Molecularist

Link: The Impact of "Ambient Findability".

Intelligence is moving to the edges, flowing through wireless devices, empowering individuals and distributed teams. Ideas spread like wildfire, and information is in the air, literally. And yet with this wealth of instantly accessible information, we still experience disorientation. We still wander off the map.

How do we make decisions in the information age? How do we know enough to ask the right questions? How do we find the best product, the right person, the data that makes a difference?

In Ambient Findability, Morville searches for the answers in the strange connections among social software, semantic webs, evolutionary psychology and interaction design. And, he explains how the journey from push to pull is changing not only the rules of marketing and design, but also the nature of authority and the destination of our culture.

Sorry for only posting links that I find most relevant here (more general links in the left sidebar), but I’ve been using up my brain waves for other things. More later.

I’ve been asking folks for a long time: how can the mobile enhance the PC experience and vice-versa.

I’ve seen many examples of SMS from PC to phone, such as bookmarks. Here’s some more info from the Primate.

Link: The Pondering Primate: A New Opportunity For SMS?.

This opens up some possibilities. SMS service that ties the PC and the cellphone for instant messaging.

Excellent thoughts.

Link: The Pondering Primate: Should WalMart Be Afraid Of Google?.

The simple answer… YES.

This is a great story. I’ve highlighted the goodies. An online advertising company that now threatens numerous Fortune 500 companies. Who said the Internet was a just a fad?

I spent the previous week in San Francisco meeting some really smart folks. One thing I did was listen closely to what they were doing and what they wanted to achieve.

Of course, my mind was in ‘mobile’ mode, so I kept asking if we, Nokia, provided any value if these guys were already so web proficient and could easily (at least to me) mobilize their services.

The answer, that surprised me, was that we have a much better idea as to what mobile device users do, better access to user and market information, and better understanding of the technologies involved. In contrast, most small web companies do not have the resources to learn all this stuff that we take for granted, and they fear spending money and time on a project that looks good by is seriously faulted.

Jan Chipchase is part of a group at Nokia that does this cool research and analysis into behavior. Check out his site for interesting insights into how and why people do what they do.

Link: Jan Chipchase – Future Perfect: Why do People Carry Mobile Phones?.

Why do people carry phones?
Why do people carry what they carry?
And if we can understand why, how can we use this knowledge in the design of future products, applications and services?

Actually, my bet is on those who know how to build mobile portals – spreading their influence to the mobile masses.

Link: sdbj: For once I agree with Nicholas Carr.

Maybe the basic internet search engine is fated to be a cheap commodity running behind the scenes. And maybe those who control the search function – and most of the related ad revenues – won’t be the guys running the engine but those who own the desktop or the portal (or whatever replaces the desktop or the portal).

Keep it simple!

This guy writes great stuff on design and mobile design in particular. I forget how I found out about him (I think he gave a presentation here at Nokia that I ended up downloading), but he comes highly recommended by anti-mega and blackbeltjones.

Link: f r e e g o r i f e r o | weblog.

Hail the power of perceived simplicity: why shouldn’t all mobile phones give users the ability to choose a "basic" profile?
We need connected devices that actually do more by doing less, by keeping things simple for people who do not want to deal with unnecessary complexity.

A really good compilation of numbers for those of you contemplating the size of the mobile device market.

Link (via Roland): MyPhoneRocks dot com � Blog Archive � Enertainment Evolution.

In yesterdays episode of MyPhoneRocks I claimed that mobile phones are transforming our world in new ways and that there’s no shortage of companies helping to accelerate the change because they know there’s gold in them-thar hills. Unlike the limited quantities of the actual soft yellow metal that has found itself at the heart of many a man’s demise, new veins of metaphoric telecom gold grow larger every day in the form of new mobile phone users, new features added to phones, new network technologies and existing consumers finally learning how to use what they’ve already got. And, oh yeah, handset manufacturers and network operators finally figuring out how the hell to sell the stuff.