Three for Thursday - November 19

Ok...time for another Three for Thursday, where I share three things I stumbled across this week that I thought were really cool.

The Future of Mobile?
Ok, so that the FTC doesn't fine my ass, this first one is actually an example from the firm I work for - Zehnder Communications. But really, that doesn't diminish the cutting edge cool technology that is powering this application. Layar is really interesting. It's like putting a heads up display (think fighter jets) on your mobile phone. This display allows you to superimpose virtual data over your physical world. The applications and opportunities are really quite profound.. this one we did for the Voodoo Experience was just the beginning of what is possible.

Like hiring a private investigator
Guy Kawasaki turned me on to Spokeo this week. Basically, if you have someone's email address you can punch it in and see a lot of information about them. Basically, if they've used that email address to register for social platforms like YouTube, Flickr, etc., you can quickly find their profile and check them out. I've done a few tests and while it isn't 100% accurate, it does give you a pretty good partial picture on most folks. Marketing applications? Think B2B, real estate, marketing/advertising/social media/trade shows -- basically anyplace where you'd kind of like to have an idea if you're talking to a real prospect or some crazy person prior to investing a lot of time in relationship building or prospecting. Give it a whirl... kind of spooky and might make you think twice about using a real email addy to sign up for anything.

Alarm System Industry Game Changer
Have you seen Sensr yet? Basically, you create an account. Then set up a web cam and the system monitors the cam. Whenever motion is detected, the system will email or text you an alert. So think about it. Why pay for an expensive alarm system that will likely go off when there really isn't a problem, cause your local police and your neighbors to get pissed and possibly get you blacklisted by the local police as a "do not respond" house? Instead, use this silent alarm system to notify yourself of a problem via your cell, which by the way you could turn around and call 911 from in mere seconds. Best of all, whomever has decided to break in .... yeah, they're caught on video. And the price -- right now it's free. Hmmm... make me glad I'm not in the alarm biz.

So what do you think? Have you seen anything lately that you think we'd all like to know about? Please share.