Digital Insights

What's in for the future of product development for Google? Larry Page chats about his thoughts from Search, Android, YouTube, Chrome to Google+ in the following session at Google Zeitgeist 2011.

Larry Page: "But if you have a healthy disregard for the impossible, you actually get better people to work on your project. You know,they get really excited, they work really hard. You know,they work late at night. And it also turns out that most companies aren't crazy enough to do anything like that. And so you don't - they - nobody else is doing it. So you're the only ones. And, again, you get the best people."

Lately there has been an on-going trend covering on "gameified" applications and "gamification" vendors which promises anything from increased user engagement and retention to alteration of consumer behaviour. While some hold that adding such game elements to non-game applications opens a new decade of design, others criticize current implementations as shallow "pointsification" and overselling of a new digital snake oil. Which criticisms are actually valid?

In the following talk, Sebastian Deterding provides an overview of the current gamification movement, its most troubling blind spots, the motivational powers of games, and how to design for a playful experience that is truly meaningful to its users.

What's install for the future of mobile and how will it alter individual's life and communication approach especially with brands.SecondMarket the stock exchange for private companies, have bring together the following thought leaders in mobile covering on Android in-app purchase, utilizing tablets in enterprise and more.

Speakers includes:

• Charles Hudson, CEO of Bionic Panda Games
• Holger Luedorf, VP of Mobile, Foursquare
• Jason Oberfest, VP of Social Applications, ngmoco
• Michael Shim, VP of Mobile, Groupon
• Krishna Subramanian, CEO and co-founder, Mobclixbr

What's the key difference between a successful and a unsuccessful startup ? And especially if you're the only one with your team getting excited about launching your new tech product or service, how about your potential customers to-be - are they excited or are they not ?

Even they are, how willing are they to part their hard earned money to splash on your new product or service ? How do you differentiate between a good idea but with little or zero traction amongst your potential customers to-be ? How do you determine that ? Through working with and as a startup, the key element that startup founders should be looking into at day one is this particular question > who are you designing that particular product or service for ? And is there actually anyone keen in your product or service at all ?

Which leads me to start Vault81.com - the thought of helping out within the startup community in Asia to give potential tech startups a chance to get discovered and gain traction amongst the early adopters and potential customers to-be. At the same while, driving the enterprise spirit and sharing within the community - to at least give their idea a test of market viability through the community rather than not giving it a shot at all.

Here's how you can help:

• If you're an enterprenuer or an early adopter > help other arising Asia startups either by sharing your experience through trial of their product or service. Please do Sign Up here if you're keen to help.
• If you're a new or to-be launched tech startup in Asia > Sign Up via the form here to submit your startup or simply drop me a note at deric[at] vault81[dot]com.

Thanks for your kind support everyone ! Even just by reading this and sharing it on Twitter or Facebook.

Do you make decisions based purely on data ? Or do you make decisions based upon factors such as customers and external factors ?So how's the situation like in Facebook ? Does analytics play a critical role in informing design decisions ? Or ?

In the following video, Adam Mosseri,from Facebook talks about three primary ways Facebook uses quantitative data:
• Optimizing small but important interactions
• Finding pain points in existing work flows
• Setting high level success metrics for large projects

And how Facebook improve their ability to quantify some of the less tangible data points, like brand perception and long term network value.

Adam Mosseri: Overreacting to data can lead to micro optimization

Missing out Google street view in China ? And are there any alternatives you say.And should there be an alternative, how about having it in pixel art + 3D ?

Here's Baidu's version:
Map of China + pixel art + 3D = Baidu's version of SimCity China ?
Simply go on to Baidu map and give it a try yourself. However it seems like only a handful of cities have the 3D pixel option available, guess it might take awhile for Baidu to officially roll out to other cities eventually. In the midst, go ahead and enjoy SimCity China !

If you do a simple search online for the word "deals" or "discount websites", how many websites are there ? And how many claims to have the best deals one could expect ? And how different are they from the other ? Some might claim "we are different from the rest...because of....(fill in the blanks). Guess you get the drift.

2010, the rise and shine year of Groupon. While it might not be the next "Facebook...or whatever the pundits are stating", it sure has made quite a bit of stir last year, turning down the acquisition offer from Google. With its clone script easily purchase online, and ready to go live in 24 hours, its no wonder its fellow "Copycat Siblings" are spurting (given up counting the number of clones) on a on-going basis as we speak around US, Europe, Asia and the rest of the globe.

Andrew Mason “We’d like to become what Amazon has become for products, we want to become this for local… 2011 is the year when Groupon become much more of a technology company, and a lot of that is personalization.”

In the following video, Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon shares his thoughts on the world of group buying and the rise of Groupon

Here’s the quick handy infographic (via onlinemba) that sums it all:

Is email communication too formal or "too slow" according to the younger generation today ? Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, shares his thoughts on Facebook Messages and the next steps of Facebook at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Mark Zuckerberg: "Our view every product is going to get social, get on the bus.I think this is going to be a really exciting period. Some are going to make things around people. Some aren’t going to make it. But over the next five years, everyone’s going to have to think about this, just like they have to think about mobile. I think people will get there. They just need to take the steps to get comfortable. A slow approach isn’t necessarily bad."

2010 - the year of the biggest set of transitions in the internet economy since the dotcom bust ?  From the shift from banner ads era and the failures of too much money chasing, too few business model to the search era and web 2.0 and social applications. To the shift from the web era to the mobile era.

What's next in the future of the internet economy ? Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle discuss these shifting points of control and identify the key players who are clashing to control services and infrastructure and the impact on the future of technology innovation.

What is the future like for the social web ? And where are we heading next ? In the following panel, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Mark Pincus talks about the future of social web at sFund 2010, Palo Alto.