Monthly Archives: June 2015

Facebook Instant Articles

Facebook’s Instant Articles Platform Could Change How We View News Online

How people experience and interact with the Internet is changing every day. We’ve seen a steady increase in the amount of people using their phone to view content online. This trend means more and more people are utilizing mobile apps to access the Internet, and less people are using traditional browsers.

Facebook’s app can be found on most mobile devices. It’s estimated that 1.44 billion people use Facebook monthly, and many people use it daily from through the Facebook app on their phone.

Some of the world’s largest publishers took notice of this trend and decided to join the mobile party. Publishers such as Buzzfeed, National Geographic and the New York Times are now working with Facebook to have their articles posted directly onto Facebook. It’s estimated that Facebook’s new Instant Articles platform will load much quicker than conventional websites. Publishers realize that many people are more likely use the Facebook app to connect to the Internet, and now their content will be easily accessible.

The new platform allows content distributers to ability to break the mould of conventional browser-based pages. The new medium provides publishers with new tools which encourage interaction and enhanced images.

The goal of Facebook is to create a fully interactive and immersive environment for their users. It’s in Facebook’s best interest to get users to stay within the confines of their native app. They not only control the content, but more importantly the advertisements people view. Publishers are hungry for innovative ways to get their content to the masses and Facebook seems like a logical choice.

Throughout it’s history the Internet has been about community, collaborative thinking and development. It may be fair to suggest that we lose something with more and more people accessing content through privately owned online platforms. Instead of a network control by many, we may be moving toward micro networks control by a few private companies.

Facebook’s new Instant Articles platform seems like a great way to present content. The Internet we use today is built around access to information. The media landscape is changing and perhaps it’s becoming less open online.

Insiteful Solutions – Celebrating 13 Years

At Insiteful Solutions we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate our 13th anniversary today with you. This is an exciting time for online marketing and we look forward to continuing to work with both existing and new clients to bring their digital branding to the next level.

Thirteen years ago today Insiteful Solutions set out to offer professional website design and marketing solutions to companies in Markham and throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Throughout our history we’ve worked with over 510 companies and 93 industries around the world.

Our goal has always been to offer the latest online marketing technologies and strategies to our clients, and establish long term relationships at the same time. We’re lucky to have worked on some exciting projects with some excellent clients over the last 13 years and we look forward to continuing. We’re very fortunate that so many of our clients have been with us for years.

Thirteen years ago, Insiteful Solutions was created with the mindset that we could create a successful company that was built on a foundation of collaboration, innovation and exceeding our client’s expectations. We’ve worked with some amazing clients over the years that have allowed us to achieve this goal. We’re excited about what’s on the horizon for both our company and for the online marketing industry. There are many exciting changes happening and we’re just as passionate as ever about what we do.

We’re seeing a steady shift towards mobile devices becoming the primary way people interact with the digital world, more of a focus on content marketing and intelligent paid advertising. Our team is extremely eager to lead clients through these emerging trends with the same attention to detail and focus on ROI that we’ve always had.

Thirteen years may have passed, but we are just as passionate about our work as ever. We look forward to what the future will bring and the many exciting projects that will surely come with it.

To our clients, both current and future it’s been a wonderful 13 years of innovation and creativity, we’d like to thank you for being a part of it. We’ve done some amazing things together, but the best is still yet to come.

Google Introduces a Game Changer to Mobile Devices

San Francisco was home to an announcement by Google that may have changed how we interact with our mobile devices forever.

Lately there’s been a clear trend; mobile users are spending more and more time within the confines of the apps on their phones. People are spending a lot of time in digital silos. Information can be gathered without the need for content living outside our apps. The software products on your phone are not typically designed to communicate with one another.  Mobile users are operating within a handful of applications and it’s becoming habit.

This is an alarming trend for Google. The search giant wants people to use their search engine to find content and interact with their features and advertisements.

That brings us to Now on Tap, Google’s latest mobile offering which will solve this problem.

The new Android feature acts as a bridge between Google Search and the applications on your phone or tablet.  Now on Tap will hover over the apps on your phone and attempt to enhance the user experience by providing additional content.

For example, someone listening to songs on Spotify can get more information about the music they’re listening to by simply pressing their home button. Google will crawl the Internet and will seamlessly deliver additional information about an artist or song without the user needing to exit Spotify. Maybe you’re chatting with a friend on WhatsApp about going bowling, Google Tap can search the Internet for information about local bowling alleys.
Basically, Google is providing more content by layering itself over all the applications on your mobile device. At the same time Google is increasing their relevancy by simply integrating itself where people are already spending their time.

Google’s goal is to act as bridge and bring all of your applications together. This will make Android more desirable to many people in the very competitive mobile device market.

This update should be welcomed with open arms by most mobile developers. Google is essentially doing all of the heavy lifting. Programmers can simply continue what they are doing and the Now on Tap plug in will wrap around and enhance their software automatically. The new feature will work on apps both big and small.

Apple users will probably need to wait for this technology to come to their devices. If history’s an indicator, it’s highly unlikely that Apple will be knocking on Google’s door to have this new plug-in on their products. Most likely a similar non-Google function will be unveiled this upcoming fall when the new iPhone goes to market.

By adapting to their user’s habits Google may have introduced a game changer to the mobile world.  Our devices have the potential of becoming more powerful due to the communication between