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Lately we’ve seen a couple superstar companies like Pinterest and Instagram rise like never before. While I may not agree with their crazy valuations, they are revolutionizing the Internet while we may not even notice it. The world is become visual. With the 8MP iPhone 4S Camera and it being the most used camera on Flickr, everything is changing.  Stores like Nike and Sephora are now placing iPads in their stores as displays to bring a visual and dynamic aspect to their store.

Why are Retina displays getting so much hype now? It’s not that it’s some breakthrough technology. I mean it is but if we wanted to build higher resolution displays three years ago, we could’ve but we didn’t. And the reason is because the quality of pictures that the average consumer camera produced was horrible so only designers or companies could create such high quality images. But now with everyone carrying smartphones that have at least 5MP cameras, the quality of images that we post on social networks and other applications are much higher.

Even in the last few months, Facebook has consistently increased the size of the photo viewer to allow for the higher quality photos.

But let’s look at the bigger picture. This is going to effect other industries besides social networking. Big Data is probably the hottest non-consumer industry right now and this will certainly take an effect on it. Search is another huge industry that this will take effect on. Take a closer look the next time you search something on Google. You will notice that it contains primarily text with no images. Recently Paul Graham talked about how we’re ready for a new search engine and I can be sure that the next Google will be much more visual. Think about when you search. How do you determine whether a search result is good or bad? Most of the time you will be able to tell just in the first couple seconds of looking at the page simply because of its appearance and style. If this can be illustrated before the search result is clicked, it would dramatically improve the way that we search.

I could go on and on about the number of industries and products that the higher resolution smartphone camera is changing but in the next couple years you will see a dramatic shift into a much more visual world. Relationships between consumers have become much more visual with products like Instagram but you will see relationships with companies and consumers that create products and offer services become much more visual as well not only in their presence on social networks but as a whole in how they present and define themselves.

I’m doing some research on a new venture and would really appreciate if you could answer this one question poll! Thanks!

One of the most common phrases you’ll hear in the tech world these days is “Big Data”. But what is “Big Data” and why did Google Ventures announce today that they plan to invest $1 Billion in “Big Data” startups over the course of the next five years.

Remember we talked about filters a couple months ago and how that there is an abundance of information available on the Internet now. Well that’s exactly what “Big Data” is. There are five major companies that deal with “Big Data”:

1. Facebook
2. Google
3. Amazon
4. Yahoo
5. Microsoft

All of the five companies are dealing with not terabytes but petabytes of information.

Facebook is tracking what your liking, where your checking in, who influences you and who do you influence.

Google is tracking your search behavior from what you search to how you search.

Amazon is tracking what items you purchase and recommending you other products that you might be interested in.

Yahoo is sometimes forgotten but for many people they are still the home page on their Internet browser.and are tracking which news articles you read and all of the various browsing you do on their website.

Microsoft is tracking how your using your PC, what games your playing on Xbox and the behavior of their partners and business customers in dealing with their various software products.

Unless your from the stone age, you probably have an account associated with these five companies and they are trying to understand your behavior on the services that they provide. Because the fact of the matter is computers are machines. They actually are very stupid and at the end of the day they can only understand 0’s and 1’s. But there is so much information on the web and “Big Data” is the analysis of all of it. I didn’t completely read Google’s updated privacy policy but I have no doubt that it is all about analyzing your behavior and searches when your on Google.

“Big Data” is the start of a revolution. It’s scary and there’s no denying that but it’s the start of automatically decrypting the big black box of information that the Internet has created.

For the longest time, the Internet was anonymous. You could be anyone you wanted to. If you wanted to have a different name, personality, family you could with games like Second Life or just acting like someone else in forums or other communities.

It was a one-way street. The amount of information that you got from the Internet was a lot more than what you gave.

But that’s changing…..

Take a look at Highlight. It’s getting tons of hype for doing what? allowing you to discover people nearby. Take a look at Instagram. It’s allowing you to express yourself with pictures. Pictures that are real and that you took. Take a look at YouTube. It’s allowing you to express yourself with videos. Take a look at Facebook and Twitter. It’s you. It’s what you say and what your friends are saying in real life.  All of these apps are defining who you are by tapping into the real world. The Internet is not artificial anymore. It’s not a second world. It’s this world.

And people are afraid. Because for the longest time the Internet and the real world were separate places where you could be two different people. What you don’t realize is that all of these apps that allow you to share photos or your location are defining you. Your identity. They are defining you on the Internet in the same world, not a different one.

It’s not a one-way street anymore. Your Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, Foursquare, Twitter and thousands of other applications that you use are creating this Internet. The Internet is not some arbitrary world anymore – it’s the core of this world.

We have our first question from my good friend, Jacob Laukaitis. Jacob is the Founder/CEO of Pinaloc.

Jacob asked: “Why do some technology companies fail and succeed? What are the main influences to their success?”

It’s a fairly broad question but it’s a good question to dive into and learn from some examples.

The first technology company that comes to mind that has gone through its ups and downs is IBM. It’s one of those companies that is often behind the curtain that has been tremendously influential in today’s technology and latest innovations. Forget Google, Apple, Microsoft…IBM is a 101 year old company founded in 1911. They have more than 400,000 employees and are constantly innovating. Were they hung up on one technology? No. Did they consistently innovate and change to take on the latest technology? Yes. That’s what makes a great technology company.

As easy as that sounds, it’s actually very difficult. Take a look at RIM.They are one of the pioneers of the smartphone. They helped spark the plug for the entire smartphone market. The issue was that they didn’t innovate. They weren’t willing to take on new technology.

One of the most important things in companies is iteration. Iteration is how fast are you improving your product. Are your product cycles in months or weeks? It doesn’t matter if some experiments don’t work out. But the key is to have a fresh mindset and be willing to change and adapt to the latest technology.

Another excellent technology company to study is Microsoft. Similar to IBM, they don’t get the respect that they deserve. If it wasn’t for Microsoft, there wouldn’t be a PC and the Internet would never have grown to what it is today. Microsoft was and still is one of the most innovative technology companies. Forget about Windows for a second. Take a look at Xbox 360 and how they came into a market dominated by Sony and Nintendo and crushed them. Take a look at Kinect. It’s going to be one of the most important pieces of technology in the 10 years. Hell look at Windows Phone. Yes, Microsoft may have been absent for the past few years. But ask any technology expert about Windows Phone and they will be in love. They innovated and most importantly were willing to change as a multibillion dollar company.

After innovation and iteration there’s one more piece of the puzzle that most people in the outside world forget. It’s culture. It’s the employees in the company and how they interact with each other. Go try and interview at any startup. The first thing that they will tell you is that they want to build the right structure from the ground up and want to make sure you will fit in that culture. And it goes hand in hand with willing to iterate and change as a company. So don’t get hung up on one thing. Tomorrow there will be new technologies, new companies and new people. The best companies never give up and always keep innovating and iterating whether its 1911 or 2012.

I don’t usually do reviews. This will probably be the first and last but I do want to share some thoughts about the Galaxy Nexus but more importantly Ice Cream Sandwich.

First of all, I’m very impressed. Quite shocked actually of how good ICS is. It’s clean, beautiful, easy to use and overall it’s the first Android device that I’ve used that I would actually be happy to use again. It’s a very big improvement since Android 2.2. For me, it’s the little things that count so here’s a picture of the keyboards of the HTC Inspire 4G on the left and the Galaxy Nexus on the right.

Look at the one on the left. It looks like crap. It looks like someone just put some garbage scraps to make that keyboard. And then look at the one on the right. See how clean and elegant it is. It shows the level of detail that Google went through to make sure ICS was perfect. And it is. I like the cool animations with the menus and many of the applications on it look great. Overall Google has done a great job in designing ICS.

So congratulations to Google. They have completed Step 1 out of 2 for Android. But the 2nd step is even harder than Step 1. Step 2 is marketing ICS and making sure it actually gets into customer hands. The only way I was able to get a stock ICS was by buying a Google Nexus. And I don’t plan on upgrading my phone every year just to get the latest version. The problem is the phone that you see on the left was released one year ago and it’s not getting ICS. Actually I don’t even know if its getting ICS, I don’t know how to find out. That’s unacceptable. It’s one of the “premier” Android phones, it has 4G and everything but its not getting ICS. Even worse, I received word today that Android 5.0 is coming out this fall. First of all, it’s great that Google is iterating very fast and improving the product but what happened to the customer that bought that HTC Inspire 4G. You can’t just leave him behind. You can’t tell customers if you want to get the new OS you have to get the new phone. It’s ridiculous. And yes, it’s the carriers’ fault. But people are not buying that phone because its a Samsung or HTC. They’re buying it because its an Android and it’s Google’s responsibility to control the user experience. HTC  and Samsung are like commodities. They just build the hardware. Tomorrow they’re going to be building hardware for someone else and slapping some other software on it. But it is Google’s job to make sure that when someone first uses ICS they’re in love with it and they want to use it again.

I can’t say it for any previous versions of Android, but Ice Cream Sandwich is an excellent OS and I plan on using it again (happily!).

P.S. We got our first question via the Ask system so stay tuned tomorrow.

Over the past few days, I’ve been trying to purchase an Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) phone. I’ve heard its an amazing product and I want to buy one and just play around with it. The problem is I don’t know where to go. I don’t know which phones have ICS, which phones are going to get ICS or hell where to buy an ICS phone.

I’ve been an Android developer for two years and the amount of frustration dealing with fragmentation in just development is enormous. But you know what’s worse? Having that fragmentation as a consumer. I’m ready to buy an ICS, I hear it’s an amazing product. You have sold me Google. But I don’t know where to swipe my credit card. AND THAT’S SAD. Because now I don’t know if I will eventually buy an ICS. My hacker friends tell me to root the phone. NO I’m not going to root the phone and even if I did that doesn’t solve the problem. You cannot tell a consumer to download this hack, run the shit on your phone and figure it out. It doesn’t work like that. Maybe it does in the Valley but there’s billions of people that are not tech savvy and ready to dive into the phone kernel.

And what it boils down to is being a technology company vs a consumer company. Google is an outstanding technology company. They’ve built crazy algorithms and great technology and I have no doubt that they will be successful on the technological front. But in building consumer products they suck.

But Apple is a consumer company. They always have. They spoon feed you their products. Walk into their store and within minutes you will be holding an iPhone and are ready to go. Their products bring out emotion. The level of simplicity in getting an iPhone, using it and updated it is incredible. It’s the little things that add up that define a brand and a company.

Last week, my Macbook Pro was having problems and Apple Customer Service stayed on a call with me for 56 mins to make sure that the problem was fixed and get my Macbook up and running again even when I didn’t have warranty. That’s what defines a company even when your sitting on boatloads of cash worth more than the U.S. Government. That’s what will bring out emotion from people using your products. That’s when you’ll see people stand days in advance outside the store waiting for that iPad 3 even before they know what new features its going to have. And that’s invaluable. That’s a lifelong relationship that Apple has established with millions of customers around the world.

That level of simplicity is lacking at Google. And it will eat them alive if they don’t fix it. Maybe it’ll work for the first tens of millions of people buying an Android. But overtime people will become frustrated. People will become frustrated with not being able to know when a simple update is coming to a phone that they have invested hundreds of dollars in. And yes maybe ICS has been out for only 6 weeks but that’s not an excuse. Microsoft learned their lesson with the PC and just look at the Xbox 360. They crushed Nintendo and Sony. Look at Windows Phone 7 and how easy it is to use. Maybe they’re late, maybe it won’t work out. But that’s not the point. The point is can a technology company create key consumer products that people want to use and not be shoved down their neck like Windows and Office. That’s what will differentiate a company 10 years from today because times will change. Technology will change. Products will change. People will change.

So I’m calling you out Google. I’ve heard Ice Cream Sandwich is amazing. It’s a phenomenal improvement from Android 2.2. And I’m ready to swipe my credit card for one. Tell me and the rest of the world where to actually go and buy one and capture that emotion to build long lasting relationships with your customers.