Mobile-related technologies for the past week, in 3 (or almost) words: Shhhht, SEE, Home Manager

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THE WEEK IN 3 WORDS

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WEEK #29

3. SHHHHT
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4. 4
Privacy seems to be the goals of many new companies, that want to take
advantage of some quite bad moves from Internet giants (Google, Facebook).
Not all users may be aware of potential threats, but initiatives for privacy-driven
messaging applications are numerous.
Secret, the now famous application that hides identities, has recently raised
another $25M. Wiper, a new application that allows users to keep control of
their messages (they can decide when their messages are deleted) has raised
$2,5M. Previously, Snapchat (of course), Confide (with encrypted and self-
deleted messages), HideSMS (encrypt SMS), Wickr (self-destructing
messages), Voycee (history-free social network), amongst other have also got
funding on the very privacy promise.
According to a 2013 report by Nielsen: 73% of application users express
concern over personal data collection (…). No wonder investors massively bet
in secure messaging applications. It will now be interesting to see how such
applications can be monetized without exposing users’ related data and alter
their initial promise.

5. (SEE) SEARCH ENGINE… ERROR
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Google moves further toward Responsive WEB: it
announced* that, if a site is identified as not being
compatible with a mobile browser, a notification will be
displayed in Google Search results.
This follows the previous announcement** that the search engine will notify
users when a result may lead to the mobile homepage of the site instead of the
page he was actually looking for.
This may be a big threat to non-responsive sites, especially for those that are
not properly mapping each WEB page into a mobile page. Though, Google still
allows to provide a separate mobile experience to users, but sites must be
implemented so that WEB pages refer to their mobile counterparts. However, it
seems almost impossible to build a site fully optimized for mobile browsers – in
terms of navigation and features.
Google has chosen the Responsive WEB, for the better and the worse: site
designers and webmasters will have to work with that constraint…
(*) http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/faulty-redirects.html
(*) http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/promoting-modern-websites-for-modern.html

7. HOME MANAGER
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8. 8
Your home is turning into a new battlefield. Why? Because a growing number of
companies want to manage it, surfing on the Internet of Things wave.
Apple has announced HomeKit for version 8 of its
smartphone OS. HomeKit is supposed to make possible
for an iOS device owner to remotely handle all its
connected devices at home (door locks, light bubbles,
fridge, weight scale, etc.) A German company, Airfy, is
willing to provide the same kind of service with its
application and a proprietary protocol the connected
devices should implement.
You may very likely be able to soon afford a butler at home, for the price of a
smartphone, an application and some remotely manageable accessories. But,
as for most of such new technical promises – and not quite like a real butler –
there won’t be any standards soon and the new light bubble you just acquired
may not be compatible with your home manager application.