Nuffnang's ChurpChurp Comes Clean

I recently published an article about Nuffnang’s new ChurpChurp or Twitter advertising platform almost started on a rocky foot. But indeed, ChurpChurp’s team of PR are handling the situation really well. Just today I got an email from one of the hotties working at ChurpChurp; Doria.

It’s answers to some of the what ifs ChurpChurp would face as a new Twitter advertising player in Malaysia and Singapore. From the email:

Disclaimers on Churps

Being Twitter fans ourselves, at ChurpChurp.com we believe that we should all be transparent in the Churps we send out. Which is why we have built into our system a mechanism for you to add in a disclaimer of your own to all the Churps that go out. We didn’t want to do this “cookie-cutter” style and make everyone have the same disclaimer so we left it to you to decide how best to inform your followers that it was a Churp. Whether you use “Ad:” or “Churp”, it’s all totally up to you.

How much does a Churp pay?

This depends on two things: How many followers you have and how much a particular advertiser offers to pay for a tweet. Since Twitter advertising is still a pretty new medium for many advertisers, we don’t expect the initial Twitter ads to pay a lot but we do expect it to grow significantly as advertisers try the medium and grow more confident in putting more ad dollars behind it.

Auto-generated/User-generated Churps

Note that for both auto-generated or user-generated Churps, you can choose not to take part in the campaign if you don’t believe in the product or you don’t think it’s something you want to do. Just click the “reject” button.

Of course, in the email they also said ChurpChurp is a baby and they’ll definitely hit their head on the floor a couple of times but that won’t discourage them with our support.

Well, I’ve registered for ChurpChurp and I recently saw my Churp on Twitter. Currently, my custom disclaimer is “Churp:” but I might change it to “Ad:” for more prominence and straight-forwardness to followers. But we’ll see.

Right now, I just want to see if Churp would deliver a higher average return as compared to Nuffnang. There, I said it.

Or, would it be worst as I’m neither Kenny Sia nor KYSpeaks.

P.S.:  If you’d like to stalk Doria, you can start reading her blog. She demands it!

How To Create a Website Like

Facebook, Friendster, Google, [insert competitor website here]

In the website design industry, this is one of the common questions brought up by a Malaysia client. Yes, I say Malaysia client because out of all the international enquiries I’ve read which were sent to Simpleet, the ones who ask this question are normally, Malaysian.

What is most irritating about this scenario isn’t the fact they posed the question. Because, it’s not a stupid question – not really.

It’s the embarassment of not wanting to use our intellectual minds fully.

Normally, whenever a potential client ask us this question, we’d ask them in return, “what are the features/functions they’d like to see in this project?” This is the defining moment where you can tell if a client knows what they want or don’t have a clue. If they said…

I’d like to be able to connect to friends and colleagues as a group. And, there has to be personal messaging or group messaging. But the selling point of my social network is…

Ladies and gentlemen, if the client could describe this to you. They can still be saved and their project could be a success. However, if they were to say…

Like Facebook or Friendster-lor. What they have, I also want…

Stop! I’m sure you can see a difference already. One knows the vision and one is still blurry of their own vision.

Whenever this happens, it shows the client haven’t done their own research of their idea. However, all of this can be omitted with the right amount of funds – sometimes. If you’re a website designer or developer in Malaysia, you’d know what’s coming.

The client who has the vision will carefully weigh the providers budget, knowledge and experience – some, working relationship. The other would jump out of his seat, all bug-eyed and comment on the budget really required for such an idea.

This, my dear readers, is the classic case of “how to create a website like…” in Malaysia.

ChurpChurp Already a Miss?

While Nuffnang has been more known for it’s blog advertising platform, they’ve recently ventured into Twitter advertising. This was done with the now Beta; ChurpChurp.

Personally, Twitter is still at its unfancy stage but it’s quickly gain ground thanks to the adoption by many international celebrities. Also, Twitter advertising isn’t new for the technology and web followers today.

With ChurpChurp, it’s becoming additional fuel to the debate of advertising on Twitter. Especially when it’s involving personal relations or, what we call; Twitter-ers.

Some of Malaysia’s bigger voices have already voiced concerns over ChurpChurp for offering Twitter advertising.

I’M FOLLOWING SOMEONE WHO’S CHURP-POLLUTING MY STREAM. WHAT CAN I DO?

If you value his/her tweets, tell them via an @reply that you do not like it. Direct message them if they follow you.

Alternatively, you can always unfollow them.

However, if you feel strongly about this, feel free to drop a direct message to the @spam account on Twitter. Gareth tells me in a comment that its best to direct message the @spam account on Twitter, so as not to mistake your account as a spam account too.

Source: ByteBot

The reality, I suspect, is much uglier.

You’ll get irritated, annoyed by the in-flux of ads and seriously have your respect for the offending tweeter damaged.

“Just unfollow them!” I heard you say?

Well, I’ve thought about it. But I still love having conversations and being connected to those friends.

“Use another platform? What about Facebook?”

Well, those 20 friends don’t often chat on Facebook. The action takes place on Twitter.

“Well, why don’t you just tell them you don’t like that their allowing in-stream advertising?”

That’s probably the most sane approach. But as I hope you’ll start to see, it isn’t about to be so cut and dried. And if they simply refuse, well… it’s become a tough decision for you.

Source: David Lian

Naturally advertisers and entrepreneurs will see a large audience and associate that with dollar signs, not always the best reaction.

Due to the nature of Twitter, information is pushed out by people and displayed to their followers without any filtering (or any option for filtering). So if there is spam or ads in someones Twitter stream, everyone following them will see it (given they are online and ‘listening’ at that time).

This is bad when it comes to advertising, in a newspaper or magazine no one forces you to read the ads. But like on the TV when you’re watching a show you don’t have much choice but to see the ads if they are relevant or not and if you like them or not.

Twitter is similar to this, so I have a feeling ads will annoy people as Twitter is predominantly a personal platform for expression.

Source: Shaolin Tiger

Ultimately, I agree with the views and personal concerns of the quoted Malaysian bloggers here. However, in an economic crisis (some still preach), an alternative monetary channel isn’t such a bad thing.

For myself, I registered to ChurpChurp to ideally see what this new platform really has to offer in terms of rewards. But if the advertising does get out of control (and feel spam-ish), then it’s our personal responsibility to either:

• Lessen the spam.
• Ultimately, stop it.

However, I can’t say the same for Twitterers who don’t value their friends and have followers only to spam 1 another. Or, being Malaysian, they desperately create a Twitter account only for advertising.

As you can see, Nuffnang’s going to be taking on a new platform with many IFs which may be unanswered. So all we can do now is wait and see.

What’s your personal opinion about Twitter advertising?

Adobe Releases Flash Platform Media and Text Frameworks as Open Source

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — July 22, 2009 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced two new Adobe® Flash® Platform open source initiatives for developers, media companies and publishers. Open Source Media Framework (OSMF), part of the project previously code named Strobe, enables developers to quickly and easily build more robust, feature-rich media players optimized for the Adobe Flash Platform.

The Text Layout Framework (TLF) will help developers bring sophisticated typography capabilities to Web applications. Both OSMF and TLF are now freely available as open source software, helping content owners extend their online media efforts as they look to create new business opportunities and monetization strategies for publishing on the Web.

Establishing an Open Industry Standard for Media Player Development

• OSMF is the open source part of the Strobe project that enables easy-to-build media players optimized for the Adobe Flash Platform.
• The flexible OSMF architecture enables developers to easily create unique playback experiences that can leverage plug-ins for advertising, reporting metrics and content delivery along with standard video player features such as playback controls, video navigation, buffering and Dynamic Streaming. OSMF provides standard functionality along with plug-ins from third parties so content providers have the flexibility to adapt monetization strategies to specific content and the needs of their audiences.
• OSMF includes an API for partners to build plug-ins for value-add services. OSMF will enable more innovation around media experiences on the Web by allowing partners to easily experiment with new services for content providers, which spans content delivery, presentation and monetization.
• OSMF source code and pluggable software components are available immediately under the Mozilla Public License and available at www.OpenSourceMediaFramework.com.
• Adobe and Akamai Collaborate on Open Video Player
• Akamai has joined Adobe to advance the industry toward a widely adopted, cohesive standard for media players that support Adobe Flash Platform technologies. Akamai and Adobe are collaborating on the Open Video Player initiative, previously founded by Akamai, and the release of OSMF technologies. The goal is to ensure a consistent framework for media player development that enables developers, publishers, content owners, corporations and others to more quickly and easily build new video players that create and sustain profitable new business models. By providing all the components for media player development, the combined efforts will help strengthen the industry shift towards open standards.

Text Layout Framework Leverages Adobe’s Legendary Publishing Expertise

• TLF goes beyond what is possible for Web text layout using HTML and CSS technologies today, with support for complex languages, bidirectional text, multi-columns and other advanced typographical features and controls. TLF is an extensible ActionScript® library built on top of the text engine in Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe® AIR® 1.5 software. Source code and component library for TLF are available as open source at no charge under the Mozilla Public License at http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/tlf/.

Examples of TLF in action:

• The New York Times TimesReader 2.0 and The Boston Globe’s GlobeReader — Powered by Adobe AIR, TimesReader 2.0 and GlobeReader leverage the text reflow capabilities, multiple columns and top-notch typography features of TLF.
• Acrobat.com Presentations — A new service from Adobe that provides people with a better way to create, edit and share presentations together online. Built on the Adobe Flash Platform, Acrobat.com Presentations looks and behaves like a desktop presentation application but operates inside a Web browser. The open source TLF is used for all the text objects in the slides.
• makebook — makebook makes extensive use of TLF for functionality such as multi-column text flows and automatic text wrapping around inline images to deliver an online, creative authoring network that makes it easy for users to write, share work with family and friends and then publish online worldwide.

Quotes

• Dave McAllister, director of standards and open source, Adobe Systems

“Adobe is committed to providing core Flash Platform technologies to the community as open source,” said Dave McAllister, director of standards and open source at Adobe. “By releasing OSMF and TLF as open source, we are helping facilitate the creation and sharing of best practices for media players and rich text-based Web application development. We believe these efforts will strengthen the industry and lead to the next generation of Web applications, content and video experiences.”

• Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist, Digital Media, Akamai

“Open Source Media Framework complements and solidifies Akamai’s Open Video Player initiative,” said Tim Napoleon, chief strategist, of digital media at Akamai. “OSMF leverages code from Akamai’s Open Video Player and Adobe’s expertise and resources to assist media companies and publishers in redefining the benchmarks for online video experiences that are powered by standards based workflows.”

• Mark Stanley, founder of makebook

“APIs that are standard in the open source Text Layout Framework from Adobe gave us a jumpstart as we leveraged the high-end components for makebook.com,” said Mark Stanley, founder of makebook. “With TLF we can more easily provide our customers with quality typography features and the text layout control they require for their self-publishing projects.”

Since I can’t find the time to disseminate my own information in the blog at the moment, I’ll help share some of the latest news web related.

Maxis Releases Apple iPhone 3Gs Price in Malaysia

While Maxis hasn’t officially launched the all-new Apple iPhone 3GS in Malaysia yet, they’ve already placed step-by-step pre-order form for the Apple iPhone 3Gs. Plus, they’ve also updated the website with latest prices of the upcoming Apple iPhone 3GS in Malaysia.

You can click on the image for a larger version. And when you do, you’ll notice the real retail price (RRP) for the Apple iPhone 3GS which is going to be set by Maxis.

Maxis Apple iPhone 3GS prices:

• Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB: RM2490
• Apple iPhone 3GS 32GB: RM2990

As far as I know, the Apple iPhone 3GS availability is very quiet in Malaysia. Even my reseller hasn’t informed me of the arrival for his stock.

In the Low Yat forums, there are some who’ve started bulk orders but the price quoted is from RM3099. The one selling at the mentioned price is bringing in units from Hong Kong.

It’s not hard to realize that’s an exorbitant fee to pay. But like fashion, being seen with it is a statement.

However, I’m very glad to see Maxis finally make a decision to position the Apple iPhone 3Gs in Malaysia at an affordable expected price. Just that, I’d like to see how they handle the upgrades of current Apple iPhone 3G owners in Malaysia.

What do you guys think?

p.s.: I’m still here, just swamped with work right now. Therefore, I’m doing 140 character updates via Twitter right now. Follow @dannyfoo on Twitter.