of content which it would make available through a subscription model. It was incubated with a nest egg the founders had put together from a previous venture. In fact, it was their experience with that previous venture which provided them with the idea for BigContent, as well as the initial proof of concept. From a marketing standpoint, BigContent’s founders were doing exactly what they should  which BigContent could exploit.
Executing BigContent’s business plan didn’t require external financing. The founders were wholly committed to bootstrapping the venture through to positive cash flow. BigContent proceeded to develop its library of content, a distribution model through which to deliver that content and a strong roster of subscribers. Everything was proceeding well toward a soft launch of its service.
And then a Big Name VC comes calling without an invitation.
Well, what startup on the eve of its launch is going to slam the door in a VC’s face? At the VC’s behest, launch plans were put on hold. BigContent’s founders revamped their business plan to reflect the addition of external financing. A VC round may not have been necessary to BigContent’s get-to-market strategy, but it would certainly have accelerated the process and made for a bigger, bolder launch.
Big Name VC made lofty promises, even said it would bring one of its compadres to the table. Meetings were scheduled, then cancelled. After several months of song and dance, the VCs said a polite “No thank you†and moved on.
The damage was done. BigContent’s lean and mean go-to-market strategy was in shambles. One of the principals had also resigned from the company. Months later, the team is still trying to get everything back on track for a launch, as per the original business plan.
I don’t intend this post as a knock against VCs, but this story does demonstrate that both parties to a deal must always beware. The onus is on the entrepreneur to have a clear understanding of where their business is going and what it will take to get it there. There is always more than one route to a destination and the choices which lie along the way seldom fit easily into the “right†and “wrong†columns. If there’s a moral to this story, perhaps it’s the importance of staying the course when in the midst of executing a plan in which you have confidence.
44 per cent of people actually ignore Facebook ads
44 per cent of people actually ignore Facebook ads
 by Nestor E. Arellano
I’ve always look approached my daughter’s budding Facebook garage sale with light hearted indulgence. However she might have some real business sense after all.
Roughly two days before General Motors announced that it will ; Hilary told me that she was pulling out her “jewellery and good stuff†from the social networking site because Facebook was simply not reaching the “right customers for her products.â€
Nestor Arellano
Mind you my daughter was not buying Facebook ads to market her cast off Rudsak skirt, shredded sweaters and home made She was just posting photos of her clothes and accessories and hoping that word-of-mouth advertising among friends would do the rest.
Her concern was that Facebook was not reaching enough potential customers for her and that an actual online store would open up her products to buyers with more varied tastes.
As Tony Bradley reports, GM’s decision to stop using is not necessarily an indictment of Facebook advertising but rather that “it may just be the wrong thing to market on.†He argues that it’s the wrong medium for the auto marker to be in and that the type of experience sharing that goes around between friends and family in the social network does not necessarily lend it self to selling big ticket items like cars and trucks.
While the loss of GM’s $10 million advertising account might not hurt Facebook much since it generates was able to generate $3.7 billion in ad revenues last year, there may be some more worrying developments.
Digital marketing agency yesterday reported that in a survey of 500 people, 30 per cent said they “strongly distrust†Facebook with their personal data and that 44 per cent “never†click on Facebook sponsored ads.
When asked if they clicked on advertisements or sponsored listings, just 3 per cent of respondents answered “regularly†and 10 per cent said “often.â€
The fact that 30 per cent indicated that they distrust Facebook with their personal data indicates that the social networking site has an “upward battle†with regards to selling its advertising program, according to Hannah Kimuyu, director of paid media at Greenlight.
“Facebook’s advertising program allows brands to connect with more than 800 million potential customers, through targeting their age, gender, location and interests, in other words – personal data,†she points out.
So, if you have a small business and have a Facebook ad campaign or contemplating one, you must be asking now: “Is the campaign worth it?â€
For certain businesses, perhaps it’s to best view Facebook and other social networks as a channel for market exposure, brand penetration and community building and fan interaction. For some businesses Facebook is not the tool for making direct sales from ads.
But the site can deliver on exposure. A Global Facebook Advertising Report compiled by TBG Digital in Q2 2011, examined 200 billion impressions across hundreds of advertisers in 21 markets. The study revealed that retail delivered the highest click through rate (CTR) when compared to other sectors. Furthermore, retail saw the largest increase in growth, going from being non-existent in Q3 2010 to showing steady growth by Q2 of 2011 (a 36 per cent increase), according to Greenlight.
“Pulling this study back to Greenlight’s client base, we have seen similar performance levels, especially with retail getting more from Facebook,†said Kimuyu.
Some retailers and service providers might like to consider The tools allow advertisers to post “conversation starters†to their Facebook page and entice their brand fans and other Facebook users to respond via commenting or sharing with their friends.
The format delivers, on average, a 32 per cent decrease in cost per acquisitions (sales) and an increase in CTR (engagement).
“When running both the traditional ad format alongside a sponsored story format, we tend to see at least a 30 per cent increase in conversion rates, again with retail leading across the sectors,†says Kimuyu.
The lesson here is that the old maxim, still holds true. While 44 per cent of Facebook users say they will never click on sponsored ads in the site, ads that do find their mark pay big in terms of engagement.
IBM’s worldwide coding contest highlights two trends
‘March Madness’ of coding contests highlights two trends
If you’re not familiar with the Association of Computer Machinery’s (ACM) (ICPC) sponsored by IBM Corp., just think of it like the “March Madness†of computer programming.
Just like the NBA recruits top basketball talent from the top teams that compete in the annual NCAA tournament, the world’s top software companies will recruit the students taking part in this contest that was spawned in 1970. Also, there are a lot of confusing acronyms that confound newcomers. Indeed, IBM has sponsored this event since 1997, dubbing it “Battle of the Brains†and uses it as a recruiting mechanism, giving blanket job offers to the teams that finish in the top 10 – and may other competitors as well.
Under Big Blue’s guidance, the contest has exploded in the level of involvement and competition. There are regional competitions leading up to the world finals that 30,000 students and 2,2000 universities participate in. The 122 teams here at the University of Warsaw for this year’s finals come from 85 countries across six continents (they’re still trying to find an organizer for Antarctica).
The main event involves a gruelling, five-hour programming contest in which the teams of three students gather around a single workstation and solve problems. There are typically about 10 problems available to solve, which would normally constitute an entire semester’s worth of work, yet the winning team will solve around 80 per cent of them in this brief period. The teams compete in close proximity to each other in a large, arena area, complete with a spectator booth and score board. The teams also collect a balloon for each problem solved, tying their visual bragging rights to their workstation.
Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca
The finals are a big deal. Last night the opening ceremonies held in Warsaw’s Palace of Culture featured dignitaries such as the mayor of Warsaw, and Poland’s president was scheduled to attend, but ended up sending a representative instead. The finals are even streamed live to the Web so spectators can cheer on their home team, and the broadcast production level is equal to that of many professional sports events. This year, viewers will be able to choose from multiple feeds to stream, including individual Web cams at each work station.
It’s a real culmination of the best computer programmers in the world. Contestants are either Master’s level in computer science, or some are senior-year undergraduate students. The sampling of talent is representative of upcoming worldwide talent pool for software programming, and allows us to take the pulse of the industry. Here’s a couple of the trends apparent this year:
Lack of female competitors
During the opening ceremonies, each team was introduced on a large video screen. You could literally count the number of female competitors on one hand. Though it was more common to see female coaches, as is the case with the University of Toronto’s Carolyn MacLeod.
, Zhejiang University from China, had a female student on its team and that was likely a the first time a girl won the trophy. The lack of female competitors here underlines the overall dearth of women choosing computer science as a field of study and career choice.
North America’s decline in computer science
The ICPC competition became much more international after IBM began sponsoring it in 1997, and 1999 was the last time a North American school won the top spot – Canada’s own University of Waterloo. Last year, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbour surprised many by coming in second place overall. But North American schools have occupied the top 10 spots less often in recent years, with teams from China and Russia dominating the contest.
It makes sense that the Asia region schools are more competitive, as they must rise above more competition to make it here. Although there are proportionally more students in the Eastern continent competing to get here, they do not get a matching number of teams entered. In order to make space for other teams from around the world, they get squeezed out.
But the trend also reflects a cultural difference that should concern North Americans. While computer programming is considered “geeky†and in the U.S. and Canada, the contestants from China here actually have fans rooting for them back home. The other contestants often speak of the Chinese students’ reputation for rigorous practice schedules and ability to write out sections of code on pure muscle memory.
It’s almost as if those students are taking this contest as seriously as basketball is taken in the U.S. during March Madness.
is the newest entry on Canada’s red hot tech startup scene.
The U.S.-based organization, which already has branches in Los Angeles, New York, Austin, Tx., San Francisco, Tempe, Az. and Marin, Ca., just opened new bases in Ottawa and Toronto. The group’s goal is to foster startup activity in each of those regions by bringing together local entrepreneurs, investors, designers, programmers and mentors.
Christine Wong, staff writer, ITBusiness.ca
The Canadian startup scene seems to be turbocharged. It also seems to be getting crowded.
Within the last few months alone there’s been a string of additions like the Startup Grind announcement: new incubators and accelerators ( , Hyperdrive, Driven, and one within InvestOttawa), new organizations (Startup Canada and the aforementioned Startup Grind), new funding (including about half a billion dollars for startup ventures in the ) and new media outlets (PostMedia bought Sprouter which , respected blogger just launched a weekly newsletter, newcomer Startup Canada now sends out a daily digest, we here at IT Business Canada are doing a daily , and the National Post and Globe and Mail have beefed up their small business and entrepreneurship coverage with a heavy emphasis on the tech scene).
There’s even a service called offering startups advice from successful businesspeople over the phone, launched by east coast serial entrepreneur Dan Martell.
Will this onslaught of funding, support services, and media coverage actually translate into stronger Canadian tech startups?
Too early to tell.
But having more players in any game usually breeds competition. And that can’t be a bad thing. It probably means all these startups are vying more fiercely for talent to hire, which admittedly causes headaches for recruiters and tech firms trying to fill key spots on their teams. It might also mean, however, that all these groups, services and media outlets will be forced to constantly improve their offerings to survive.
It’s easy being the only game in town and enjoying a monopoly. New competition in a market that’s getting a bit crowded makes you take a look at yourself and up your level of play, to not only stay afloat but beat your rivals.
Survival of the startup services fittest, you might say. It’s a game playing out not just among the emerging tech firms themselves but perhaps among the services catering to them now here in Canada.
Startup headlines vs reality?
There may be a disconnect going on between all the headlines trumpeting the flurry of global startup activity and what’s really happening in the world of .
The U.S. startup business creation rate hit an all-time low of 7.87 per cent, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. The startup business rate peaked at an all-time high of 13.02 per cent in 1987.
Entrepreneurial companies accounted for just 12 per cent of all American employment in 2010 compared with 20 per cent in the 1980s, the study showed.
Entrepreneurs’ share of job creation has also fallen to 30 per cent in recent years, down from over 40 per cent in the 1980s. And only 35 per cent of all American companies are within the startup range (in business for five or less years), down from almost 50 per cent in the early 1980s.
The takeaway: despite all the media coverage about startups and president initiative to fund and support entrepreneurship, new business creation is hitting new lows, at least south of the border.
It’s not something to be taken lightly. A Reuters story on the data quotes warnings from some U.S. economists and researchers that without stronger rates of entrepreneurship, the American economy will continue to stagnate and not really recover from the U.S. recession that officially ended in 2009.
It’ll be interesting to check for similar statistics in Canada a year or two from now, to see if all the startup activity and coverage will really translate into more new businesses and jobs up here.
Is the BlackBerry 10 too late to make a difference?
BlackBerry 10
by Yale HolderÂ
RIM’s CEO Thorsten Heins unveiled the BlackBerry 10 operating system and a prototype phone for developers in Orlando, Florida. With no launch date communicated as yet, the phone is still expected to be in our hands in time for the holiday season.
The good
The phone debuted didn’t have a keyboard and looked more like an Android device which is clearly a deviation from the regular BlackBerry Bold type cell phones. Check the video out below to get a sneak peak.
RIM adopted the BlackBerry Playbook interface and customized it for a cell phone, so customers who have used the Playbook may see a familiar interface.
Here are some of the sleak features demoed recently:
1. A swipe based interface versus the old ball type style we are accustomed to with older BlackBerry cell phone models
2. A new predictive typing interface which seems rather cool, where the words appear on the next letter you are going to type
3. A camera application which captures a segment of time giving the user the option to go back in time (and forward) over a few seconds to get that perfect shot.
Overall this is a major leap forward for BlackBerry and it looks like they are headed in the right direction.
The bad
None of the features above are earth shattering, they are cool and sleak, similar to some of the features I’ve seen in the new Windows phone platform, and that hasn’t taken off as yet. This just brings RIM into the current time and doesn’t leap frog Apple and Android. It’s still early, but my fear is that by the time RIM finally gets the full BlackBerry 10 lineup out the door, Apple and Android would’ve moved on to the next generation of smart phones.
And finally, in order to make this work, BlackBerry needs apps, apps and more apps.
Hopefully developers are excited about this new platform and make apps for the BlackBerry, or, maybe BlackBerry should consider allowing these phones to run android apps….just a thought.
Yale Holder is co-founder of a Toronto-based company that helps cell phone users negotiate wireless plans with independent dealers.
Embracing the BYOD trend: Tips for your business — a term which refers to employees bringing their own mobile devices into the workplace for business purposes — is one of the hottest acronyms in business technology world today.
Daniel Reio
Companies are increasingly embracing the idea that employees want greater choice and flexibility in the devices they use.
 In a recent CDW Canada survey of Canadian businesses, more than two thirds of respondents (67 per cent) said their company has or is working on a BYOD strategy.
Embracing the BYOD trend: tips for your business — a term which refers to employees bringing their own mobile devices into the workplace for business purposes — is one of the hottest acronyms in business technology world today.
Daniel Reio
Companies are increasingly embracing the idea that employees want greater choice and flexibility in the devices they use.
 In a recent CDW Canada survey of Canadian businesses, more than two thirds of respondents (67 per cent) said their company has or is working on a BYOD strategy.
Ontario government upgrades to slightly less obsolete browser
Ontario government upgrades to slightly less obsolete browser
Ontario’s public service workers will soon be working with Web technology that is slightly less obsolete with an upgrade from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8.
A memo from the Ontario Public Service’s IT service desk says that the upgrade will be deployed across all workstations by May 11. The subject is simply “Upgrade of IE6.â€
The thought that anyone is still using a browser that will celebrate its 11th anniversary on Aug. 27 is astounding. But according to Microsoft, 7.1 per cent of the world’s Web browsing population is still using this software artifact. The Redmond-based software giant is encouraging its users to upgrade, with a goal of seeing worldwide usage drop below one per cent. In Canada, usage is currently pegged at 1.2 per cent.
Prolonged use of IE6 may lead to chronic frustration syndrome among Web surfers. The lack of tabbed browsing to manage multiple pages, an aged Javascript engine that may actually run on crude oil, and general lack of privacy controls are enough to horrify any modern Internet user.
As Microsoft itself says, “friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer 6.â€
The pain for Web developers who still feel pressure to support IE6 is even worse. One of the more obvious gaps of support is IE6’s inability to display transparent PNG images. Users simply see a grey background instead. But developers won’t exactly be popping the champagne in celebration of this latest upgrade victory. IE8 has its quirks too. It calculates the spacing of elements on a Web page differently than any other browser. To properly centre an image for IE8 users, Web coders must write a separate piece of code instructing on margin padding and border sizes in addition to the code they’ve already written for other browsers.
By moving to IE8 instead of IE9, the Ontario government will miss out on convenient features like a unified search and URL address bar, or an add-on manager. But most significantly, they’ll miss out on the HTML5 features of , and interactive graphics that Microsoft supports in IE9, and like Firefox and Chrome also support. HTML5 is fast becoming the go-to Web standard for modern pages because of its flexibility of design – one page can be optimally displayed on a desktop monitor, smartphone screen, or tablet.
Likely the Ontario government can’t migrate to IE9 because it is also using a decade-old OS in . That would also mean the clock is already ticking on a bigger upgrade project, . Microsoft will cut support for XP in April 2014, and unless the government is willing to risk using an unpatched OS across its environment, it will have to upgrade. That will also mean an inevitable move to IE9.
Of course, two years from now the rest of us will probably be using augmented reality goggles and brain-computer interfaces to browse the Web.
ned by Matt Lemelin, CEO of Genevolve Vision Diagnostics on how to dance with angels investors are worthwhile steps that many Canadian tech startups could learn to adapt.
