2008 was such a great year for adoption and innovation. Here are three things that made me either smile or think hard about being online this year.
Favourite ApplicationPicking a favourite application is not easy. I’m sure that there are applications that are more useful and some that may even end world hunger but I just can’t resist mentioning Shazam.
Think of all the times you’ve heard a song playing but didn’t know what it was. Whether on the car radio, a shopping mall, at a friend's house, or a bar, the Shazam application "listens" to the song for about 30 seconds, quickly scans it against its database of around 5 million songs and then sends a text message to your phone telling you the name of the artist and song title. The iPhone application is hooked up to iTunes so the song is yours in under a minute.
Shazam not only serves a cool purpose, it also speaks volumes about the progression of sophisticated search technology. Brilliant.
Notable Industry Realizations
While a big theme this year was about “letting go” and having marketers accept the uncontrollable nature of social media (there were some great talks from Unilever and General Motors on this topic in 2008), I found a more constructive theme warranted deeper reflection.