As a marketer, I've been steering clients toward Pandora for around 2 years. I've seen great success using their various platforms for ad placement. Not to mention, I've been a loyal Pandora subscriber for around the same amount of time. With that said, iHeartRadio owned by Clear Channel has been banging down the door of this streaming music juggernaut. I recently switched to their service and am extremely impressed by what I've seen thus far. Clear Channel has a definite winner on their hands with this one.

Today, I pitched their service and ad placement potential for the first time and explained why iHeartRadio is such a smart place to put our customers Ad dollars. First, to be fair, let's look at them side by side and do a little comparative analysis. I think you'll quickly see why iHeart deserves the new top spot.

Pandora has a user base of approximately 100,000,000 users and a music library of around 900,000 songs. Their platforms include a website as well as mobile and tablet apps.  Up until now, they've been the one to catch. While not necessarily first to market in terms of streaming music, (think of the now defunct iMeem service which was acquired by Myspace when they attempted to rebrand themselves as a social music network) their service enjoyed rapid engagement and was quickly embraced by practically everyone with broadband and a set of headphones.

Enter iHeartRadio, a website with a practically identical offering, but some serious marketing muscle behind it. Owned by Clear Channel, a well established Radio Giant with over 800 stations under it's belt in 150 markets worldwide. With over 275,000,000 users and a library of over 11,000,000 songs, they dwarf Pandora in many ways. One way is how many of the local radio stations that I already listen to are streaming their playlists through iHeartRadio. 

Pandora has been around for over a decade and their platform is excellent, flat out. But then again, so is iHeartRadio. If I was walking the halls of Pandora, I'd be pretty uneasy knowing that the same listeners I'm vying for have an alternative this good out there. Maybe that's why Pandora recently rolled out a completely HTML5 retooled interface after only 7 years with the same look and feel. Could be they're feeling the pressure of emerging Spotify, Last.fm and iHeart, which would explain why their stock has taken such a wallop. One thing is for sure, these new kids on the block have definitely taken listeners away from Pandora and they probably won't be back anytime soon. Can you blame me for tub thumping iHeart?

Seems like Google doesn't want businesses joining in on the fun yet. They plan to closely integrate Business Profiles with Adwords and other Google products designed to cash in on the billions in corporate sponsorships and ads that businesses are poised to bring into Google's new foray into Social Media. If I were Facebook I'd be scrambling to spitshine my product right now. If Google+ social impact influences search results, I predict a mass exodus off Facebook within the next year, that's if the inevitable doesn't happen first... Facebook Suing Google for Copying Their UI. It sure as hell wouldn't be the first time the search giant was sued. Google allegedly breached an agreement to use PayPal as it's exclusive payment provider and instead rolled out their own product which PayPal insists is entirely based on their technology. Coincidentally timed with Google hiring away senior PayPal Executive Osama Bedier. PayPal and Facebook both better get in line though... Oracle wants a piece of Google first.

There is no ignoring the fact that Apps are a multi-billion dollar industry. Consumers spent 6.2 billion on Mobile Apps in 2010 alone. Mobile In-App Advertising has sky rocketed in the past few years. So why are Sacramento businesses so reluctant to advertise in Mobile? I've seen very little activity from local businesses. While more successful businesses like restaurant chain Mikuni Sushi have created their own iPhone App to promote customer loyalty, and firms like Shane & Co. are advertising in areas like Pandora, it's still pretty dormant out there. It's got me wondering what Sacramento Businesses are waiting for? I think they're missing the boat on in-app advertising.

Apple's iAd Network has given App Developers the perfect opportunity to monetize their apps by displaying ad content for publishers like you and me. I'm still waiting to see an ad for Thunder Valley popping up in my Angry Birds. When that starts to happen, I'll know that Sacramento Businesses have caught wind to the fact that their entire demographic is waiting to see their Ad.

I'll admit that I've been slow to adapt to the idea that I'd have to start a whole new social network from scratch. It's still painful to think that I have to start posting the same content in multiple places, and I can already tell you that i''m not about to start doing that. What feels really natural is +1ing content that I like. So far I'm pretty comfortable with the footprint of likes that I've been leaving behind. Google's previous social networking attempts did not quite measure up. Orkut, Jaiku, Dodgeball, Wave and Buzz were really half baked.

Google Plus feels more like a real product than previous efforts and more closely integrated into their other products. Circles still feels very gimmicky and I think the interface is too much of a Facebook clone to really call it innovative. What feels good about Google is that as usual it's by invitation only. That elitist mentality is crucial for establishing a social network of those that are already in, it set's the want factor up a notch or two. I'm not saying that Google will replace Facebook . Don't look for it to knock the Social Kingpin off it's throne anytime soon. I'm am saying.. If I were Facebook, I'd watch my back. Google was a sleeping giant... and now has one eye now WIDE open. If you'd like an invitation, just let me know.

Great Resource: Google+: The Complete Guide

Tech Crunch is reporting yet another Facebook leak. Project Spartan is an undercover outsourced mobile project that Facebook has had about 80 developers working on outside the company. Rumor has it this new platform is based on HTML5 and targets iPhone and iPad users (Mobile Safari). Quoting people familiar with the project "Facebook's goal is to use Apple’s own devices against them to break the stranglehold they have on mobile app distribution,".

Presumably, Spartan is about penetrating the Mobile App market that Apple and Android have had a stranglehold on. Time will tell what Facebook plans to bring to the table.

First reported at Tech Crunch: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/facebook-project-spartan/

Wouldn't it be great if mobile were easier to develop for? It feels like 1994 again and I'm talking about a war heating up between Internet Explorer and Netscape (who the hell are they?) Instead it's 2011, and now we're talking about the Mobile war. It's common knowledge that Apple has been dominating the market for years. Since Google launched Android, they've been in constant competition with one another, with BlackBerry still retaining a considerable market share as well.

Even though relatively new, the elephant in the room is... it's STUPID not to develop for Android. As much as we'd love to think it's still all about Apple and BlackBerry - it's Android that currently has the dominant share in the smartphone market.

What it doesn't have going for it, is a singularly identifiable platform like Apple and BlackBerry do. Thus, Androids many faces and devices make it a moving target and notoriously difficult to develop for. Documentation is cryptic and hardly a starting point for the development of the next great app. You can surf night and day and still not find enough documentation to even get you started!

Many great programmers have professed a deep seething hatred for developing for the Android platform. Tumblr founder David Karp was recently quoted as saying "Android absolutely SUCKS to develop for". While I haven't given up and stopped developing for Android, I do happen to think that Google rushed a shoddy product and then promptly pushed it down everyones throat. It's not the elegant string of pearls they'd have you believe it is. From the clunky API and non-existent support to the convoluted mishmosh mess that is the legacy codebase, Android is... shall we say, "difficult". Like I said, I haven't given up on Android... but you won't see me light up at the opportunity to develop an App for it.