Occasionally you stumble across something that makes you go hmmmm…this could be interesting.

For those of you that didn’t like IM because of the ‘trail’ it left when discussing ’sensitive’ topics, this might be for you.

Apparently, BigString (historically, providers of free email) will be launching an AIM plugin on Wednesday that will ’self-destruct’ IM messages sent, on demand. It deletes traces of them on both computers, as well as any server.

While this doesn’t seem directly like an advertising or marketing opportunity for advertisers, it could probably be co-opted, or sponsored, if the right brand was out there.

I bet there are plenty of IMs that you’ve wish you never sent. Would’ve been nice to have this then.

More information is available here.

With all the talk about Twitter, it seems that there is still room for technological advancements in the world of instant messaging.

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With Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick now official, Saul Hansell discusses the potential for DoubleClick’s Dart for Advertisers (DFA) product to move to a free model, due to it’s acquisition by Google.

I say, bring it on.

This would be a shrewd move by Google towards getting the world migrated over to its ad serving platform.

While I’m not holding my breath for my ad serving bills to stop rolling in any time soon, my hope is that at the very least, the industry will be able to get a free, basic DFA, then maybe add-ons for additional services. That will force moves by companies like Atlas and 24/7 to reassess their models, and hopefully bring down costs across the industry.

The major ad serving companies are now all owned by major corporations (DoubleClick:Google; Atlas:Microsoft, 24/7:WPP). Ad serving is starting to appear more and more like it’s a value-add every day. Lets just hope the technology doesn’t stop improving for the sake of making it free, or even just less expensive. Without improved ad serving, we don’t get improved metrics.

Bring on the free. But don’t stop improvin’.

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Last year at SXSW, Twitter burst onto the scene in a big way, eventually paving its way to becoming a major force in the messaging/microblogging space. Twitter’s ability to allow attendees to keep tabs on each other was a welcome addition to the festival, as there are so many parties, so close to each other, that it became easy to know where all your friends (or stalkees) were at. It was also helpful in telling you which parties to avoid because of long lines or closed bar tabs.

Lots of folks came down to this year’s SXSW Interactive conference to anoint this year’s breakthrough property or technology.

I’m casting my vote for Kyte. But while it’s sponsorship of the flat-panel displays here at SXSW (as Twitter did last year) is helping it gain visibility during the interactive conference, it may actually be during the music festival later in the week where it truly shines.

You see, Kyte makes it as easy as possible to capture video with a mobile phone (any mobile phone with the capability) and post it to your own channel on the site. It’s got one of the easiest interfaces and processes I’ve seen. One of the latest innovations by the company though (launching today, according to VentureBeat), may eventually be what makes it a key player in the space — the broadcasting of live video from a phone. Qik does this, but you’re limited presently to Nokia phones. The samples of Kyte’s usage playing on the flat-panel displays here show people streaming footage of bands performing live at parties, interviews with attendees, and green room antics. If Kyte, in fact, works with multiple handsets, we’ve got a winner on our hands here, folks.

Add to all this their apparently rosy relationship with some big media companies and a new round of funding (over $23 million to date), and we’ve got one to watch.

Keep an eye on Kyte. Here’s my first video, created, uploaded, and produced in 5 minutes:

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MIT’s Technology Review just published it’s list of 10 Emerging Technologies for 2008. The one piece that resonated with me is Sandy Pentland’s exploration into Reality Mining especially in relation to social networking, new media and interactive.

Reality mining “is all about paying attention to patterns in life and using that information to help [with] things like setting privacy patterns, sharing things with people, notifying people–basically, to help you live your life.”

This becomes a hot topic for a few reasons. First and foremost is, once again, privacy issues. Data capture is part of our daily lives – credit card usage, cookies on sites, social network profiles, company swipe cards – and as technology continues to slowly infiltrate more of our lives, we become more tolerant and accepting of what information is divulged and distributed. Everyone has see the movies with the FBI trying to trace the criminals phone call with the criminal hanging up just before being caught. However, most people don’t think about that even with mobile phones being on all the time A simple Google search on his/her name would surprise a lot of people.

Reality Mining has been a reality for years. And as mobile phones become more prevalent with WI-FI, Bluetooth and GPS-type systems (ala iPhone,) in addition to the laptops we carry around and use, the continual social network is our daily life. And as mobile technology advances, our blip on the grid becomes more prominent. The Human Cyborg ideal continues to press forward. Professor Kevin Warwick first started research into this in 1998 by planting microchips in his arm for recognition of systems in his lab.

The major benefit of Reality Mining is from an anthropological standpoint. How people interact, where they are and when they are. Tying this information into disease outbreaks, advertising models (when a person sees an ad, what do they do right afterwards?) and general healthcare and “human maintenance.” Smartex in Italy is working on clothing that does just that.

It’s a bit of the God factor (being omnipotent and omniscient) that is also fascinating. Knowing where your friends are at any time, knowing what they’re doing, where to get the food your phone knows your craving. It’s bringing the idea of Facebook, Google Maps, Dodgeball and other sites into the physical space. The ultimate social network. Maybe even a step closer to SkyNet.

Real-time in real-time. Very meta.

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A fellow co-worker and myself were discussing various social aspects and the new trend of how people use space. As in, where they spend most of their time. The topic was very interesting where we initially narrowed it down into three areas. Home, work and the ThirdSpace (or Being Space as TrendWatching points out)

commercial living-room-like settings, where catering and entertainment aren’t just the main attraction, but are there to facilitate small office/living room activities like watching a movie, reading a book, meeting friends and colleagues, or doing your admin.

BEING SPACES charge us for eating, drinking, playing, listening, surfing, working, or meeting, just as we would at home or in the office, while successfully reintegrating us into city life 

An all too common example is the way Starbucks has made the coffeeshop into a living room type setting.

I also believe that in addition to these three spaces, there is a 4thSpace - online and social networks. A place where people go as a virtual home, from their landing page on Facebook to iGoogle. People dwell in one or two of these spaces at any one time. Usually one is physical with the second being virtual (ex: sitting at home playing Xbox Live, in Starbucks surfing Facebook, etc.)

The Four Spaces
1 - Home
2 - Work/Office
3 - Being Space (Starbucks, Borders Books, Panera Bread)
4 - Virtual Space (Facebook, iGoogle, MySpace) 

The intriguing aspect of 4thSpace is that it continues to exist without us after we place our identity into that realm. With MySpace, there are pages of deceased members that still garner visits and posted comments. So much so in fact that those that have passed now warrant their own sites like MyDeathSpace.com. The virtual identity becomes, or takes the place of, a real presence. Granted, social networks also allow users to be someone (or something) other than themselves, but the 4thSpace allows comfort in a setting where the other three spaces may not.

People unfamiliar, and even the familiar, become known by their page or avatar. Xbox Live, Facebook or when SecondLife was viable allows users to drop in for a visit and say hello. No one home? Leave a message and they’ll get back to you.

It’s a fascinating topic that is vast in it’s research potential, especially with user trends and emerging technologies with the additional social aspects and implications. As we get drawn into The Matrix a bit more, it’ll be nice to know how cozy it will be. Or when a Starbucks opens a Starbucks in it. Trust me, NYC is close already.

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Google’s announcement last Thursday about their venture into online personal health records is a mixed blessing, but one that has been much needed for the healthcare industry. It’s been a hot topic since the original announcement by Google in October. The biggest concern is that of privacy issues and, more so, data security. Microsoft and Google make assurances that data will be secure and privately controlled by individuals.

On the pro front, this announcement will open up the healthcare industry similar to how the iPhone has made carriers rethink their strategy of having strict control of what devices user get. Now patients should control where they take their ailments, rather than big healthcare saying what referrals you need and how to get care. Granted, this will take a while to see the full wave of this effect, but it’s finally happened where there is the challenge to bringing control to the masses. A big idea of web 3.0.

The cons? Well, for one, people will have to be the keepers of their medical history. A lot of people will, a lot of people won’t. Judging the way people can be cyberchondriacs with the likes of WebMD around, a social network space to post every symptom they may think they have would definitely need filtering and a professional opinion. But we’ve all been curious about what the doctor scribbles (yeah, they scribble) on that file. Just ask Elaine on a classic Seinfeld episode trying to see what’s in that file.

But imagine if that information does become publicly searchable (”OMG! She had WHAT when we were dating?”) or the movement into a medical social network (GooTube? Yuck.) It might lead to a new perspective on selective reproduction and a change in human evolution. Scientists are already theorizing on it. 

If the trial with the Cleveland Clinic is a success, we can see a big change in the way medicine and society interacts on that online space. I see it as a portal of innovation and communication – cancer survivors speaking about their therapies, treatments analyzed and discussed, ease of research and innovation – beyond their niche spaces on the web. The power of technology, the power of social media and the human element are enticing for this to work.

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I’m not a conspiracy theory kind of guy. But this is a little weird.

Within the last 14 days, we’ve seen major or significant service outages from:

* Twitter (down completely)
* Blogger (down completely)
* LinkedIn (down completely)
* Facebook (search down partially)
* 37 Signals/BaseCamp (down completely)

And that’s just what I know about.

Twitter happened just before the Steve Jobs Macworld keynote address, so it seems that may have been a contributing factor. But what’s everyone else’s excuse?

Here are my guesses:

* The Tom Cruise Scientology Video.
* Google’s switching of Blogger to an OpenID platform.
* Facebook’s tipping point reached as evidence of a significant amount of my 50+ year-old relatives requesting my “friendship” over the last few days.
* Many of these sites may use some of the same hosting providers.

Anyone else know of any potential causes?

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Virgin America has announced that it will be launching broadband internet access on all flights sometime in 2008.

I know what airline I’ll be flying from then on.

Interestingly, according to BoingBoing Gadgets…

But even more interesting — through “Red,” VA will also be offering what amounts to a fleet-wide, airborne social network. Guests on one plane will be able to interact with other guests on that plane — and with flyers on other planes within the VA fleet — using Red. As I understand it, they’ve got some pretty ambitious plans in the works for in-flight interactivity. This could get really interesting.

Interesting indeed.

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From today’s ClickZ, my column called “The Parasite Paradox“. In this, I explain the paradox that exists when the best way to utilize a property for advertising may be not actually advertise on the property.

Make sense? No? Good. Read all about it here.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

There’s no reason advertisers can’t come up with these experiences to satisfy consumers’ needs for utility or just plain entertainment. The way API culture has matured allows for the hosts to benefit as much as the parasites. The more people plug into the Amazon API, the more sales are generated. The more people plug into the Facebook API, the more use they receive, creating more ad inventory (that few are clicking on, but that’s another column).

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If you want to get a first-hand look at what’s really going on technologically in this rapidly changing digital landscape, take a chance to visit the NY Tech Meetup. Details by clicking below.

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