The Morning Hunt For Information

I started scouring the web this morning and a thread popped out at me instantly. Sure, it is the morning of Where 2.0 and there is a reason for the common thread, but this thread is certainly nothing new, and nothing that many of us have not been talking about for quite some time.

Yesterday I read about the launch of MSN maps in 3d. MSN has been doing Virtual Earth (check out Greg Sterling’s post from Nov. 2006 to get you up to speed) for some time now but it requires a desktop client to access.

I was recently in Seattle I at Microsoft’s Strategic Account Summit and they displayed a new technology called Photosynth which is software that takes social photography, mashes it up, pools the data and creates a virtual world (that is of course a laymen’s description).The install is actually pretty easy and it surprisingly plugs right into Firefox, go MSN! I have to say that this technology is pretty damn cool!

What would a blog post about tech be without mentioning Google. Notice that each of these apps play up the concept of Virtual Worlds. It is important to remember that Virtual Worlds do not equal Second Life, There or Kaneva (per se). There is much more to the metaverse! Have a look:

Online Video

Finally I would like to alert all those ranting and raving about Online Video to have a look at what Immersive Media is doing. I am not saying that they have the silver bullet, but as everyone talks about how to produce video for the online space they tend to focus on pre-roll, post roll, mid roll, 30 second, 15 second etc.

This is crap!

The true realization of online video will come when we find ways to take the video beyond sight, sound and motion and add  new layers of interactivity, immersion, control and whatever other ways we can be creative with it. This is also the point when hopefully advertisers will be able to learn how to engage through video and not just disrupt.

Bottom Line

As the web moved closer and closer to a fully immersive, experienced based medium marketers will need to look at these technologies and find creative ways to integrate their messaging into these experience. Notice I say integrate, not dominate!

As this blog is supposed to have a marketing focus I feel the need to not just speak about the technologies themselves. As a marketer I am always thinking of how these technologies can be plugged into communications strategies. I would love to hear (from all of you out there) some creative ways you think these technologies can be used to get the message across.

Tags: marketing, MSN, MSN Live, Miscorsoft, Virtual Earth, Virtual Worlds, Google, Google Earth, Google Street View, Online Video, Immersive Media, Marketing, where 2.0, MSN maps in 3d, SAS, Kaneva, Second Life, There, Metaverse